To be shocked at ‘school readiness’

The majority now will have come from a nursery setting.

Totally agree with your assessment OP - i work in early years and have children come to me who have been in preschools etc - they dont seem to have any social skills, they say things like 'ive said please so I get to have that now' rather than understanding about taking turns. I think we have so many tick boxes that we have forgotten the basics of raising children in favour of the more complex things.

If you think most of a class of reception aged children might undiagnosed SEN do you not think that is a huge problem and op is right to be concerned?

Yes they are young but I went to school when I was 4 as I imagine the vast majority of British posters did so it isn’t a new thing that is unusual in our culture and we don’t know how to manage starting school at 4.

I can totally believe this. Lazy parents raising (or not) children totally ineffectively.
I feel sorry for Reception teachers nowadays.

How do we differentiate between SEN and parenting failure? As I understand it, assessment and diagnosis of SEN can be a lengthy and difficult process. Should these consequences be imposed on observation of the child's behaviour, then the parent is later absolved if SEN are identified?

As a retired Reception teacher this sounds like normal for every intake I've ever had I'm afraid.

I’m working with the same age and lots of them say please and thank you, and most can put on coats. Maybe the area you work in??

Any child that attended nursery would know all these things. I would expect the odd child but not the whole class?
This is not the case where we live, yes sometimes the coat is inside out, struggle with the zip etc. or need a hand with spelling their name?

School isn’t compulsory, any family in the UK can choose to start their children at any age above compulsory school age if they feel 4/5 is too young.

Only people to blame here are the parents. Why people have kids then do not bring them up correctly / teach them the basics etc etc is beyond me.

This does not surprise me. One of my friends teaches in a quite an affluent area of the country. They have a washing machine on site as many children come in week after week with unwashed school clothing, even after the holidays . Many children don’t get breakfast, not because of wealth just because parents aren’t caring for their children.

people are more selfish now and that includes looking after their kids.

Our Reception cohort are a DELIGHT! They are the most switched on group we have had in a few years, chatty, articulate, sociable and enthusiastic. Lots of foundation skills already and so excited to get stuck in to learning.

The parents however, FML. As a teacher, the biggest issue is not the children, it's the spoilt, rude, entitled group of people around 25-35 who think they are very special. God knows what happened with that lot - I was teaching 25 years ago so could hazard a guess at some of it (gentle parenting and the internet ) but they are by far the biggest problem facing my school.

Kids are teens in school in ireland. Was shocked when they both said lots of kids can't tell the time on an analogue clock even if it has numbers. They've been asked the time all classes theyve been in through school. We've lost the ability to do the simplest of things. I honestly think we are in the age of devolution!
Many years from now society will ask how our generation took on technology so freely without thinking about its impact; in the same way we look back in shock at how cigarette smoking was taken on in the 50s and 60s and what it did to health.

Yes, but it would be unusual for the vast majority of the class to have SEN, and the OP says most of the children are struggling with the basics.

It is worrying. Both my DDs have gone through nursery and left (well DD2 is still there) being able to do all the above. They teach them to put their coats on unaided from the age of 2 or so and by school age they are very independent. So even with poor parenting, you’d hope that a good nursery or preschool would plug some of the gaps at least.

Anecdotally, I’ve noticed changes in the girls coming through my Girlguiding units too. Lower levels of literacy and writing, poor motor skills when using pens or pencils, I’ve had 6yos totally unable to use scissors - not just clumsy but have no idea how to hold or operate them.

It has always been this way in the UK.

Not sure why people doubt this. I’ve been working with children for thirty years and i think most of those who work with them in a professional capacity are seeing a similar thing over the last few years.

It’s not all children of course many are developmentally ok: for example my nephew has been dressing himself for ages, he can sit and play well because he doesn’t have screens as they make his behaviour worse ( likely adhd). He has manners because he has been taught them. He can recognise his own name because he is nearly five and plays with his mum ‘writing and drawing’

A mixture of screens being overused, minimal learning from play opportunities because screen time instead ( a phone learning game can’t replace physical play and interaction) , never being bored so not understanding how to play, parenting is a huge issue like it or not: sticking a screen infront of them, being on their own phones instead of playing and interacting with their own kids, not being taught how to dress, feed, toilet, manners etc.

Of course children learn things in nursery but it’s not followed through at home skills are lost quickly they are so young.

This always comes up on these threads but I'm 38 and started school at 4, as did many of my classmates and these things weren't as much of an issue then.

Also, yes some European countries start school later, but most are in "pre school" before that, which is very much like our reception. Once at school the expectations are quite high because they assume most kids have already learnt the basics in the pre school settings. They aren't all left running around in the nip building mud dens until 6/7 years old before starting to learn to sit down, share the pencils and listen to a 5 minute story.

This old chestnut. In well performing countries where the school age is higher, children access free or subsidised high quality preschools from a much younger age, eg in Scandinavia almost all children access high quality play-based curriculums from the age of one. In the UK the curriculum is mostly/ largely play-based until the end of year 1, so it’s not that different.

If they had been to nursery they would know all the basics. All the routines are very regimented ime and the children are encouraged to be independent.

I do think the influence of screens/phones is the major difference between now and when I was a child. For the parent and the child.

Are these children with stay at home parents or are they in childcare? What type of area is it?

I'm not sure it has. Half days used to happen for longer, the targets expected of reception children were different.

Most of the children is the ops reception class will have come from a nursery setting, clearly some thing has happened in regard to expectations.

This

I walked out of a reception class last summer because of behaviour. I so supply but I had been there for three months. It was during story. Four and five year olds should be able to listen to a story. They should want to listen to a story.

I believe you OP. It may be clumsily phrased but we have the same.

Fortunately we have a nursery attached to the school so about 2/3 of the cohort have had 15 hours for the last two years and the difference between them is striking.

I’m not in any position to judge other parents. My son is 3 and has started school nursery this week. He can’t do any of these things. I try to teach him all the time and he just doesn’t get it, so I know how difficult it can be. He’s younger and does have additional needs, so I know it is different. But some additional needs are not immediately obvious and can take years to be diagnosed, so I don’t understand how you can know that none of the children have additional needs after such a short amount of time. I would never judge a parent for not being able to teach a child something when I don’t know the reasons and what they or their child may be going through.