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.

[polksaladallie]

This is the reason, as in Post #4.

As many as 1.5 million British children are believed to suffer from neglect

Changes to the child neglect laws will make “emotional cruelty” a crime for the first time, alongside physical or sexual abuse

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/children_shealth/10732982/Parents-who-starve-children-of-love-face...

[icyfroth]

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@polksaladallie wrote:

This is the reason, as in Post #4.

As many as 1.5 million British children are believed to suffer from neglect

Changes to the child neglect laws will make “emotional cruelty” a crime for the first time, alongside physical or sexual abuse

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/children_shealth/10732982/Parents-who-starve-children-of-love-face...

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Well I wish them luck with that one! Going by that, half the population will be locked up and they'll get to the same point where they'll run out of space for all the prisoners of petty crimes and have to find a new continent to dump their convicts on.

[polksaladallie]

Well they won't lock them up, just as they don't lock them up here.   They hopefully will get help and PET or PPP training.

[aftanas]

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@icyfroth wrote:

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@aftanas wrote:

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@azureline** wrote:

really? teenagers who need help to toilet? and not developmentally delayed? Hard to believe.

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I would go further than saying it is hard to believe.  I don't believe it.  I think a better heading for this thread would be "Persons accept as credible internet news story claim that teenagers without developmental problems are not toilet trained".

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I have no trouble believing that kids between 5-7 are turning up at school not properly toilet trained and in disposable underwear. Teenagers? Not so much, but there are probably circumstances to take into consideration.

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I accept that it happens.  I recall at my primary school there was at least one girl who had a wetting problem.  But I don't think it was a toilet training issue. 

If you think about it logically, the muscles that control the release of urine from the bladder is a voluntary muscle.  That means urine is released when a person decides to open the relevant sphincter.  Toddlers can be taught that releasing the sphincter indiscriminately is bad and releasing it on a toilet is good through positive reinforcement.  Older children can just be told (or they can figure it out for themselves).  In the absence of a physiological or emotional problem I do no find it credible that children who are old enough to reason are unaware that they are about to wet themselves (and that may well take place somewhere around the age of 5).   

I believe the underlying story is rubbish. It feeds into the uncaring parent/who will save the children trope.  As I have said in previous posts, the current standard of journalism is rubbish.  The internet is full of hoax reports and, at the margins, there is too little verification of facts before stories are published.   

[ashjoma]

my boys were abit harder to train, but I waited till summer and then we went to the shops together and chose some Bob the Builder underpants.
Then it was regular toileting and reminders and not making a big deal over any accidents.

My daughter was the easiest ever. I showed her how to use the toilet a few times, bought her some pretty undies and had one of those toilet seats with the step attached.
And I think she had one accident and then she was fine.

I got away very lightly I think, my kids were very good and trained very easily.
I know friends who have had alot more trouble training their kids

[serendipityricho]

For young blokes a target stuck on the back of the bowl maybe a help.

-Thats for no ones.

For no twos-parents need to be there-and stop the finger paintings on the walls........Richo.

[icyfroth]

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@aftanas wrote:

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@icyfroth wrote:

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@aftanas wrote:

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@azureline** wrote:

really? teenagers who need help to toilet? and not developmentally delayed? Hard to believe.

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I would go further than saying it is hard to believe.  I don't believe it.  I think a better heading for this thread would be "Persons accept as credible internet news story claim that teenagers without developmental problems are not toilet trained".

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I have no trouble believing that kids between 5-7 are turning up at school not properly toilet trained and in disposable underwear. Teenagers? Not so much, but there are probably circumstances to take into consideration.

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I accept that it happens.  I recall at my primary school there was at least one girl who had a wetting problem.  But I don't think it was a toilet training issue. 

If you think about it logically, the muscles that control the release of urine from the bladder is a voluntary muscle.  That means urine is released when a person decides to open the relevant sphincter.  Toddlers can be taught that releasing the sphincter indiscriminately is bad and releasing it on a toilet is good through positive reinforcement.  Older children can just be told (or they can figure it out for themselves).  In the absence of a physiological or emotional problem I do no find it credible that children who are old enough to reason are unaware that they are about to wet themselves (and that may well take place somewhere around the age of 5).   

I believe the underlying story is rubbish. It feeds into the uncaring parent/who will save the children trope.  As I have said in previous posts, the current standard of journalism is rubbish.  The internet is full of hoax reports and, at the margins, there is too little verification of facts before stories are published.   

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I don't even think it's so much uncaring parents so much as busy or lazy parents. Too busy with lifestyle, work and other commitments to take the time to train their children and/or clean up any resulting inconvenient "messes".

Some kiddies, in my experience, actually resist toilet training with all the weapons they have in their little armoury, tears, tantrums, sheer refusal. I've had a grandchild who'd hang on to that "voluntary muscle" you mentioned for grim death until the toilet training session was abandoned and the nappy was back on.

 Many parents are intimidated or just too complacent to persist and let it go on until it becomes someone else's problem. The educator's.

[the_great_she_elephant · Accepted solution]

I'm going out on a limb here, but I wonder if it could have anything to do with many kids being in daycare for 9-10 hours a day? I don't know how well regulated these place are in UK, but it could be that staff are overworked and find it easier to keep the kids in nappies than to toilet train them - and by the time they get home to mum there's pretty much only time for tea, bath and bed.

[icyfroth]

I think that's another very relevant factor, she-el.