School readiness survey - surprising?

[GirlfromtheNorthLondonCountry]

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2025/jan/30/some-children-starting-school-unable-to-climb-staircase-finds-england-and-wales-teacher-survey

Is it really the case that 4 year olds (absent disabilities) are unable to climb stairs or sit on the rug because of too much screen time? It just seems so extraordinary to me.

One of my GCs went to the same school my DD had attended up to 2009 so a generation or 2 earlier - she was born in 97 after Blair was elected.
Same school same clientele but my God the difference. A boy in his reception class (his mum had been in the same class as DD) took a dislike from introduction day and made it his daily mission to hit GC one day he was battered and had foot marks on his back I emailed school about it including f.photos they said it wouldn't happen again and of course they ALL play rough. It happened the very next day. He refused to return after Xmas. Refused to speak until he knew he wasn't going back there. This wouldn't have happened in Reception class before in my experience.

It's horrific @AnaMond. The damage the tories did to education is staggering.

They did commission a few new LA send schools a couple of years ago but the one local to me, in Newcastle, is not set to open for a couple more yet. And I do not believe it's anywhere near enough to meet demand.

I struggled with stairs as a child and I'm over 40, but that's because I grew up in a bungalow and rarely encountered stairs.

How long will we keep blaming Covid and not poor parenting and lack of support? From children's centres etc?!

Perhaps it would concentrate the mind if phased entry into reception was based on school readiness skills?

That isn’t true. They absolutely can benefit from some things on screen, indeed schools use screens extensively. It is what the watch/interact with in the screen and how they balance that with other activities that is the issue.

An acquaintance is a TA in reception (she’s a qualified teacher but doesn’t want to teach due to pressures/workload) she was telling me she’d been bitten. It then transpired she has 5 children in class developmentally under 12m. In a mainstream primary. It’s not fair on them, the teaching staff or other children.

We aren’t critical enough of people who fail to meet basic levels of care for their children. Yes we need support and sure start centres back and some parents are very keen to involve themselves in education and guidance, but there a lot of parents who quite frankly are lazy and they are never held accountable for how they muck up their children’s upbringing.

There does seem to be a total lack of shame for doing a piss poor job of caring for your child. Just an avalanche of excuses that places the blame beyond the home.

It takes a village to raise a child... except that village does not exist anymore.

Absolutely.

This is very evident on SM. There are a significant number of people who upload on tiktok showing filthy homes, poor diets, neglectful parenting etc. And so many of the comments are the #bekind bollocks.

And Labour want more of those kids in mainstream! There are some parents that resist specialist provision, but most parents of send children are desperate to get them into a more appropriate setting. first they have to jump through the hoops to demonstrate that their children cannot cope/school cannot cope with their child - often struggling for years to build the evidence to support an application for specialist provision, and even then often find no space available in appropriate schools.

@Labraradabrador oh I know. I have a friend whose girl has a genetic condition, the resulting developmental delays and MH issues the school would not recognise for years. Only when she had a succession of epileptic fits did she get an MRI and diagnosed - now nobody can argue. That was four years ago and she still hasn’t got a suitable school place. Mainstream said they have to show they can’t cope, despite outright saying they can’t meet her needs. She has now been told she can have a specialist placement but as you’ve said they’re not available in abundance so it’s a case of who has space, not where would suit her. She has missed so much education.

🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯

This is so sad...

I feel like children in the uk are growing up in totally different worlds depending on their parents. My oldest reads about 4-10 books per day.

The comments from @arethereanyleftatall really shocked me too. My not yet 3 yr old can almost do monkey bars unassisted and spends swim lessons thrashing violently 🤣

There were 5 non verbal children in a normal size mainstream class?

I agree 5 is a lot - but my child had three in his classroom in reception.

Listening to relatives in mainstream teaching in a northern area at the moment, I can well believe there are that many non verbal children in a reception class.

The types of specialised training I've accessed within send for the last two decades I've passed on to them.

They were given very little advice by the LA.

They've now started those strategies and training programs and set up their own send unit without outside support, financial or professional. Obviously finances are an issue.

What is also an issue is that many people are setting up independent businesses to advise schools. Some are not actually that knowledgeable. Many people are making a lot of money from children with send.

And Labour want more of those kids in mainstream!

From what I can see it's not that they want it, it's that there's no other viable option right now. The only thing that can be done is direct mainstream schools to focus on how they will make changes within schools to facilitate these pupils.

Which requires training and space.

Another factor that may drive children to be accessing screens over other things is that more parents are working longer hours. It is unfortunately easier to rely on screens to keep on top of everything you need to do to feed, clothe and organise a family if you have very little time.

The kids have built a mountain of cushions and pillows and are using it like a crash pit and I'll admit my heart briefly sank at the mess....!

(And in tbe past they'd have been turfed out into the street.)

I think a pp has made a similar point

Incorrect Bridget Phillipsen has stated she wants fewer children in specialist provision and more send children educated for in mainstream schools.

I have no issue with SEND children being educated in mainstream schools. The problem is that it can't be done without a significant increase in the amount of specialist support available including resources and training.

Someone said something about 5 children in a reception class being non verbal. In DD's class there was one boy who was not completely, but largely, non verbal. But mainstream has absolutely been right for him - he was diagnosed with ASD in year 1 or 2 but has come out of his shell, has a small but lovely group of friends and even had a line in the last year group performance! INtereestingly, in the same class was a girl who also has ASD and while on the surface her needs were fewer, that was harder and she has subdsequently moved to a different school where I believe she is doing very well. I noticed at school events right up to year 3 that she basically needed constant 1-2-1 attention which simply isn't practical usually.

But to manage this at a higher level, schools need a lot more resources.

DS has ADHD which has brought some challenges with academics etc. He is slowly but surely catching up, which is great. But at his very large secondary school, they are able to support 20-25 children like him per year group (about 10%) by offering an option for a small number of children to do fewer GCSEs and instead get extra support (with a teacher) during the 9th GCSE lesson time. I think that's quite a lot, but it means if they had more children with additional needs, or children with much more significant additional needs, they'd be very unlikely ot be able to offer a similar level of support.

What is also an issue is that many people are setting up independent businesses to advise schools. Some are not actually that knowledgeable. Many people are making a lot of money from children with send.

This reminds me of someone I know who was diagnosed with autism in her forties and within a year was being paid by the LA to go into schools to teach them about autism with all the enthusiasm of a new convert. She had had no training herself in that time and wasn’t just telling them about how she personally experienced autism - she was claiming to be an expert in autism and neurodiversity however it presented. Her only knowledge other than her experience of her own autism was what she had gleaned from activist groups.