To be shocked at ‘school readiness’

No one who read the Ops post properly thought they meant to read the name. The OP was clear that these children couldn't recognise their name. Which is why it's alarming them that that such a significant portion of the class cannot do this.

Same here. When ours started at the playgroup attached to their primary at rising 3, they had to be out of nappies, otherwise they weren’t accepted. This was 20 years ago. My friend works at the playgroup and I remember her being horrified when they were forced to accept kids who weren’t trained.

I heard from a friend (whose child started last year) that they were the most poorly equipped bunch of kids. The teachers we’re having menty bs .

my kid is not much older but could do coat and had been in nursery from a young age

its crazy how they have changed in just a few years

I find this mind boggling. My son is about to turn 3 and does all the things in your OP. There are 15 in his class at nursery and all are similar to him - he was recently at a 4th birthday party and I was impressed by the manners of the other children. He's at a council run nursery 4 days a week.

That is a lot of expectation for a 4-4,5 year olds. In other countries they are not expected some of that until around 6.

They were taught easy phonics at nursery. As were all the other children in their nursery class. That was all it took for them to learn to read. I accept that they were ahead of the pack at that age. Their sibling needed a lot more parental input, at age 5.
And what do you mean by literacy rates? I'm sure most people aren't reading Shakespeare for fun, but they can help a child to read "The cat sat on the mat". My 5 year old needed help with learning to read, as they weren't getting very far at school, but all it took was sitting down with them and going through a few books a day over the school summer holidays (and yes, I did work). I doubt there are many parents in this country who can't read books designed for 4 and 5 year old early readers with their child. It's a choice.

Perhaps - I realise it is not likely in current financial climate - we should recognise the importance of our nursery workers and pay accordingly. Rather than just rely on the fact that teenage girls find it an approachable profession and pay terrible wages.

One of my daughters is a qualified nursery worker - gets a bit more than minimum wage with crippling hours. My other daughter is training as a primary school teacher and works in nurseries in the holidays for a pretty insulting wage. You need young people to do it because I don't think many older people could find the energy.

The nursery where my daughter is currently working, is the first one, and she had been working for 6 years in many different settings, where she would want to send her own children.

I’m a health visitor and sadly this isn’t a surprise.

Miss Rachel as a substitute for talking to, or reading with your child.
Waiting until your child is ‘ready’ to potty train, doing nothing to support early toileting skills, and then being surprised that your 3 year old is quite resistant to the whole idea.
Expecting a ‘quick fix’ for sleep, diet, behaviour etc. issues.
A million and one gadgets and influencers claiming they have the answer to every problem.
Lack of wider support networks of friends, family, and neighbours.

It’s not necessarily individual parent’s/family’s faults. The fact of the matter is that a lot of families are incredibly stressed and time poor. A modern, capitalist society that doesn’t value the role of community or family is completely at odds with all the things we know support attachment and bonding, and supporting a child’s development. Most children will only be as ‘school ready’ as the quality of their childcare (nursery/preschool) allows. And when nursery workers are severely undervalued and paid peanuts, it’s hardly surprising that the bar is very low.

The majority of children spend some time in childcare.
Mine started full time nursery at six months old - normal maternity leave then. They started school, including breakfast and after school club at four years and two months.
They were trilingual and could write their name correctly. They knew how to use a knife and fork and the expectation of good table manners. They had been toilet trained for two years by then and knew how to ask to go to the bathroom.
Thanks to the support from nursery they had learned how to wait your turn and how to follow instructions.
Using childcare doesn’t mean that you aren’t 100% parent.

Really? Can you prove it?

And some kids don’t go to nursery, or do t get taught phonics at nursery.

Regardless of whether it’s a choice, it’s not a requirement and that’s great, because it means all children have the benefit of learning at school even if they haven’t learned at home.

If a child is in childcare 8-6, 5 days a week then nursery have far more hours with them to teach these things than their parents. That doesn't absolve the parent's responsibility to do so, but it absolutely means we should be looking at what's going in in nurseries if children are attending nursery and still not learning these basic skills.

I bet most DC in other countries can do that. In many countries children will be cutting food up to cook, starting the basics of whittling. So I bet they can use a knife and fork to eat with!

Its really not.

In other countries they still expect the same at the same age. They just don't call it formal schooling.

Using a really good nursery makes a difference. My DCs started nursery at 3 months and 5 months respectively. The nursery was very well run and used some mature and very experienced staff (who supervised the younger staff). I remember the babies were looked after by a woman in her 50s who had vast amounts of experience. It was a very happy and productive place. That nursery did some serious learning with the 3 and 4 year olds.

I would expect a 3 year old to be able to do tasks that is developmentally appropriate for a 3 year old. I work in early years and a 3 yr old should be able to toilet independently or almost (may need help pulling up underwear), wash hands, follow simple directions, take off shoes and put on slippers, hang up a coat on the right hook, open and close a lunchbox (may need help with clicking closed) drink from a cup or water bottle, stay seated while eating, tidy up toys in the right box (with direction at first), sit for about 5 mins engaging in songs and many more skills. Most children can do these things so it's not unrealistic. Where I am we are 2 weeks into the new term and a good few children still under 3 have learned some of these skills already. By October they should all be able. The majority go home to parents who treat them like they are 1 and they will all regress over mid term, some going back to poining and grunting at their lunchbox instead of opening themselves. Then we'll work on it again until they regress again at Christmas. And so on.

They are not expected to READ their own name, but to recognise it in a whole word way. I daresay Tom and Poppy might actually understand the letters and sounds, but Phoebe and Niamh maybe not...

I think you have to identify whether these 90% of unprepared DC were in nursery or exclusively at home before blaming parents. There is some behaviour that is exclusive to a particular environment (not the home) that parents are not able to teach - such as finding your own peg, sitting cross legged on the carpet for story time, turn taking etc.

When I started school in the 70s most DC didn’t attend preschool and particular rules and regulations and acceptable ways of behaving outside the home and street were explicitly taught when starting school. My sons both attended preschool before school so were explicitly taught how to behave in regimented social settings outside the home.

Obviously parents can teach skills and acceptable behaviour in the home but if a child, after attending preschool for many years, is not school ready this is a failing of nursery education that is supposed to teach skills required outside the home. Even if a child is allowed screens all the time etc when at nursery there are no screens, they have to sit at a table using cutlery and manners for snacks/mealtimes, have to sit quietly for story time, engage with group activities, turn take etc. For many hours 5 days a week. But still when they are not ready for school you blame the parents that delegated care.

Exactly this! It never used to be such an issue even 10 years ago!

Not any more...

ask me how I know

This! I'm from Poland and I went to preschool at 6 and school at 7. This has now been moved forward by a year so children start school at 6. None of us is developmentally delayed because of this and we're actually a resourceful and hard-working nation. A 4 year old belongs at nursery

@Copyandpastry How long does it take to teach the whole class those basic skills, OP? I imagine that getting them out of nappies must be tough, but is it possible to have a few sessions on putting your coat on, using a fork, etc at the beginning of the Reception, and then move quickly on to other things?

You have perfectly demonstrated why children can't do these things if people have such low expectations of 5 year olds.

This isn’t the main cause but there’s a huge difference children who have just turned 4 and the children turning 5 right at the start. I know this has always been the case however years ago, the younger children would often go school part time rather than in for full days. For instance I was a January birthday and went part time for the first time in the 90s, summer birthdays would start full time after Easter. This was the norm but is now discouraged.

If you are receiving children who are not ready for Reception you should be feeding back to the EY settings they have been attending and perhaps suggest your own school establishes a high quality graduate led nursery.