Children forgetting how to use knife and fork

unforeseen

The pandemic has seen most children in England slipping back with their learning - and some have gone significantly back with their social skills, says Ofsted

A report from the education watchdog warns some young children have forgotten how to use a knife and fork or have regressed back to nappies.

Older children have lost their "stamina" for reading, say inspectors.

!!!!!!! That's the job of parents, not schools. 
It's not the school's job to teach children how to use a knife and fork or potty train them. 
The same for reading. Parents allowed their children to turn into couch potatoes glued to play stations not the lack of school

strawb_shortcake

Agree, we bumped into one of my Sons friends parents in the main lockdown. Their 15 year old son didn't do anything productive.
He was playing computer games through the night, getting up at 3pm in the afternoon only coming downstairs to eat before going back to playing computer games. 
Even though my Son missed out on his GCSEs we got him to work through study books to help him prepare for 6th form.
We did allow them to have later weekday bedtimes but really ensured they kept some structure. 
Having more time at home for us meant that we had more time to cook, we have tried different meals and certainly been much healthier. My youngest was always fussy but now he'll pretty much eat whatever you put in front of him veg and all.

ToxicWomble

Modern lazy parenting - leave If to someone else whilst they are down the ‘spoons Innit

BJV

I have two teenagers and it is not easy. I would love to be able to blame someone else for my shortcomings. I try hard but I am not perfect but really not being able to use a knife and folk? As a parent that is my job not a teachers. They are they to teach and to encourage not to babysit. 

Grumpelstiltskin

I guess if parents feed their offspring MacDonalds, chips etc they have no need for knives and forks, again idle parents who will be the first to moan they can't afford to feed their children.

MovingForwards

I was having a good chat with my internet repair guy a few weeks ago, at a guess he was 10 years younger than me; I'm fast approaching mid-40's.

One of the very long topics we discussed was the 'youth of today' and how we we taught to read / write before even going to primary school. He was a former teacher and couldn't understand how the kids were being sent off to school without the basics of being able to read, write, get dressed, do their own shoes and some didn't even know how to feed themselves.

I wish I could sit here and say I'm surprised, sadly I'm not.

Life begins at home, the educational system builds on that foundation (teaching / learning) and then the young adults keep it up throughout the rest of their life. It's not going to happen in an unstable home.

strawb_shortcake

I can remember when my Son was st preschool, the sun catching a mark on the leather sofa. Close inspection I could see that my Son had written his and his friend name (not an easy spelling) all over the sofa. 
I wasn't sure to applaud or tell him off

Spendless

Does anyone know how Ofsted measure this? Did they go to the same school just prior and after the first lockdown? 

Spendless

MovingForwards said:

I was having a good chat with my internet repair guy a few weeks ago, at a guess he was 10 years younger than me; I'm fast approaching mid-40's.

One of the very long topics we discussed was the 'youth of today' and how we we taught to read / write before even going to primary school. He was a former teacher and couldn't understand how the kids were being sent off to school without the basics of being able to read, write, get dressed, do their own shoes and some didn't even know how to feed themselves.

I wish I could sit here and say I'm surprised, sadly I'm not.

Life begins at home, the educational system builds on that foundation (teaching / learning) and then the young adults keep it up throughout the rest of their life. It's not going to happen in an unstable home.

I can answer you about the reading/writing just from having a 20yo and a 17yo. We were told NOT to do it by the school! They said this was because the method you teach at home may not be the same used at the school. When they taught the alphabet/sounds even changed between my 2 with a 3 year gap!
If your internet repairer has quit teching for a different profession, he perhaps knew a lot more about changes within schooling.

maman

Spendless said:

Does anyone know how Ofsted measure this? Did they go to the same school just prior and after the first lockdown? 

I believe it was a survey asking for observations from a fairly large  sample of head teachers. 

I have to agree that it is a sad indictment as to how the majority of parents engaged with home schooling. There will be some with mental health issues/illness etc but that won't be the majority.  Even when work was sent home either electronically or as hard copy, many children didn't complete it or even engage with Zoom classes.  There seemed to be constant interviews on news channels with parents who just laughed when asked how home schooling was going. I think many gave it a try, decided it was difficult when their child didn't want to cooperate and then gave up. What really infuriated me was that many journalists were writing articles about their home schooling disasters as if giving in to their children and letting them do what they liked and eat what they liked was a huge joke! 

izawa

Knife & fork is useless. I long since stopped those and make them use chopsticks. So easy to eat with them.