Parents of youngsters who are usually not potty-trained informed to come back into college to vary nappies themselves
Parents of children who are not potty-trained must come into their school to change nappies themselves, a council has warned.
The rule, which will be implemented when pupils go back to school for the new term on Monday, has been brought in because of the amount of time teachers are spending changing soiled nappies.
Luisa Munro-Morris, director of education at Blaenau Gwent council, South Wales, said the problem was ‘adversely impacting teaching and learning’.
The only exception to the policy will be for children who are in nappies or pull-ups for medical reasons.
Teaching unions back the move, but one father, whose three-year-old boy is a pupil, said it was ‘discriminatory’ and ‘unfair’.
‘It is obviously a parent’s responsibility to potty train but my view, if you look at the literature, is that children hit their milestones at different ages,’ he added.
The father also questioned the health and safety implications of leaving a child in a dirty nappy while waiting for a parent to arrive at school to change them.
Laura Doel, leader of the National Association of Headteachers Cymru, said: ‘We have had some school leaders reporting that an increasing number of children in school are not always hitting those key milestones before they arrive, including their self-care needs.
Parents of children who are not potty-trained must come into their school to change nappies themselves, a council has warned (stock image)
‘School leaders therefore welcomed Blaenau Gwent’s decision to intervene on this issue.’
Research has shown that up to a quarter of British children start school without being toilet-trained.
But a recent poll of 1,500 parents by early years charity Kindred found almost 90 per cent felt children should not be allowed to begin lessons until they had learned such a basic skill.
Former children’s commissioner Anne Longfield warned in October that the coronavirus pandemic had stunted this year’s intake of reception pupils’ ‘school readiness’, with them arriving for school still wearing nappies and using buggies.
She added that parents’ lack of access to early intervention services and isolation after their child’s birth had impacted their ability to hit key milestones.
A report produced by Mrs Longfield’s think-tank Centre for Young Lives alongside Child of the North found a third of children were not considered to be ‘school ready’ or capable of carrying out basic tasks, such as going to the toilet, dressing, listening, holding a pencil or using a knife and fork in 2022-23.
The research – which looked at Early Years Foundation Stage data on five-year-olds’ development in England – also highlighted the postcode lottery of school readiness, with just 59 per cent of children in Manchester being ‘school ready’ compared with 84 per cent in London.
