School issues potty threat for parents

Trinity Catholic Primary, which has a nursery attached, sent out the letter after noting that staff were becoming increasingly concerned that children at the school were unable to go the toilet alone.

Headteacher Patricia Deus told parents that staff were having to take time out to help children go to the toilet at the expense of teaching. She said that potty training was not the school's job.

The letter said, 'We have a number of children entering foundation stage who are not properly toilet-trained. Staff are spending a considerable amount of time dealing with this. Unless your child has been diagnosed with a medical condition, it is not our job to toilet-train them. This is a parent's responsibility and you may be asked to keep your child at home until they are fully toilet-trained.'

Angela Wells, lead member for early years at the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said, 'It's very difficult for staff in schools for a number of reasons, including safeguarding and staff ratios. If there are only two members of staff in a classroom of 30 young children, who is going to take the child to be changed? When I was a nursery teacher in the late 1990s, we would tell parents that children could not start at school until they were properly toilet trained but that we would keep the place open until they were.'

A Liverpool City Council spokesperson confirmed that the school wrote to parents, adding, 'The letter had the desired effect. There was an issue with a small number of pupils and it has now been resolved.'