Children unready for school - what can we do?

I have mixed feelings about this. I would wish to see each child receiving the best that there is, but I sincerely believe that children start school far too early in the UK; and that far too much emphasis is put on formal learning.
Imagination, fun, free exploration of the world, gaining confidence and a sense of self-worth rate high in my reckoning.

I was looking at the record that one of my GC's childminders had been required to keep about progress in different areas. I see that as OTT - I want little children to just feel secure and well-cared for and not the subject of continuous assessment of their skills and abilities. Just joining in with the adults around them is the best education.

One of my GC has just started school and I think she is too young - I watch her go with very mixed feelings.

I would also point to the lack of attention so many young mums pay to their kids. I get really cross when I go to the park, for example, and see kids desperate for some interaction while their parent is hunched over their phone. If they can't be bothered to pay a bit of attention at the swings there is no hope of getting them to read a book to their child!

I'm not sure I believe that "up to a third" of four year olds don't know how to use a toilet. They may not be terribly competent at using a toilet and they may have accidents but surely they have not been kept in nappies all the time till they start school?

I think a little scepticism about the claims in the poll wouldn't go amiss.

I agree that four is too young to start school.

I also agree that while it's very sad if kids start school not knowing what books are for (though I'm not quite sure what that means exactly; I'm pretty sure they must all know what stories are; books aren't the only way to tell stories; think TV), why should a child know what a book is for before they start school? School is there to teach them what books are for, isn't it?

I agree with you too watermelon

Yes watermeadow you're right. We can't expect all four year olds to be fully toilet trained in time for starting school. Twenty or thirty years ago children were in nursery classes at four, with more staff to help them.
Perhaps too much is expected of them.
There is a huge difference in a child from a deprived background and a middle class child who has had lots of time and attention lavished on him/her.
I taught in a working class area and the children there were shockingly different from the children in my granddaughters' school in a wealthy catchment area.

Four is too young to start school, especially for the summer-born children who are nearly a year younger than others in the class.
There is no advantage to starting school two or three years younger than they do in most other countries, our children are no further forward than those are after a couple of years at school.
Many children, especially boys, are nowhere near ready for school at four and they would all be better off staying in nursery for longer.

This is reported to be a relatively recent development and I too feel that the economic pressures put on young families which force both parents to work long hours, thus leading to exhaustion and lack of time to deal with parenting issues that would have been dealt with in the past has contributed. Also, as others have said, insecure, expensive and sub-standard housing has played a part, as has the closure of so many Sure Start centres which provided guidance and support to parents who were under pressure.

As for the free child care, I don't quite understand how this operates but I have seen it reported that not all parents can access this free care.

I doubt that many grans, however kind-hearted and eager to help, would want a regular commitment to helping out with children. It can be tiring. I agree that the Home Start programme was a brilliant idea and, by all accounts, very helpful to families that were struggling. I didn't realise that funding had been cut for this scheme - once again, a very short-sighted decision.

The inevitable result of closing libraries and cutting Surestart programmes I would think. What can be done? Bring those things back and invest more in providing sessions for pre-schoolers.

It is a shame that many of the initiatives for deprived areas have been closed down in favour of the free 30 hours that can be claimed by couples earning up to £200,000 per year.

I must say I was surprised by this figure as nanak54 points out there are now 11 hours a week free stretched funding for nursery places for the over 3's year round and 15 if term time only is opted for. My children and grandchildren all attended preschool provision and none of them failed to achieve these basics of using the lavatory and being able to hold a book. I agree that poverty and deprivation are huge issues and that with benefits being slashed and local services decimated the poverty is even worse? I do wonder if enough support is not being given to parents in deprived circumstances and agree that with the shrinking back of the state this becomes ever more needed. It breaks my heart to hear of children who may never have seen or held a book before school especially when I consider how much of my childhood and my children's was spent with noses buried in books!

Nurseries and pre-school playgroups have been woefully underfunded for the last few years. The excellent Surestart programme was set up to help deprived pre schoolers (and others) but funding has been cut back considerably since 2010.

Interesting that this should be the case when there is so much funding available for parents to use at nursery/pre-school.......

If the question is just about the fact that a third of children are not school ready, I believe any parent, poor or overworked or not, should be giving their young offspring a basic grounding in certain matters.
That a child of school age cannot use the toilet puts the blame entirely on sloppy parenting.
If a child does not know what a book is for, that borders on neglect.