Helping children to be ‘School Ready’

This week, early education charity Kindred² published the results of its annual School Readiness Survey – and the results point to an alarming increase in the number of children starting school without the basic skills required to start their education journey.

50% of the 1,000 teachers surveyed said that the school readiness problem for children starting in September 2023 was noticeably worse than the September 2022 cohort. For children starting in Reception in September 2023, almost 40% were unable to use a pencil, to play with other children or to dress themselves, and 30% were unable to communicate their needs.

Parents were also invited to respond to the survey. Over half identified working longer hours due to the cost-of-living crisis as contributing to this issue.

James Townend, Managing Director (Fitzgerald Fostering) says: “As parents and carers we need to acknowledge the importance of developing children’s skills in the areas highlighted by this survey. However, it is worth acknowledging the extremely challenging times many families have found themselves in over the last four years. Many of the current cohort of children starting school will have had their early childhood experiences impacted by social isolation and reduced communal learning as a consequence of both the pandemic and the current cost of living crisis. At Fitzgerald Fostering we believe the best way forward is to understand the impact of such issues and then look at how we best support our carers to ensure children’s needs are met across all aspects of their lives and development.”

Caring for children and young people can be challenging at times. At Fitzgerald Fostering, we are here to support our foster carers every step of the way, with practical and emotional support available 24 hours a day. We believe the best way to create happy and thriving children in foster care is to offer tailored, meaningful and long-term support to their foster carers.