This morning’s Wales on Sunday carries a major feature reflecting the concerns of teaching unions that children in Wales are starting primary school without basic skills like toilet training and the ability to speak.
In a shocking report the paper reports on one teacher who paints a “disturbing” picture of classes in which some children are not even able to understand what others are saying:
Dr Philip Dixon, director of education union ATL, said the findings were “disturbing”.
“While it seems that some children are becoming more and more technologically sophisticated at an earlier age, a number of children are now arriving in school without even the basics in place,” he said.
“Surely all children should be toilet trained by the age of three?”
One teacher, who we will call Louise to protect her pupils’ privacy, said many children in her school are not able to take their shoes and socks off, put their arms into their coat sleeves or use a knife and fork.
Despite this, one six-year-old girl in another teacher’s class was given a Blackberry mobile phone for Christmas.
In another case, a six-year-old boy told her he could not read at home because his dad was, “too busy on the X-box”.
According to a survey we sent out to teachers across Wales, many children start school unable to write their name or count to 10.
And an incredible 100% of the 39 respondents said schools should be stricter about what stage of development a child has reached before they start school, and should draw up a contract with parents outlining what the school expects.
One teacher who responded to the survey said there needed to be more support for children before they reach school, adding: “Many people do not know how to help their children from the very start.”
Louise, who has been in the profession for 20 years and lives in Denbighshire, said the real problem lay with some parents not teaching their children basic behavioural and social skills.
She said: “The large majority of parents are supportive of what we do, but a minority think teachers should be doing absolutely everything.
“They sit back and think we can do it in isolation, but we can’t do anything without their support and commitment to meet us halfway.”
She said in many schools in Wales, teaching in early years is a case of “crowd control”.
“The job is much harder than it ever was because it is not just about teaching children all the skills they need to read and write.
“You have got to deal with behaviour issues and crowd control before you can go anywhere with the learning itself.
“That wasn’t so much of a problem 10 or 15 years ago, but now we are seeing four or five children per class with really challenging behaviour. In the most severe cases those children can’t even be in a class setting.
“When you got a new class as a primary school teacher the first month is always hard going because it is all about setting down ground rules.
“Now teachers in reception and nursery are finding that process doesn’t last for a month but for the whole first term, from September to Christmas.”
Overall she said there has been a “decline” in the skills children have when they start school.
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