There’s an obvious reason pre-school children are falling behind

Something is rotten in the state of British schools. According to primary school teachers, one in four Reception students are not toilet trained, more than a third cannot dress themselves, and half cannot sit still. Children are missing a range of developmental milestones, increasingly demonstrating poor language skills, delays in basic motor functions, and a lack of core strength (there are stories of perfectly able-bodied children not knowing how to use stairs or hold a pencil).

Now a government-backed website, Starting Reception, has been created by a collaboration of early-years and education organisations to help define ‘school-readiness’. The idea is to outline key skills to parents that children should practise before school, such as taking turns, brushing their teeth twice a day, or using cutlery, and give them suggestions for how they can build these into their routines.