Nice middle class school in leafy area. Historically extremely good ks1 sats results and outstanding ofsted. High standards, excellent behaviour. Very few EHCPs in the past.
We now have huge speech and language issuesamongst our year R and year 1 children. 6 year olds arriving at school with dummies in their mouths. Others with misshapen teeth due to dummy usage. Children who are non verbal (a minority), unable to speak in sentences or pronounce sounds properly. 1/4 of a class receiving speech and language therapy. Disengaged parents who admit they don't have books at home, no routine, ipads allowed in bed all night. This is separate to the behaviour crisis that is happening schools but also linked as many children who struggle to speak well enough to make their basic needs known communicate through challenging behaviour.
Widening our catchment to include new social housing, no site start centres, patchy health visitor provision, increased ipad and console usage in under 5s as well as the lockdown effect are some of the reasons and the impact of this on the stress levels and workload of teachers is massive.
The parents of these children, in many cases, haven't got the message that reading to your child daily and talking to them very often is crucial for their development. It's so worrying.