This seems to be a hot topic on TV over the last 24 hours with three features broacast. This morning’s had a headteacher describing the issues faced and that 2.5 hrs a day of teaching time was being lost because children cannot use the toilet unaided, wash their hands, use a knife and fork, communicate verbally, pay attention or even sometimes sit up properly.
Of course the blame is being put on parents which in many cases is understandable, and there are plenty of links to what the home environment fails to achieve. However this overlooks one vital thing. I started school aged 5 and 1 month, my grandaughter whose complete family lives with us, started school last September age 4 and one month. My son started aged 5 and 5 months and my daughter was nearly 6 IIRC. Many of these children are a lot younger than was the norm in the past and since 2012 it seems to be the new normal. While parents are maybe mainly to blame, we cannot put our children in greenhouse to make them develop faster.
It appears that money rather than the good of the child is what is behind this. The desire for schools to attract funding related to numbers of pupils and to release both parents into the workforce earlier.
As for little’un, she was caught yesterday running a free sweeties den in the infants’ wendy house! and told off rightly because of potential allergies.
Some interesting points here. Another piece of similar news this morning is that children are turning up to school unable to use a book (electronic devices instead!).
When I was a head, we had to admit children of statutory school age but I would only admit ‘rising fives’ (as we used to call them) or nursery age children who were independent. That meant they could tie their shoes (or use slip-ons), go to the toilet (ie wipe their own bums), and dress themselves. It worked.
Then along came the army of teaching assistants, nannies, ‘minders’ for children with problems etc. which blurred all the boundaries of what was acceptable or doable. This was a direct result of local authorities closing special schools and placing children with special needs in mainstream education at the end of the '80s / early '90s in the name of ‘inclusivity’ - never mind dumbing down education for the majority. It progressively went from bad to worse and the tail now wags the dog. Arguably, it is also now more expensive to maintain than it would have been if they’d kept special schools open.
To get back to your main point. I agree that there’s little to be gained by sending tinies to school who are not school-ready. A study was made some time ago comparing the ability of 5-6 yr-olds some of whom had been at school since age 3 and the rest at 5. Their academic ability levelled out at about 6, but the early sarters were a bit better socialised. In Sweden they start school at 7 with no problems.
Here in Wales, you can start at nursery school aged 3. They are classed as educational hours although it’s still mainly what they do at private nurseries.
I think a big problem nowadays is that both parents have to work full time, for a family to be able to survive, so parental childcare hours are far less than they were.
The children coming into schools now were also born during the Covid years, so that’s made things even worse I imagine.
Nail on the head. Tail wagging the dog again, to mix my metaphors. We are placing economic trends above children’s needs. And teacher’s need too. Does the country need a viable education service or just a baby-sitting service?
My sister was a teacher’s assistant just before her retirement & she spent every Monday morning washing children’s school uniforms because they’d been playing out in them all weekend & they turned up to school in them on a Monday morning absolutely filthy.
They had spare clothes for them to wear whilst theirs were in the washing machine & tumble drier.
i always thought you started primary school in the september you were 5 by that time i could read and use the toilet and feed myself. But then my mother was at home and interacted with me and got me ready.
now adays people want every thing now they have to have 2 cars holliday every 5 mins etc etc and cant be bothered to bring up their own child either because they are children themselves, some hippy dippy leftie cobblers about their little prince/princess or pay a fortune to put the child in day care so they can waste their money on cars and hollidays while both work again born out of some missguided womans rights cobblers.
i have said it many times before it is perfectly possible to live on one salary if you cut your cloth accordingly
For someone who lives in the South East your remark seems remarkably out of touch with house prices in the region related to earnings. There is nothing “lefty” about those relative values.
just go on right move there are over 50 2 bed properties in kent for less than a grand a month affordable to anyone on minimum wage doing 37.5 hours per week
