To be shocked at ‘school readiness’

And parent after parent is coming on making excuses, implying the OP is lying making it up or incompetent. The OP shouldn’t judge - she’s a teacher it’s her job to make judgements. OP doesn’t know the story. They must all be SEND. Others countries!

There’s the problem. Parents, it’s never their fault, it’s too hard, it’s different now. Some parents are still doing their jobs properly but too many rush to make excuses.

Yes, some of us do also work in education

And school readiness has NOTHING to do with sound or number recognition. School will teach that.
It’s - can they toilet themselves
can they dress themselves
can they open a bag of crisps or peel a banana
can they stop and listen and follow simple instructions
can they listen and focus for the length of time it’s takes to read a story

Exactly.

I worked in early years for 15 years, there is nothing unbelievable about it.

90 might not be an exactly accurate percentage but it's all believable.

And it is asked on their entrance form to school

legal name
preferred name

surely their grown adult parent can fill this in correctly

I can. Quite easily.

@JLou08see my reply above. It’s not rage bait. It’s well documented and is happening up and down the country.
Re recognising names, she means recognise their written name.

I work in education and I can believe it. Depends on catchment and cohort.

I think this sort of thing is very much aimed to be tackled by the "experts at hand" movement. In my area we are talking about Ed psychs and speech therapists putting short info sheets into maternity packs, giving basic advice to parents on what babies and toddlers need in terms of interaction. There's also free to access parenting sessions designed for the new family hubs.

Parents get so many conflicting and alarmist messages from social media they have no idea what to do so as not to fuck their child up (and ironically, often end up fucking them up anyway).

Yes well I feel we need to bring back surestart centers.

Okay, they shouldn’t be necessary as the great parents manage without it - but the reality is they are necessary for a lot of parents and they did a lot of good.

I think there are some still ticking along but much less than before.

I saw how so many parents struggled back in 2010 when I worked in a support role within schools helping parents to support their kids education. The difference is I was initially able to signpost them to a ton of family support type community services. So on the whole those parents could avoid social services intervention and get that support to help their kids learning and development.

Most of those services came to an abrupt end shortly after the ToryDem coalition took over. I left that role by spring 2011 partly as I was struggling with how little help I could now give them, plus it looked like they were going to end the funding for my role that June.

I believe we are seeing the outcome of all
these cuts in 2026.

Is recognising your name written down on a school readiness list now? I definitely don’t remember my dc being asked for this over a decade ago?

Not if they themselves are functionally illiterate or if English is not a first language.

And yet PISA (2025) ranking for the UK so the Reading, Maths and Science scores of 15 year olds is ranked 9th in the world so only beaten by Hong Kong, Estonia, Korea, Japan, Macao (China), Chinese Taipei, Singapore and B-S-J-Z (China). Indeed, England's PISA results lifted the whole of the UK into the top ten. On it's own England Science score moved it's PISA ranking to 8th in the world!

Surely, this is testament to the very good standard of education in this country, these statistics appear incongruent with your argument that 90% of children don't even know their name!

I completely agree being able to do own coat etc is helpful and that toileting unless impossible due to SEND should obviously be secure

What are the local preschools like? My children's preschool used the montessori method to teach them to put their own coats on which most children can do from age 2-3. Zips and buttons are harder, I'm not sure my children could do that at just turned 4 but they could definitely dress themselves and get a coat on. And things like putting your coat on your peg, lining up, walking not running, sitting to listen to a story and recognising their name were also learnt at preschool even if not taught at home.

You are seriously suggesting that teachers are tougher on the pupils now than they were in the past? You are delusional.

There’s a lot of hyperbole about this topic.

I have never met a dc with a phone or iPad at 5 or before ….

This.

Edit: Children in the nineties in Year R had better language skills than many I teach in Year 3 nowadays.

I think screens are a symptom, not a cause. What i notice is that a lot of parents are very nervous and/or believe children need more autonomy in decision making...but dont back it up with independence in execution. Eg children get to decide what they want to do, but parents facilitate it. So child doesn't want to out on jacket, so doesn't have to. Even screens - i am constantly surprised st how children who use a lot of screens are nonetheless not technically literate because they get screens time, but their parents manage it for them.

And the nervousness... theres no pushing or encouraging children to be independent because parents are terrified of their children being scared/failing (at best) or being harmed (st worst).

So things that 20nysads ago woild have been totally normal aren't happening. Whether thats learning to take a bus, go into a shop etc. We see on here all the time - parents too scared to let their children go into a bathroom or changing room alone. Or a child who isnt allowed to go into the corner shop alone, never mind walk there. These same parents are so busy protecting their children from any risks they aren't teaching them how to manage when things go wrong. Ditto, protecting them from any struggles so they donf actually learn the things they need to learn because its "hard" and the parent doesn't want them upset.

@SomethingFunI think there is definitely an element of that. Parenting is far more involved & time pressured now vs previous generations when dc were often unsupervised

DD is in y2 (a key COVID baby year- late 2019/2020 babies) and this doesn't reflect what we saw then. Also doesn't reflect what friends have seen in reception last year or this year (both teaching and as parents).

I do wonder whether this is also often by area, as we live in a middle class area where most parents are able to get support, and the local council have managed to keep some of the old surestart services going (and encourage people of all backgrounds to use them with both free sessions and low cost sessions with tiered pricing so there isn't the stigma that there sometimes is).

We also managed to maintain a lot of playgroups etc that disappeared in other areas- mainly thanks to the retired older generations who recognised their value and stepped in to run them.

I believe you @Copyandpastry
Many teachers are noticing a huge drop in readiness for school. Which leaves me baffled because I expect those children went to nursery and should have learnt all the things you describe then.

I suspect there are many reasons for that. Parenting might be one. Repeated Covid infections is another - read around the impact on children of the mother catching covid infections during pregnancy as well as the impact of covid on babies. I’m not talking about death etc…I’m talking about loss if IQ, developmental delays etc….