25% of Children starting school in the UK not toilet trained

Probably starting them too young. Can't wait to get into free childcare system.

Seven is age of entry to junior school in several continental countries I believe.

4 or 5 years old isn't too young to be toilet trained. I can't imagine sending a child off to school still in nappies . Who would think that's ok?

Yeah I know one set of parents who took forever - like aged 4 before they eventually got there - I thought that was bad enough - again no issue other than parent apathy to the task

Definitely not several.

Here now.. I did not say that children should not be toilet trained until 7 yrs age!!

I said that in several continental countries, children start school proper at 7. They might be in kindergarten before that or at home. Of course, you would expect that most would be fully used to using the toilet when they are ready and by 3ish at most.

The point in relation this report and any implications here, is that many Irish parents can't wait to get them started in primary/ national school and in some cases, likely before they're ready in several ways inc toilet.

Our creché requires kids to be trained before they move to the final room before they start after school, and they are setup to handle and expect lots of accidents.

A school is not setup for this level of effort. Certainly you wouldnt be sending kids into school with multiple changes of clothes (as you would in creché)

Accidents are fine, all kids have them, but untrained kids wont be having accidents, they will be soiling themselves throughout the day.

My memory of the first couple of months of the "big" room in creche was collecting kids with 3-5 nappy bags of soiled clothes hanging from each hook. A teacher cant handle this. Ignoring the fact that a teacher would be on their own and would have far more kids than a creche would have.

In Ireland it's now closer to 5 also fwiw

I'm surprised some of the parents are toilet trained.

I don't think this is anything to do with the UK v Ireland. UK kids start school at 4 unlike here where its more like 5. My UK nephew's birthday is the 24th of August, the eldest of 3 kids and didn't walk until he was 2. Nothing wrong with him etc just not the fastest developer. He was really not ready for school.

My UK niece, who was born at the end of May and is 7 weeks younger than my DD, started school a year before my DD. My April child was 5 starting and not the eldest in her class here.

In the UK children have to start school in the September after their 4th birthday ( I believe there is now an exception for kids born over the UK school summer holidays - mid/late July until end August).

Also the UK school day for 4 year olds is 8.45 - 3 versus 1.30 finish here and a bedding in period of finishing at 12 for the first fortnight in September.

The (extended) ECCE scheme here has resulted in kids being older starting school and being more 'ready' including better toilet training.

There is a few big lads around my area that could use training as miss the bowl completely 😁

The introduction of the ECCE scheme and most children here starting school at 5 means that thankfully this is not an issue here in Ireland.

As people mentioned kids start in England even if only gone 4 and dont have a standard ECCE scheme like us.

Ideally they want them trained before they start ECCE.

I wouldn't agree with rushing them though. If kids are trained too young before they are ready have much more accidents and it can put them off.

Between 2 1/2 and 3 usually the ideal age.

That could be a misleading quote. It can't be 100% the parents responsibility if the children are in crèche and the crèche refuses to facilitate training. Toilet training in the home has to be backed up with training in crèche.