The role of a teacher comes with a long list of responsibilities, but there are certain behaviours and skills that one would hope the child’s parent has taken charge of before starting school.
According to reports this week, it seems that potty-training is one area where parents are lacking, with high numbers of teachers having to step in and teach pupils this basic skill during class time.
Concern has been raised by the Jersey-based Family Nursing and Home Care charity, which found that high numbers of young pupils are learning potty-training at school – something which is ‘wasting time’ for their teachers and other classmates.
According to a report in the Mirror, as many as six pupils in reception year require this extra attention from their teachers.
Jo Davies of the charity is quoted as saying: "When I came into the post, it quickly became apparent that there are a lot of children going into school - not just nursery class, but reception class - that have toilet problems.”
She added that it would be more ‘appropriate’ for young pupils to be potty-trained by the time they start school.
