Recent study of children joining reception class

[Liveandletlive18]

A recent study by kindred2 of a 1000 teachers resulted in finding a quarter of children today joined reception class when still in nappies. Many children are unable to climb a staircase or sit properly on the floor due to lack of exercise & muscle tone. The children used expressions more common in America such as trash & vacation due to excessive screen time. Teachers stated covid is no longer an excuse. They say a lot of this is due to busy parents working & having less time to interact with children & teach them basic skills. Is this a worrying trend.

In England everyone now gets funding from 9 months. Or at least if you earn up to 50k or thereabouts

Unfortunately that's not the case in Scotland. It would be much better if it was as everybody would feel the benefits.

The claims about reception teachers encountering 4 year olds with American accents due to too much TV have been around since I was doing teacher training - in 2006! It's either a really old urban myth or a really longstanding issue. It's not a new thing. In reality, I've never met a British 4 year old with a US accent apart from a couple of autistic children.

I also don't see how not toilet training children can be a laziness thing. Changing nappies is revolting. Why would anyone do it a second longer than necessary?!

And I can definitely see the temptation of screen time, especially for single parents. I don't have children but I had my 1 year old nephew for an entire Sunday (so no classes etc happening) with no company recently. I love him to pieces but after 5 hours of meals, reading, singing, playing, going to the park and practising walking I was ready to cry with relief by nap time. Then after a couple of hours respite it was more singing, reading, playing and eating. I was going out of my mind with boredom. Half an hour or so of CBeebies or Youtube would have made the day a whole lot easier but I know my sister has a thing about him not seeing moving screens so I didn't do it. And that was just one day. How people spend all day every day with a baby or toddler, no adult company and no screen time just blows my mind.

how can you possibly know that 20% are still in nappies?!

if that information is being freely shared, I’d suggest there are more important issues at that school.

The 2 schools I have experience with won’t deal with accidents, let alone nappies. We had to potty train before we were allowed to enrol in pre-school nursery (3).

I agree ofsted isn’t perfect (understatement!) but I have friends with kids in all of the schools and they all seem happy with the provision. I imagine it is very variable with area, though. Sorry to hear about the difficulties at your school - really unfair.

The 2 schools I have experience with won’t deal with accidents, let alone nappies.

Where are you? State schools and nurseries in the UK aren't allowed to do that because of parents campaigning that it's discriminatory. I think private can but I'm not sure.

London.

Interesting - maybe I’m wrong? I know a friend got a call because their kid had an accident but it may have been during after school club, which I guess is different?

Nursery definitely refused enrolment unless potty trained, but that is private but part of the state school.

It makes sense that it would be considered discriminatory - presumably kids with additional needs?

I don’t know anyone with an employer who allows wfh without childcare in place. Are you talking about self employed people?

Happysack Possibly re the after school club, especially if it's run by external people.

It's supposed to be about special needs but at that age few are diagnosed so they can't turn away children whose parents haven't bothered pottery training either.

I think that must be it, then - apologies to the PP for getting it wrong.

I remember being told that the first disposable nappy ever made is still in landfill somewhere.

I dread to think how many there must be if kids aren’t being potty trained by 4 or older.

Also, if circumstances change at any point after the funded hours have been approved, the funding remains in place. So a parent could actually increase their hours or go back to work if they haven't been employed and earn above the income limit and still receive the funded hours for their 2 year old.

This isn’t quite true, they are only approved for 3 months at a time. So maximum someone could continue to use the hours is for 2.5 months. It’s hardly gaming the system, no one is getting a job to get 3 months of funded hours approved and then quitting.
And again if they are earning over the threshold they need to reapply every 3 months for the funding so they wouldn’t continue to get it.

Assuming some combination of straight up lying, having childcare for part of the day only to avoid paying wraparound, having a job that doesn't have video calls and/or can be quietly finished up later in the evening, etc

No. Plenty of people are just doing it on the sly

DD was poorly last week and was at home. DH and I were tag-teaming looking after her (with our bosses' permissions), and it was VERY difficult to get work done. And that's with a kid who just wanted to rest most of the day. It would be almost impossible to WFH without childcare I think.

Totally agree with Ladykale here. Se are parentifying our teachers and that is not their remit. As much as they may want to help, they have limits.

The only children turning up to school in a nappy, should be those with a health issues , emotional or physical.

Most of this is still true for most people. Reading homework and books at bedtime is still a thing. Parties here aren't a whole-class thing. Gifts are still a small craft, book, hair accessories, etc., nothing major. School outings are still the same. School dinners are generally pretty healthy, and I know they only have chips on a Friday.

Having said that, we aren't at the stage yet where bullying really happens, and I'm dreading that. I will absolutely keep DD away from social media and phones as long as possible for her safety and mental health.

As for teacher respect, she's only 5 so has absolute respect and love for her teacher. When I was at secondary school in the 2000s many kids were absolutely feral and it was a horrible place to be, so same shit, different generation.

I know parents that don't work but are bone idle and never bought their child a book or read them a story.

Up until the 1980s babies were potty trained before aged 2

According to my Mother...:i was dry through thr night by 18 months

But u really hate seeing massive kids running around with saggy nappies

This isn’t something I’ve done - but have you seen how much grief parents get online for their children being, well children, whilst out and about. I can imagine if you aren’t strong in your beliefs it’s anxiety provoking and leads to trying to keep them quiet. Inc with the use of electronics when like you say, they should be taking the world in.

Hi

That gives me some hope and relief, not sure were "here" is, but I am in England and much of what I have said has changed.

Large parties for kids are expected, which puts a large financial strain on families, many parents use electronic babysiters (IT) rather than sitting down with their kids and the art of conversation is dying as people stare at their phones and petty squabbles blow out of all proportion on social media.

I have a young woman on my street, with two pre-schoolers and she is a SAHM. She tries so hard with her kids, lots of interaction and lots of activities with exercise but she tells me that when a friend looks after them, or they have playdates, they in effect get electronic babysitters as they are left watching something on a screen. Sad really!

I dont understand the stairs thing?

Babies/toddlers/kids LOVE climbing don't they? Do these people not ever go to parks?

Mine wasn't an early crawler or walker but once she could, she would climb up everywhere she could

I find it fascinating any parent manages to get through the day without taking their kids out. When mine were born preschool and younger we went out first thing everyday otherwise they’d drive me mad.

Babies/toddlers/kids LOVE climbing don't they? Do these people not ever go to parks?

Without a car it would have been difficult to get to a park. Our local park, still a considerable walk away was full of broken glass, graffiti, missing and burnt out pieces of play equipment. Pretty depressing for both parents and children. We went once and my toddler picked up on how run down int was and asked to leave.

Thankfully we have a car so could easily get across town to a better one. We could also spend time in countryside, woodland etc so the children had a range of environments to play and build strength and gross motor skills.

It's important to recognise that some people's circumstances will be very different.

Agree. This is our life. We read after school, they eat home cooked meals with very little meat or processed stuff - occasional sausages as a treat. School meals are cooked from scratch and my kids don’t eat meat at school to avoid the minimal processed stuff they offer.

Parties are very home made - I do the food and we have had entertainers but also just done pass the parcel etc ourselves. We used to invite the whole class when they were little but it didn’t really add to the cost - a few more sandwiches. Now they’re older it’s a chosen list and sleepovers or maybe cinema. Presents are similar - maybe a small Lego set for around a fiver. Nothing extravagant.

We are in London but have a dog so there’s lots of outdoors time. Dens, scavenger hunts, tree climbing etc.

Very similar to my own childhood. Things have been added - more choice of tv (not necessarily a good thing as the quality isn’t as good from America) and more video games - but my husband played them when he was young and I see their benefit in moderation.

I wonder if engaged parents are as engaged but those who aren’t have more damaging tools at their disposal - you tube / social media / mobile phones in particular.

When I was young, sticking someone in front of the tv was limited in time (as kids’ shows were only only on at certain times) and there was less shit (Sesame Street and decent cartoons rather than dopamine-frenzy rubbish made in someone’s garage).

There were no mobiles to play games or watch videos on, so out & about you used colouring books or puzzles or tiny toys to entertain.

I agree that kids without SEN should be potty trained by reception.

Able to read? No.

And I don’t think there is any justification for declaring the entire system broken or using that as a reason not to charge VAT on school fees.

But your daughter would learn all those things more accurately and effectively and pick up other skills at the same time (evidence for this statement?) if

• An adult played phonics and maths games with her
We do, and she does at school, all the time. The tablet games reinforce them.

• she watched TV on a screen that other people could see at the same time so there could be conversation about what is being watched
We do ask have conversations, the tablet is not invisible to adults.

• she didn’t learn to expect every phone call to be a visible one and learned the important things and the etiquette around making calls rather than just being able to touch a picture of granny and have her appear.
She does make normal phone calls as well, on an adult's phone. Calling Grandma is something she can do independently.

• had an interactive experience taking pictures of someone else and having someone else take them of her
She also takes pictures of the cat and other people but self portraits are just as important.

• had someone read books and meditations
We do...but many adults also listen to audiobooks, and research shows it's as valuable as reading in terms of how it activates the brain.

• schools stick to giving out real books that are chosen by a real person with knowledge of the child rather than what comes next on an assigned scheme.
They do give out real books and a real person assigns the books to her from the ebook library. It's just a different format of book which she reads along with her printed book.

I hope that answers all your questions!

My daughter met all of her milestones early, is frequently noticed to be exceptionally polite and sociable and is reading ahead of her age range.

I'm sorry if you couldn't/didn't know how to use technology appropriately, but we do and she does.