Almost half of children starting school are not 'developmentally ready'

When teachers were asked in the YouGov survey what they thought being 'developmentally ready' for Reception meant, they listed the following – being able to communicate clearly, being able to dress, eat and go to the toilet independently, and being able to play, share and take-turns.

The 2022 School Readiness Survey suggests that the problem of not being ready for school is ‘growing’, with 59 percent reporting that the number of children who are ‘developmentally behind’ is either higher or the same this year as in previous years.

A total of 93 per cent of teachers said they had at least one child in their class who cannot say their name or answer basic questions, while the same percentage admitted to having at least one child who is not toilet trained.

Over 1,000 parents of children in Reception were also surveyed for the research, with nine out of ten reporting that their child was ‘ready for school’ in the Autumn term 2022, however.

A teacher from the East Midlands said, ‘I really don’t think parents have any idea [of the developmental milestones expected by Reception]. There is so little given to them before they start school, the most in-depth information is around the two year developmental check but then there’s a huge gap between that and starting school.’

The report acknowledges that covid-related factors still ‘negatively impact’ the number of children who are school ready. 

However, 69 percent of teachers said that they are concerned that parents are spending ‘more time on electronic devices than with their children’ and 65 percent are concerned parents are not reading to their children.

The rising cost of early childhood education and care (ECEC) was also cited by 43 percent of parents as a key factor preventing school readiness. Increasing the amount of affordable ECEC places was identified as a way to improve school readiness by 61 percent of parents.

The Early Years Alliance said they 'remain wary of the concept of school-readiness' and that it is 'vital parents and carers, early years settings and schools work in partnership to ensure children's transition to Reception are smooth'.

Chief executive Neil Leitch explained, ‘All too often, school readiness is seen as a set of fixed targets that all children must reach by the time they reach primary school, a view which fails to recognise that children develop at their own pace and that it is the responsibility of  schools to ensure that they are ready for children, and not the other way around.’

‘What is clear from these findings, however, is that much more must be done to support not only young children, but also parents and carers, during these pivotal early years. This means significant and sustained investment in early years settings and wider family support services such as children’s centres and family hubs.’

James Bowen, director of policy for school leaders’ union the NAHT, also urged the Government to invest ‘much more’ in specialist and universal early years services for disadvantaged families and to ‘massively expand’ its network of family hubs.

He went on to say, ‘We would encourage families to continue to encourage children’s social interaction as much as possible, and to seek out support should they have any concerns about their child’s early development.’

'School readiness is not just an early years issue.'

Felicity Gillespie, director of Kindred² said that too many children are ‘behind before they begin’ because as a nation we are ‘not prioritising the raising of children’ at the time in their lives when their brains are most receptive to stimulation and interaction with older children and adults.

She added, ‘We perpetuate a failure to inform, a lack of support and underfunding that would be unthinkable in the rest of the education sector. We allow this in spite of our knowledge that pre-school development is an accurate predictor of later life attainment and health. School readiness is not just an early years issue.

‘This data can’t be dismissed as simply another result of covid or something that’s impossible to overcome during a cost-of-living crisis.  It goes much deeper and public understanding of what our youngest citizens need from us has to get better.’

Kindred is calling for a national conversation about the importance of the early years of development. 

• The full survey findings are available here