Today, every parent of five-year-olds will find out what school their child will be going to in September. The likelihood is that they will get one of their top choices – last year, 93.2 per cent of families received an offer from their first choice of primary school. Reception class is the introduction to ‘proper’ school, and the tiny tots will do more duck-duck-goose than A-B-C. But today’s children arrive incapable of even this light schedule. As we now have heard so often, many arrive in nappies and many will not know how to speak properly or play nicely.
Almost half of teachers say parents have no idea what being school-ready means. And the impact is felt even at secondary school, as the Principal of Chelsea Academy, Mariella Ardron says:
That was what being a parent was all about: taking responsibility for your flesh and blood
We have noticed the impact of younger children who, lacking in school readiness at primary, are then on an almost permanent game of ‘catch up’.
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