Hundreds of children over the age of five are being sent to school wearing nappies, as they have not been toilet trained, according to new research.
In a survey by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) and commissioned by Sky News, the researchers found children as old as 15 wore nappies to school as they were not toilet trained, despite having no developmental or medical issues.
Overall, 5% of classroom teachers that responded to the survey said that they had at least one child aged between five and seven that wore a nappy to school, and 4% of head teachers or senior staff said that tey knew of children as old as 11 still wearing nappies at school.
The survey was completed by 602 teachers in primary schools and 561 teachers in secondary schools.
The results suggest a growing trend, where children are not taught toilet training at home by their busy parents, with schools left teaching further basic “life skills” to their pupils on increasingly stretched budgets.
