Blog
DfE launch updated Toilet Training Guidance, as we provide webinar and resources.
We keep hearing that children are arriving at school, unprepared, which includes not having been toilet trained. Last week, Kindred Squared’s school-readiness report stated that ”One in four parents don’t think children should be toilet trained before starting Reception.” And went on to highlight that only “only 50% of parents think that they are solely responsible for toilet training”
This latter stat is an interesting one. Should they feel solely responsible? Many children in our settings spend a big chunk of their waking day with us. I’m sure you would agree that whilst we recognise that parents are their child’s first educator, it is vital that we work in partnership with parents in order to support children’s development, in fact working in partnership with parents is central to the EYFS.
Last week also saw the launch of the updated guidance from the Dfe “How to support babies and young children with toilet training in your early years setting.” This guidance opens with “You can play an important role in supporting children and their parents or carers with toilet training.”
As a response to our needs analysis, we delivered a very timely webinar, two days after the DfE guidance update, on “Supporting your families with toilet training” As I prepped for this webinar, I read in the Kirdred report that 70% of nursery staff have had no training to enable them to support families with toilet training. Within our hub area, we certainly saw a want for such training, with circa 60 attendees booked on for our webinar, and requests for the recording if people could not
attend.
The DfE guidance is full of useful milestones and tips, with this one being particularly pertinent if we are to address the challenge of children starting reception in nappies. “Starting toilet training after 2 and a half to 3 years can make it harder for some children to learn this new skill.”
To sit alongside our webinar, we developed a handout for practitioners, as requested by them. Many settings felt that this would be a useful tool to open the conversation about toilet training, which we recommend starts sooner rather than later (the conversation, not the training!) It would also provide the opportunity to address a common challenge, which is a lack of consistency in approach, or an expectation that the setting should take full responsibility. Developing a shared plan is perfect to keep the conversation open as the process begins. Feel free to use the resources in your setting. And remember, as the DfE says “You should help parents and carers understand the importance of toilet training in the early years” and “It is vital that you work closely with parents, carers and specialists to give children consistent messages about toilet training.”
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Rebecca Oberg Director: Institute for the Early Years
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