Kids In UK Sent To School In Nappies!

[icyfroth]

I heard about this last week on the way to work:

Hundreds of children over the age of 5 are sent to school wearing nappies - and teenagers as old as 15 can't use the toilet on their own

The survey of 602 teachers in primary schools and 561 teachers in secondary schools found that pupils as old as 15 were not toilet trained, despite having no medical conditions or developmental issues.

Nine per cent - almost one in 10 head teachers and senior staff - said that a child aged between five and seven had come to school wearing a nappy in the past year. The figure was five per cent for classroom teachers.

If the figure is representative of schools across England, it could mean that up to 1,600 of the 16,000 primary schools in the country have at least one pupil over the age of five still wearing a nappy.

The findings also show that as many as 4 per cent of heads and senior staff said they knew of children as old as 11 who had been sent to school in a nappy in the past year.

The survey results add to growing evidence that an increasing number of children are starting school without knowing how to use the toilet on their own.

But this is the first report to suggest that toilet training problems extend beyond the Reception year.

According to Sky News, commentators believe the problem is not restricted to pupils from deprived backgrounds. They say that busy lifestyles of parents are often to blame for the problem.

Janet Marsh runs a programme at a Kent school to help toilet train pupils. She told Sky News: “It's an incredibly serious situation. There are children who miss 25% of their education in Reception because they're being taken out to be changed. How are they going to catch up?"

Anne-Marie Middleton, a deputy head teacher from Dover, added that “more and more children have an issue with toilet training further up the school”.

The survey was commissioned by Sky News for the National Foundation for Educational Research.

Asked if teachers are being asked to do too much by acting as substitute parents, Michael Gove, secretary of state for Education, said: “I do think hard about how much we ask of teachers because we do ask a lot”.

From Here

It's because of disposable nappies. Back in the day of terry-towelling nappies mothers got their littlies trained as soon as possible so they wouldn't be washing endless bucketloads of sh*tty nappies. Most kids were toilet trained by 18 months old.

[icyfroth]

maybe you could advise some of those parents in the UK then, Az. 🙂

Actually I think the generation in discussion is born in the 1990s

[cherry*135]

From the opening post - If the figure is representative of schools across England, it could mean that up to 1,600 of the 16,000 primary schools in the country have at least one pupil over the age of five still wearing a nappy.

That could mean 14 400 primary schools have no pupils over the age of 5 still wearing a nappy..

16000 schools with an estimated 200 pupils in each school = 3.2 m students.

[cherry*135]

The cause given though is use of disposable nappies., which are not a recent invention, so how can the blame be put on them, if this problem hasn't affected previous generations of babies/children who wore disposables?

[cherry*135]

Some children have psychological reasons why they don't get toilet training.

Parents look forward to when they don't have to buy disposable nappies...no expense then..

Cloth nappies are still used by some parents ( ones who care about landfill etc).

[icyfroth]

It's a news report, Am. No need to overhtink it.

I appreciate your effort, tho. 🙂

[cherry*135]

I was replying to your comment which said the article is about children of the 1990,s not years before that, which doesn't take into account disposables have been around for 25+ years.

Nothing wrong with analysing info in am article instead of blindly believing everything in the media. Nothing to do with overthinking.

This is one junior school teachers comment on why she thinks parents aren't toilet training their children.. They are too busy ( both work) to pay proper attention to their children.

"I believe that so much of basic childcare is outsourced today - from hiring tutors to help children with their homework, to resorting to after-school clubs when neither mum nor dad can make pick-up time - that some parents actually see it as a teacher's duty to do this most intimate of tasks for them."


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2617186/Why-I-blame-middle-class-mothers-six-year-olds-sen...

[cherry*135]

"Actually I think the generation in discussion is born in the 1990s..."

How many children born in the 1990's would still be at primary school (which the majority of students in this article are) now? LOL

[mainecoon1]

The report I read did not say the reason was the normal disposable nappies they said they put the blame on the newer pull up nappies which a child can pull up and down on their own.  Because they have the choice of using the toilet or peeing themselves they are not learning proper toilet training and believe the pull ups should not be used and that a child should be going from normal nappies to underwear once they have been toilet trained.

None of my friends have used the pull ups and all of them had their children toilet trained by the age of 3 one is still toilet training her 2 year old at the moment.

[crystal**flake]

Thats stupid.

[buzzlightyearsgirlfriend]

Those stupid pull-ups have been around since before I even had my kids and they are 14 and 16.

I never used pull-ups on my kids. Some of my SIL's did and they had 4 and 5 year olds with nappy rash who peed in their beds and all over themselves for many more years than was necessary. 

In my experience, a few weeks of incovenience and pee on the floor is preferable to months and even years worth of nappy rash and paying for plastic "pull ups".

It must be hell for the children whose entire genitalia are encased in plastic wraps for years on end.

Imagine having your butt encased in a plastic wrap all day?

I imagine it would be very hot, sweaty and uncomfortable.