One in four children start school in nappies

Disgusting I couldn’t wait to get mine out of terries and into little knicks
They were all done in the daytime as soon as they were walking around 1 year old nighttime later completed by 2y latest They loved using their potties and all the praise that went with it
Children should not be going to school in nappies it should be a rule unless of course disabled in some way

While on the subject of nappies this week while unpacking a large black bag of clothes at the charity shop I found a full nappy all taped round with the contents still in

V3ra

^...whereas nurseries have a ratio of one adult for every 8 children (10 if it under 4 hours).^

It's one adult to 13 children if there is a graduate leader.
I went for a "stay and play" session at the school-based nursery one of my minded children attended.
There were 26 three/four year olds and two adults.

Not just any old graduate either (!) but someone with a Level 6 teaching qualification.
Details available by looking up EYS framework. Ratios do vary according to settings.
In my opinion it isn't fair that "schools" should be changing nappies, whereas "Murseries" might expect it. Our nursery had a deep shower basin to hose the bottoms off!

V3ra

^...whereas nurseries have a ratio of one adult for every 8 children (10 if it under 4 hours).^

It's one adult to 13 children if there is a graduate leader.
I went for a "stay and play" session at the school-based nursery one of my minded children attended.
There were 26 three/four year olds and two adults.

It's one adult to 13 children if there is a graduate leader.

That was found to be illegal when my youngest DC was at nursery nearly 40 years ago. Has it changed back again?

After DD had moved on to school the law there changed and the ratio was reduced to 1:8, one of whom had to be a qualified teacher. As far as I know, that is still the case here.

Section 3 from EYS framework for anyone interested. 1st Novemver 2024.

The statistic quoted in the media comes from the Kindred Squared annual report. The 1 in 4 relates to Reception intake
kindredsquared.org.uk/school-readiness-survey/

2.5 hrs
of teacher time per day lost due to school readiness

Leaving just four hours of the school days to fit in everything else.

My DD tells me that when her youngest was in reception there was a child who was severely disruptive and frequently hit the other children. As they were not yet five, the school excluded them as was apparently the school's right. They went to another school so we don't know if they continued to be disruptive after the age of five.

Could this right to exclude under fives be used in the case of children who were still in nappies for no reason other than the fact they had not been toilet trained?

Granmarderby10

If age five is still the age that (by law) children have to start formal education in UK then any discussion about “children starting school” before that age is irrelevant isn’t it?

Yes, I think so. Children may start the term in which they are five (and most do) but if parents feel their children are not ready at that stage they are not legally compelled to send them (or to arrange home schooling) until they are five.

I don't know how that would work in practice (as regards getting into a particular school, for example) but unless I am mistaken that is the law.

That was found to be illegal when my youngest DC was at nursery nearly 40 years ago. Has it changed back again?

This was five years ago, in England.

Legally, they must start school by the beginning of the term AFTER they are 5. So if you are 5 in say June, you needn't start until year 1.

It is because they start school too young.

escaped

Legally, they must start school by the beginning of the term AFTER they are 5. So if you are 5 in say June, you needn't start until year 1.

The trouble is, they then miss out on Reception year where they are finding out how school works, making friends and in fact enjoying themselves.

In Germany and Scandinavia children don't start formal school until 6 or 7.
It doesn't seem to hold them back and I'm sure they don't wear nappies!

I read in the news this week that a school in Wales has begun phoning parents to come and change the child due to the sheer volume of non toilet trained children. It was stated that non of the children have medical issues or learning disabilities. I guess it is becoming too much to cope with as there must constantly be a need to change a child in the class.

I was never mother of the year and made many mistakes but
I don't remember it being a problem. I don't think my DCs (or GCs) were unusual in that they wanted to be grown up and wear big boy/girl pants use the big person loo.

Do these nappy wearers get teased at school or are there so many of them that it has become normalised?

Truffle43

I read in the news this week that a school in Wales has begun phoning parents to come and change the child due to the sheer volume of non toilet trained children. It was stated that non of the children have medical issues or learning disabilities. I guess it is becoming too much to cope with as there must constantly be a need to change a child in the class.

A new policy, implemented by Blaenau Gwent council, means teachers will no longer change pupils’ nappies or pull-ups unless there is a “medically recognised need”.

Well done, Blaenau Gwent Council.

A week or two of this inconvenience and the parents will soon start to get their school-age children toilet-trained. 👏👏

“The policy does not apply where there is a recognised medical need and appropriate evidence of this has been provided.”

Also sadly there is a generation of feckless parents

Really ? Where?

I don't remember a Health Visitor or anyone ever advising me how to potty train my children.

I just did it, best done in the summer months. Some children are easier to train than others, not because it doesn't 'click' but for various reasons.
The arrival of a new sibling can cause them to regress or just pretend to be a baby again.

I can just imagine the perfectly articulate 5yr old " please miss, will you change my nappy now".
It just doesn't ring true somehow. What's really going on?

There is or has been a perfect storm building for about 20 years culminating in a situation whereby children are having their breakfast provided at school for a variety of reasons, and those reasons are the issues that need to be addressed.

I often think “why don’t the children just board at school and have the parents visit on weekends.then their teachers could be responsible for reading them a bedtime story and tucking them up in bed”?

Seriously though the way things appear to be going, why is anyone remotely surprised about the toilet training or lack of it.

Ps. I am referring to healthy children here who have no known conditions that affect their ability to use the toilet.

I've just found this thread and read it through with mounting astonishment. The two granddaughters I looked after are now 19 and 21 so I am well out-of-date, but with them and my own three toilet training was never an issue - just part of the natural progression through childhood. As I remember it, nursery school or playgroup was started at age 2 and a half at the earliest and all my children/granddaughters had been toilet trained well before then. It just wasn't an issue. It must be harder nowadays with the majority of mothers working, but nevertheless I should have thought a childminder or nursery would carry on with a toilet training regime in cooperation with the parents. As someone up thread said, disposable nappies have made not toilet training an easier option, but I wonder how old a child would be before he or she decided to do his own toilet training? Obviously a substantial number haven't reached that decision by the time they are five! Oh dear. If this trend continues I can see schools having to advertise the post of "Nappy Changer"/"Pupil Hygiene Operative". It will be interesting to see how quickly Gwent's initiative of asking parents to come to the school to change their child's nappy will cure the problem though!

We also had to be able to tie our shoelaces when we started school. We were more advanced in those days in many ways but they wouldn’t admit it now . One thing they are better at is the kids speak their minds - we were told to be seen and not heard!

Of course teachers should not be changing nappies or toilet changing, that's the parents job, why do people have children if they can't look after or afford them.

That full nappy in a charity shop bag is disgusting BlueBelle.

Allsorts Disposable nappies and bum wipes are expensive and of course you have keep buying them until your child is toilet trained.

One would think that low income families would see the economic advantage of toilet training which costs nothing to implement.