Eleanor Busby Education Correspondent

‘Toilet training is not something you can do in two days over the weekend’

Parents are too busy to teach their children how to use the toilet before starting school – and they are becoming increasingly reliant on nursery staff to do the job, the Ofsted boss has suggested.

Amanda Spielman, chief inspector of Ofsted, said more children are being potty trained at an older age, with parents struggling to teach their children over just two days at the weekend.

Ms. Spielman warned in a speech to nursery leaders today that more and more children are not toilet trained when they arrive at school, adding that they “risk being teased” by classmates

‘Teachers spend million hours a year helping children use toilets’
Speaking to the media at the Pre-School Learning Alliance conference, the head of the schools’ watchdog suggested that nursery workers need to take a greater role in helping to potty train young children.

“Without taking responsibility away from parents, if your child is in nursery every day, toilet training is not something you can do in two days over the weekend, and say boom, it is done.

“In practice it becomes something that’s got to be a bit of a cooperative exercise.”

Ms Spielman added that potty training used to be done by parents before a child went near formal childcare – but now the responsibility has been blurred as more children enter pre-school provision.

“Something that you used to be able to say was clearly, definitely, [done by] parents, and done before they got into education provision, now there’s a sort of blurring of who, what, when.”

Her warnings come after a report this week revealed that teachers lose more than a million hours every year teaching children basic hygiene and how to use the toilet.

The Ofsted leader’s speech to nursery leaders this morning highlighted the rising number of youngsters who lack basic hygiene and language skills when they turn up to school at the age of four.

Some parents do not appreciate the importance of early education and teaching young children life skills – such as how to communicate or use the toilet, early years experts said at the conference.

There has been an increase in young children with issues such as poor language skills and there has been a lack of involvement and interaction by some parents with pre-school children, they said.

Gary Jeffries, a nursery manager from Birmingham, who has 16 years’ experience in the industry, said the fact that a lot of parents were spending time on their phones had contributed to the problem.

Mr Jeffries said: “I would say that not all parents value early years, and I don’t think the government values it enough.”

He added that parents may need help and guidance on reading to children, how to speak to them, dietary requirements, and some “may not know where to start with things like potty training”.

“I always say to my parents, if you haven’t got time to do anything at home, but have got time to do one thing, education-wise I always just say, read a bedtime story, read, read, read, talk to them, ask them questions, point things out when you’re in the supermarket, on a car journey,” he said.

Melanie Pilcher, quality and standards manager for the Pre-School Learning Alliance, who has managed and worked in nurseries, said: “It’s always been the case with children that it takes longer to get dry, to potty train, but from what our members are telling us, they are finding these things are increasing.

“The big issue is we have parents who need help but don’t know it. When you’ve got a parent who needs help and wants help and recognises it, then they will seek it with you and we are able to signpost.”