To be shocked at ‘school readiness’

My childminder potty trained my dc!

I don’t think the time pressure argument stands for a whole class. Many parents still have long commutes but that has been true for a long time. If anything due to the prevalence of working from home - on a cohort level - there will be less time pressured parents.

I never said that every single child has SEND. Just that after only 2 weeks, it's possible that some may be unidentified.

But then it's also statistically unlikely that it's 90% of the class anyway.

I honestly don't remember teaching anything - my dc just kind of recognised the name from literally a few months old, same with pulling up trousers, but I did not teach any reading, so that was taught at school, same as writing. I did not teach tying up laces and was ticked off by teachers who had to do it, I quickly changed to velcro. What I was trying to say is that I tried to give my dc a proper unstructured at-your-arse childhood with no drills, no piano from 3, no figure skating or riding from 4. I was trying to say I could not imagine institutionalising my dc at 2 or 3 or 4. I think it is cruelty to let your children fend for themselves in an institutionalised setting from such an early age. It is naive, no, it is irresponsible to think they will be properly looked after by the staff.

😆😆😆

Plus all these amazing dc have somehow not grown into exemplary older adults 🤔

There were a couple of threads running over the summer with posters desperate to potty train their DC before they started school. No known SEN, they just kept giving up previously or hadn’t really tried as they were waiting for their DC to be ready. Schools are seeing more and more children turning up to school in nappies

For those saying other countries start schooling later don’t children in Switzerland typically walk to school alone to school at 4, so assume they know how to put their coat on

I assume the OP has a pretty tricky cohort but the behaviour, lack of school readiness is becoming a huge issue in schools

Those people claiming this is not true have no idea.

I'm 35 years in and can fully attest to the absolute decline in parenting skills which have lead to classroom situations EXACTLY as described by the OP.

The lack of language skills, motor skills and just general readiness is increasingly worrying.
And obviously this continues all the way up.
I now consistently see classes of 10 and 11 year olds with the maturity and resilience of much younger children.

Are you in an area where lots of kids don't attend nursery? Where I am in London, I'd say most kids go to some kind of nursery / childminding setting where they learn this kind of basic stuff. My daughters could do all the things that school advised for school readiness and well before they actually started Reception, and my guess is that a decent proportion of the class were the same. I remember even in their state nursery class we always helped the children inside in the morning to put their things away and all the children would know where their peg was and that they needed to put their coat on it. I'm sure there are some kids who don't know the basics, and there's definitely another chunk more who probably struggle with new rules when they start, but where I am I genuinely believe that the kids you describe would be in the minority.

I agree with this. Kids in the UK start school far too early, though the examples given by the OP are still extreme and very shocking. I would expect 4/5 year olds to be far better equipped.

In Germany, kids start school at 6/7, depending on their birthday and the cut-off. They do 3 years of Kindergarten before that where much of the focus is on free play, but also in preparing them for school. While the system over there isn’t perfect in many ways, this is one area where they get it right.

My niece and nephew both started school this year and just looking at them in their uniforms is so weird because they still look like babies.

I haven’t said a commute means you don’t need to parent but the fact is parents are more time pressured now which means some reach for quick fixes. There is no way I could teach my dc to read at 6:45am, luckily I didn’t have to. Did you?

Yep, 90% of them have special needs. The OP made a range of comments about a range of needs and has since clarified that she was not discussing the diagnosed SeND children and while others will have not yet diagnosed needs it won’t be 90%.
And while I’m on a rant who says SEND children can’t recognise their own name and put on a coat? My DS who has adhd was quite capable of doing those things, don’t lower the bar you just fail these students with your low expectations.

Also, presumably even only a generation ago diagnoses of SEN were much lower (given the number of adults now receiving diagnoses of ADHD and ASD). However, those children started reception and were school ready, despite their undiagnosed SEN. So in theory children with undiagnosed SEN at four should be able to hang up their coat, say please and thank you etc. because if their needs are more severe such that they can’t do these things, they will already be on course for a diagnosis and OP would be aware that they have additional needs.

I can also remember everyone moaning about "parents and kids today" when I was a kid and certainly when I was a parent of young children. I wonder when people think the golden age for excellent parenting was?

Probably when we still lived in trees. Those cave-dwellers don't know they are born, letting their kids run around while they hunt and pick berries and not teaching them to listen out for sabre-toothed tigers.

You can still get up 10 minutes earlier.
Saying I have a commute I don’t need to parent is nonsense.
There are weekends.

If you have a child, which you chose to have, you need to fit in parenting.

The normal time school run is still packed with parents, or all those adults walking towards a school with children in uniforms are a very good hallucination.

Whether we think the 90% mentioned by the OP is or is not right, we all have eyes in our head and can see that parenting has become worse, certainly in public.
The town centres are full of families ignoring their kid whilst they sit in bars, cafes and pubs ( small kid on iPad parents not making any eye contact let alone talking to them), children walking about without seemingly any supervision see all posts on here from people who have had a child ‘ adopt’ them on holiday with parents not caring where their DC is.

I have a friend who works in education, on the property side of things, so many school now have changing tables/rooms because so many children starting school at 4 or 5 with nappies ( not SEN who may need the xtra support).
Parents dropping off kids telling headteachers they think it is the schools job to toilet train. Children who cannot use a knife and fork because they have never sat at a table to eat so being taught this at school.
I do not think this is a socioeconomic issue, it’s across society, and sadly for whatever reason some parents are too busy, too self centred or too uncaring to bring up their own children.

Yes two more years at home on their iPad is what’s needed.

Deleted as accidental duplicate post.

How long have you been teaching reception? These are four year olds in their first ever week at school. They will be overwhelmed. Maybe wait a few weeks before judging?

Also schools push apps and chromebooks as it makes marking easier

27.5% of my class aren't toilet trained fully or are in nappies this year. Most in nappies, but 2 are actively training and just in pants. One is pretty much there though and just on a sticker chart. Some SEN (not all, to current knowledge and observation) but in all honesty mostly at levels we've supported for years and have always been toilet trained previously. I'm actively toilet training 4. It's definitely been my worst ever year for that. I taught a separate one to wipe their bum yesterday - hadn't been shown before when we asked at home time... A fair few boys are coming out of the loos and wandering about pants and trousers down (don't know why it's only boys).

Speech and language and behaviour have been better (so far!) this year though. And most can have a good attempt at their own coat (pretty much no one in the class can do their clothes though!) and finding their peg. A couple have even come writing their names! It's definitely all about toileting this year.

We have most of our children at home before school; only a few ever go to nursery. It's always very noticeable how much more able and independent the kids who've been to nursery are. I don't know why really, but it definitely has a huge impact in my observation.

I was doing a “get to know each other” with my year 7 group this week, and was surprised at how many didn’t know their birthday or their address.

I remember there being much outrage about ASBOs on estates when I started teaching in 2001 (the outrage was that they were needed, by the way) and teenage pregnancies were huge problems, too.

Remember as well corporal punishment was much more common Back Then but that’s largely frowned upon now.

But this idea that circa 2006 four year olds were eagerly skipping into school able to independently dress themselves and behaving with impeccable manners is nonsense really. I think in generations gone by we had problems from street children - I don’t mean literally living on the streets but outside more than in, vulnerable to both grooming and bullying. They stil exist but they are the iPad kids. I personally think it’s got so much froth because it’s started to hit the middle classes.

How do you know that none of these children have any additional needs? Some have only just turned 4. It is entirely possible that starting school will highlight the extent of some children's difficulties.

Something has gone terribly wrong with parenting. I have a 2.5 year old and some of his peers have tablets. Our local library groups are so quiet, and the few that do go are middle class families. There seems to be a lot of distrust of health professionals and so many of these kids are babied. Not given the chance to potty train, feed themselves, dress themselves etc.

But I do wonder what if happening at nurseries? So many kids go, so why are so few school ready? Surely they have peg for coats and labels with their names on there?