CHILDREN WHO HAVE FALLEN BEHIND BY AGE FOUR
They can’t talk properly, dress themselves or even use the toilet, warns Ofsted chief
CHILDREN are starting school unable to speak properly, dress themselves or even use the toilet, the head of Ofsted warns today.
In what will be seen as a damning indictment on the standard of some modern-day parenting, Amanda Spielman will highlight the rising number of preschool children who are not taught basic speech or hygiene.
In a speech to nursery leaders in London today, Mrs Spielman will issue a plea to daycare staff to step in and help such children by
teaching them basic skills. She will say some infants are ‘unlucky’ in their ‘family culture’ because they do not have bedtime stories or nursery rhymes, and are not even taught the alphabet.
She will reveal research which shows some four- and five-year-olds know only a third of the words they should, meaning they cannot follow what is going on at school and quickly fall behind – a disadvantage that can stay with them for life.
While Mrs Spielman will not explicitly accuse families of feckless parenting, she will acknowledge that parents ‘clearly have the most important role here’ when it comes to solving the issues.
Ofsted’s intervention as the official inspector of pre-schools is significant because it places an onus on nursery staff to act.
Mrs Spielman wants all children arriving at Reception – the first year of school – to be able to carry out simple tasks, such as using a
‘Unable to reach their potential’
pencil, kicking a ball, putting on their shoes and taking off their coat. She also wants them to be able to understand the words ‘no’ and ‘stop’ and be trained to sit through ‘the duration of a story’.
She will tell members of the Pre- School Learning Alliance: ‘Some children are “lucky”. And I’m talking here about family culture, not just money. They get lots of help outside school from parents and family. Nursery rhymes, ABCs and settling down for a bedtime story are part and parcel of their daily lives.
‘But “unlucky” children certainly need more of the structured learning to replace what they don’t necessarily get at home. We now have a situation where, aged four, some children have less than a third of the English vocabulary of their peers.
‘These children arrive at school without the words they need to communicate properly. Just imagine the disadvantage they face, right from the start. Unable to follow what’s going on. Unable to keep up with their classmates. Unable to reach their potential.
‘As a child, you will do worse at school. As a young adult, you may struggle to find work. And as a parent, you won’t be able to help your own children learn. This is a vicious cycle.’
Mrs Spielman is expected to emphasise the importance of reading ‘time-honoured classics’ by ‘ Hans Christian Andersen, Dr Seuss, Judith Kerr, Maurice Sendak through to Julia Donaldson’.
She will stress that she does not expect nursery staff to become ‘substitute parents’, but she believes nurseries and childminders must ‘play their part’ because many preschoolers spend much of their daytime in childcare.
‘What you do to identify children who are struggling, work with parents and monitor progress, can make a world of difference,’ she will say.
‘We know that the best nurseries work closely with families, helping to establish simple routines, such as sleep time and potty training.’
On toilet training, she will say: ‘It is alarming that more and more schools report children turning up on their first day of Reception unable to do this. Indeed, there have been recent news stories about children being sent to school in nappies!’
This week, a survey of teachers found that a fifth of them spend up to 30 minutes a week toilet-training children.
Mrs Spielman, a Cambridge graduate and mother of two, spent much of her life as an accountant and investment adviser for leading City firms.
In 2004, she became research and policy director for the Ark academy chain before becoming chairman of exams regulator Ofqual in 2011.
WHAT kind of society are we becoming when four and five-year-olds are starting school unable to utter more than a few words, understand basic instructions or even use the toilet?
In a deeply disturbing speech today, Ofsted chief Amanda Spielman will say that some children arrive at reception class still in nappies. They can’t follow what’s going on because their vocabulary is so poor, can’t sit still and don’t even understand the words ‘no’ and ‘stop’.
And the real tragedy is that those who start so far behind in the early years of their education seldom catch up. They become trapped in a pernicious spiral of low aspiration and low achievement which too often leads to frustration, anti-social behaviour and – in extreme cases – exclusion. The consequences can be hugely damaging, not just for the children but for society. One recent study suggested that up to 85 per cent of gang members in London had been excluded from school.
Of course, nursery staff and primary teachers have a role in socialising young ones in their care. But the ultimate responsibility must rest with parents. Assuming that the nanny state will rear their children while they stand by is simply not good enough.
Mrs Spielman gives a list of things pupils should know before starting school. They are so basic as to be almost laughable – how to kick a ball, use a pencil, listen to a story and even take off their own coat.
In a rich, highly developed country such as ours, the fact that any parents need to be reminded to teach their children such elementary skills is truly shaming.