To be shocked at ‘school readiness’

Just to make you laugh I say please and thank you to my dog!

I'm saying that's the problem. And that I am not going to make decisions on how to parent my children based on what other people might judge me for. I judge parents for how shit they are at teaching their children independence, resilience and coping skills. It doesn't stop them from being shit at it. And I'm not going to stop letting my children have more independence because Dave and Mary at number 10 are curtain twitching or sending me messages asking if I "know' that DS is at the park alone.

Do you honestly think this is an unprofessional teacher trying to cause trouble? I politely suggest you use your skills of inference while reading the OP.
This is a teacher who has had a shocking week dealing with children whose parents can’t and won’t accept responsibility for parenting their child. Your response is to deny any responsibility on the part of parents or to disbelieve the points being made.
You disbelief and attempt to shift blame do rather prove the OPs point.

Absolutely - that'd be 7 years of that unhelpful feckless parenting without any external influence. Even worse.

My daughter works in a well know coffee shop close to a primary school in a middle class area. She has said that after school chuck out time, the (mainly) mums drop in at the cafe and basically let their children treat the place as a play area whilst the mums ignore the behaviour and sit and chat. Food being thrown quite literally (not just crumbled up and dropped on the floor), kids on scooters racing each other, a child helping themselves to food in the chiller cabinet.

So yes OP, I can quite believe it as I just think some parents just don’t want the responsibility of parenting.

Or nowadays they see their older siblings playing video games and want to do that, books and tying shoelaces are no match for MarioKarts.

Posters who have experience of this age group in schools have noticed the same. Why is it a goady post?

I don’t think some of these children would be any better if they started school at 7.
My children could not wait to start school and were ready but they were autumn/winter birthdays. I do feel sorry for some of the summer born children who start just after their 4th birthday.
OP, yes it is really worrying.

YANBU. It is scary to think about what this means for the future. And all Labour can do is remove the 2 child cap and encourage unfettered immigration.

Goady post is successfully goady. Well done, OP.

If you are indeed a reception teacher, I will politely suggest you might be happier with an older age group.

This is just being obtuse. Of course you're not teaching them to read at 6.45am. But you are teaching them how to get a coat and shoes on. You're still teaching them to say please and thank you.
In the evening when you have tea/dinner you're teaching them to sit at a table and use cutlery.

At the weekends you can play with them.

If you don't have time for any of this then you're doing your children a disservice.

Yes, how professional.

This is exactly the problem. “Not quite toddlers”! What low expectations you have. And your argument about European countries is flawed. Children in many European countries still attend early education and childcare systems. They are not sitting at home all day being mollycoddled by parents who are still treating them like babies because they’re ignorant of what a child’s abilities should be at that developmental stage. Which is the real issue in English schools when children start school unequipped with the skills needed.

It’s just the curriculum differences at that age that is the main difference between English and European systems. Children DO attend European settings and they are as busy environments as Reception here. Educators in both types of environments cannot physically manage basic personal tasks for every child which is why independence is essential. They are equally expected to use independence and self-regulation skills, they just do not learn how to read and write as early as English children

Even in England Reception teachers know that some children will develop skills later than others. (managing own belongings, dressing themselves, using the toilet independently (eveb if they may still have the odd accident), using cutlery, as well as listening to adults and following instructions.)

But most children ARE capable of learning how to do those things before they start in Reception and that is historically how it’s always been, both here and around the world. It is essential in nurseries, or else it would be chaos).

The difference these days is sadly that many parents don’t seem to realise this or want to accept it. I’m not sure why that is but ithat decline in the percentage of children being equipped with such skills is what teachers who have worked in EYFS for many years have been comment on every September for the last 10 years or more.

Plus sweets were a weekly treat, and we didn't have sugar induced ADHD

Also, our parents nearly always backed the teachers, which was sometimes unfair.

I could have written this about my class 😬

Honestly, the last four year groups I've seen into the school where I work have become progressively better and better with regard to 'school readiness' and behaviour. Maybe you're just unlucky in the area where you live and work?

Sadly I am absolutely not surprised and this is similar to what we have experienced in recent years. I have left teaching/ school leadership very recently but these skills (what I would consider basics) just aren’t in place for the majority. It used to be a small number of children but that’s no longer the case.

@Copyandpastry Does your school not have a pre-school attached?
My DD started Reception this year, out of the 60 cohort at least 40 have come from the attached pre-school (my DD included).
Being able to find their own name on the peg, hang their stuff up, put their coats on, find their own water bottles, recognise the next step in the routine and talk to adults politely has been ingrained into these children over the last academic year.
I do find it incredibly interesting the blame seems to be solely on the parents, without mention that all of these children will have had access to 30 hour funding for last academic year.
If these kids have been in Nursery for 30 hours a week for a year yet 90% haven't been taught to hang their coat on their peg or recognise their own name I would also be wondering what on earth has been happening in Nursery / Preschool?!

I do agree 4 is young to start school. Before my son started school it would have been my preference that he started much later too. But actually he has really thrived with the academic elements of it - phonics, maths etc... Though his reception class did operate in a montesori type fashion, much like his nursery but just with more formal carpet learning time. If he hadn't started to learn to read and write until he was seven I think he would have been held back, generally his behaviour always improves with more mental challenge.

He started year 1 this time and has been happy so far, though I think the school do a gentle transition to the sitting at desks all day thing.

SEND does not mean children can’t do things, this is a really unhelpful approach. Many SEND children are polite, clever and engaged. It might take them longer to learn but they certainly can and do and are able to succeed. Stop using SEND as a blanket excuse for poor behaviour, you really are lowering the bar in a way that actively damages children.

I agree not to use SEN as a reason.

But the other 15 parents wouldn't know if other children could or couldn't do things things so should have been teaching it at home.

Literally from birth I would pass my child something and practice please/thank you. Ok maybe not day one but within months when they were taking things. Absolutely no idea if SEN but I had an expectation my child would have manners. When they could use the bathroom I would teach to close the door for privacy and to stand and wait until their clothes were pulled back on. This is the basics.

I can't understand why others wouldn't too.

I don't remember any of this from the 60s. We were learning times tables, basic reading, doing letters, collecting leaves and stuff like that. There were 2 infant schools on opposite sides of the road, one C of E and one catholic. C of E one had a dining room, the Catholic one didn't. Every lunchtime the Catholics marched across the road in a crocodile to get their lunch. 5/6-year-olds, able to follow orders. Then it was our turn, again able to follow orders.

I wonder how much this is affected by declining birth rates? One of the fastest ways kids learn is from other children.

If your big brother can do it, you want to do it too. And when you have another child, your eldest often needs to bring you things , follow instructions to ensure you get in car safely etc.

Of course I'm not saying people don't do these things as with only children. Just that in the days where larger families were more common, it was essential to ensure a bit more independence.

I think we are devoting a lot more time and energy to children but this isn't necessarily helping them, or at least not in the early years.

Sometimes I think it is just a matter of what they call it. Many european countries eg Denmark actually send their children to full time nursery from young eg 1. 98% of Danish children are in 'Kindergarten' full time by age 3'. They just don't call it school. Apparently daily attendance at nursery is compulsory from age 3 in France, and many other countries require a compulsory year of nursery before school, so they start school at 6 but have to go to preschool at 5