School Readiness

[MissLead]

So on the news this morning it was reported that 37% of kids going to school in UK are not deemed ‘ready’ often lacking basic speech and not being toilet trained.

Assuming these kids have no medical conditions - there must be some bloody lazy parents out there!!

None of the nurseries round here get involved with potty training. Kids have to have a two week dry period at home (full time) before they can go in in pants.

‘School readiness’ is a term used to describe the extent to which a child is prepared to succeed in school cognitively, socially and emotionally.[1] Indicators of school readiness include eating, getting dressed and going to the toilet independently; being able to take turns, sit, listen and play; and being well nourished and within a normal weight.

This is the government definition of school readiness that we are discussing here for those like the OP that only focus on the bits that suit their narritive.

What a load of utter shite

I think we need them more frequently, as 37% of children is a whopping great number.

Because while potty training is easier in the long term, it’s much harder in the short term.

Ive noticed parents don’t want to ‘waste’ their annual leave on staying at home to potty train, so end up doing a really patchy job/leaning on nurseries etc

Why would a childcare provider ‘lead’ on toilet training?

The working parents should take a week’s leave back to back. You can EASILY train an NT child in under a week, with a week and a bit to really cement the training before going back into childcare.

Say what now?

Whose responsibility was it to teach them, I wonder?

Pretty soon schools will need to be open 24hrs to care for all these children.

I can only imagine how much further literacy and numeracy rates will fall, with all the time now diverted from teaching.

The nurseries requiring them to be "reliably potty trained" seems to be a big issue for a lot of parents I know. I get that annual leave should be used as it's an important thing to do but some kids take longer. Mine both took longer than a week to be reliable and I was lucky that I wasn't working so I could keep going with it.

But how are threads like this doing anything to help?

I just think poor babies.
They are so little and look to their parents for love and guidance and some parents just shove an iPad at them, don’t I don’t know just don’t give them the attention they desperately need and want.

How much damage is being done?

How much potential wasted?

It’s the young innocents who didn’t ask to be born that makes me so disappointed in some adults.

It’s not for nursery or school to love your children. Not all, clearly, but some of this is neglect. Imagine being 3 or 4 and no one can find the time to help you toilet or read with you. It would break my heart as a reception teacher.

It’s just wrong. And yes I would judge you harshly.

No thanks hun.

Do you have children?

How does living in poverty mean you can’t potty train your children?
It’s years since I bought any nappies, but surely it is more expensive to put a child in nappies than on a potty?

I do think one of the issues is that disposables are just so convenient. They really weren’t around in the U.K. when my children were little, nappy washing and the dreaded nappy bucket made you quite keen to potty train.

I just don't accept parents need support from the state to teach their DC how to look at a book, put a coat on, hold a fork, wipe their bum. Come on, it's pathetic.
There has always been SEND, and poverty. Neither of these account for the stats in this report. It's a culture of entitled laziness and over dependency on the state, that we see reflected in so many other issues.
My parents had bugger all, were distracted, home was quite chaotic, but everyone (including them) expected kids to be able to do these basic things by age 3-4.

This is why I chose an experienced childminder rather than a nursery. A much much more supportive service for slightly less money.

But if the parents are working full time, they have to rely on the child carer to do it most of the time.

According to some of the responses, parents aren't aware of how to; or do not think it's their responsibility.

As this is a parenting forum, maybe one/few parents here will be alerted to the fact it is indeed their responsibility, and will go off to seek support/knowledge to get their child ready.

I learn many a things on MN and I'm sure others do too.

That's great and if it can be turned into a thread for sharing resources, that would be genuinely helpful.

I qualified in 2007, and we were saying the same thing in school only last week.

I'm a supply teacher now, so I see a LOT of different schools. But the ones I go to most serve some of the most deprived parts of town. There are kids coming in, who don't even seem aware of their own NAMES when spoken aloud - never mind recognise it written down, which they could virtually all do when I first qualified.

The stats do not mention potty training at all. They mention going to the toilet independently. In DDs school this means taking themselves off down a corridor to the toilet by themselves. This can be difficult for some 4 year olds if the corridors are dark and scary. The mention weight. Each and every underweight and overweight child is included in the stat, regardless of health reason. They mention being able to take turns, sit and listen. Children with SEN struggle with this. For some summer borns this is developmentally normal. It is not developmentally normal for a 4 YO to be able to sit for 6 hours but thw there is a big push from the government at the moment to remove learning through play and cram the EYFS curriculum.

MN is made up of all sorts of threads.

If a parent needs advice, having seen this thread, they can start one.

If you believe an advice / resources thread would be more useful, start one... Or, like so many posters do to balance a thread - point folks to some useful resources.

This is why I chose an experienced childminder rather than a nursery. A much much more supportive service for slightly less money.

The childminder DN goes to won't get involved either - he has to be a week dry before he's allowed to go in pants.

There are only two other CM's locally and I've not heard that they are any different.

Totally agree with you , if you are a parent , you parent your child , and yes that means teaching them to do the basics of life which potty / toilet training , eating with a knife and fork & drinking independently is .
I will throw in being able to count and recognise and write some letters including their name .

I worked with pre schoolers many parents teach their children to recognise letters and colours but not how to put arms in a jacket or pull up their trousers, which baffled me.