Almost half of parents are not concerned if teachers are spending time toilet training children, a new survey that reveals the task of Labour’s ‘school ready’ pledge reveals.
The School Readiness Survey, published by Early Years charity Kindred Squared, assesses the school readiness of children and their access to education in reception, where no SEND conditions have been diagnosed.
Based on focus groups and surveys with over 1,000 teachers and 1,000 parents of reception-aged children in England and Wales, the survey found confusion among what “being ready” for school means.
Fewer than half (44%) of parents think children should know how to use books (not swiping or tapping as if using an electronic device), and only three-quarters selected toilet training as something a child should be able to do before starting reception.
Meanwhile, teachers said one in three children start school unable to listen or respond to simple instructions – with staff losing on average 2.4 hours per day of teaching time as a result.
‘Significant and stubborn’
One in three children are deemed not to be ready for school by teachers, despite 90 per cent of parents saying their child is ready.
Felicity Gillespie, director of early years charity Kindred Squared, said the survey highlights “significant and stubborn” problems the new government must overcome.
“We welcome the government’s pledge to get more children ‘school ready’ but our report suggests that too many parents are failing to support the development of their children, in spite of – we know – having their best interests at heart,” she added.

The government has pledged to boost the proportion of reception pupils achieving a “good” level of development to 75 per cent by 2028 – or an additional 40,000 to 45,000 children a year.
It is one of six “milestones” under its plan for change.
Statistics show that last year, 67.7 per cent of children were judged to have a “good” level of development across areas like language, personal development, maths and literacy.
The highest it has ever been is 71.8 per cent, and that was under an old assessment system.
‘Severe Developmental Delays’
The new report also outlined the increasing severity of developmental delays in children entering reception.
One reception teacher from the North West, described a case where a child lacked core strength due to spending excessive time on an iPad.
“When I went to visit one of the girls in July, she’d never been to a nursery, she’d been sat in a corner sofa on an iPad so she hasn’t developed her core strength and it’s really affecting her whole development,” the teacher said.
Another, also based in the North West, said school readiness has declined in his 15 years of teaching. “The children are just coming in, and it’s like… they’re just standing there waiting for you to do it. I don’t remember it being as bad as this.”
Both parents and teachers link screen time with the cost-of-living crisis. The report notes 83% of teachers believe the cost of living crisis will have a significant impact on school readiness this year, with 80% anticipating a similar impact next year.
One school leader surveyed said screen time was an ‘easy win’ for parents: “Let’s be fair… putting them on an iPad is an easy win. The children like it. It doesn’t cost anything apart from the iPad. The parents can’t afford for them to go out and experience the world as much as possibly [sic] previous years.”
Gillespie added: “We need to destigmatise how we talk about parenting in these critical years of development and as a nation begin to grasp that we’re all learners from birth, and that these early years have a massive impact on all our futures.
“The role of parents and carers as their child’s first educator really is crucial to their later life chances and the success of our society and economy.”
‘Health visits remain patchy’
In the report, both parents and teachers identify lack of access to health visitors as a factor impacting school readiness.
Health visitors play a crucial role, with government guidelines stipulating all families with babies should receive five mandated health visitor reviews before their child turns two and a half years old – to help assess and monitor growth and child development.
In reality, access to health visitors remains ‘patchy’, the survey notes, with 21% per cent of parents reporting no visits at all.
Pauline Aitchison, deputy director of Schools North East, a self-funded, registered charity that represents all 1150 schools in the region, said the lack of support for new parents is contributing to children not ready for school.
“More and more children are going under the radar without these checks, and once they go into school, teachers have to pick up where children have missed out, and they are not resourced for it.
“There doesn’t seem to be a equal level of provision between health departments and education, and this support is vital for new children to thrive.”
Teachers are also failing to recognize children with special needs who often haven’t had a diagnosis before starting school. We were parent blamed by a school for all of the things on this list. We eventually found out that our child had a genetic condition responsible for all of these delays. A number of these delays together is usually a sign of an underlying health problem or genetic condition. It seems easier for schools to parent blame than to investigate the real cause of the problems.
Teachers are not geneticists. Your ire is misplaced. This ought to have been picked up by the NHS well before school started.
Yes but teachers do dismiss parents concerns over SEN they say they don’t see it etc… then say you just need to try harder with toilet training etc then finally when you get diagnosis off your own back because the school refused to support investigations as they didn’t see it! Only then are they are forced to do something. Those stats will be full of kids who parents had to fight years for diagnosis because the school kept dismissing. Unfortunately this is becoming more common as schools are under staffed and underfunded.
Redesign those earlier school years and place children in classes of ability rather than age, then no child is left behind. Once all basics are grasped they’ll soon find their own rhythm along with growth in confidence and progression; aim for happy and thriving boys and girls. This time allows for necessary assessment and involvement of health services for those boys and girls requiring additional input and learning plans.
By the time they’ve progressed through primary and junior education, most will be ready for their journey into highschool.
Joined up learning with involvement from mums and dads is important.
All it takes is a great leader to orchestrate this between schools, local authority and children’s health service.
Councils need to stop wasting resources, prioritising ridiculous diversity programs that create divisions and reduce the red tape to get things done immediately.
The money is there its a decision to prioritise this over and above nonsense projects and the likes.
Unfortunately all teachers can do is talk to parents and together air concerns and then involve professionals to take the next steps. The NHS diagnose is a very slow process and one where the government need to turn their thoughts to changing before a child starts school so that this can give teachers and the child the best start.
Firstly, I am sorry to hear about your child’s diagnosis. That’s a tough blow. Teachers, though, are not trained to ‘recognise’ genetic conditions. Any observations made by a teacher relating to abnormalities, would be purely instinctual, or experiential. Parents are primarily responsible for their child’s early development. Once a child begins attending daycare, nursery or school then it becomes a coordinated effort, but still primary responsibility belongs to the parent. Only a parent can give the full care and attention any developing child needs. There is a reason that the term for non-biological parents who are responsible for children is ‘primary carer’. Unfortunately, there are a number of parents who don’t want to acknowledge their own misgivings and would rather blame anyone else.
This is a difficult one and something that as a childcare provider is pushed on us by Ofsted to help each child achieve more so than ever before in my career over the last 33yrs. We can only do as much as the parents will do to work with us. For instance reading, children learn more in the first 5 years of life more than at any other time. All of the children in my care have a personalised book bag and take books home daily to read with their parents. I provide parents with a notebook to give me feedback so I know which future books to send home and ideas how to read with their child and make learning fun. Sadly some parents don’t work with me with this and other things sent home like numeracy, alphabet, colours, learning new words to broaden their vocabulary. They say it’s like homework and they don’t want their child to do it or have no time to do with their children. It’s very frustrating as this helps greatly for school readiness.
Having a childcare provider really helps parents prepare their child for school, not all parents are fortunate to have any facility albeit a childminder, nursery school etc Those that do, know what is expected of us by Ofsted guidelines and most work with us for the sake of their child’s future. There is so much that we have to achieve along with progress reports at 2yrs old, noticing signs of delays and how to move forward with them, special educational needs etc. It is hard work all round. Let’s see what the Labour government comes up with, it’ll be very interesting to see. I bet there will be even more pressure put on all childcare providers for the under 5’s for school readiness.
Why is no one talking about the fact children start school far too early in this country?
Also no one is talking about how genuinely hard it is for both parents to work a full time job and parent properly. There are not enough hours in the day. That is the most important underlying issue here.