I have a child that is six years old and I go and read to/with her and other children in her class. She's been in school for two years, before that she was in a nursery for a year but she's been 'reading' for six years.

In her class I meet children who already display worrying problems. Some can't concentrate for more than a few minutes, some already fear failure and don't understand that everyone in the room is struggling at something (and that tbh everyone in the world should be struggling at something). Some are rude and some, rarely, are aggressive. Some are learning English for the first time and their entire experience of school is that it's in a foreign language to them and their parents. Few value learning at all. All of these problems can be traced back to their parents. Many of the kids NEVER read outside school and NEVER see their parent read yet they all talk to me about video games, movies and TV. IMHO many of the parents work too hard to either get by or for material gain and see school as a cheap day care system. In a class of 30 children I am the ONLY parent that regularly spends 30 minutes a WEEK to read with the kids. I would spend more but that's the allotted time and I'm happy to help.

The problems these children face are multifaceted and individual to them but NOT unsurmountable. Firstly the parents need to be told that the school isn't there to baby sit and some of the children are not ready to socialise. The parents/children need to be taught how to socialise in an acceptable manner, not excluded from a young age. We need, as a society, to accept that not all children are ready to learn from day one of school. Why do all kids start at the same age? Kids should enter school when they are ready to learn. Within a single class of first year kids their ages range from 5-6, this is a huge age range. Some children should just wait a year or two and society should just learn that there is nothing wrong with that. Kids should be held back if they are not ready for the next year. Some kids are WAY out of their depth. What is the use of sending kids up from reception to year one when they can't write/hear simple sounds or comprehend simple tasks. It just places too much burden on them. Obviously kids who are kept back should receive extra help and borderline kids should be helped before they are held back.

We've all experienced moments where we don't understand something and we plug away and suddenly it all falls in to place and pow we are like gods for a moment. Most politicians , being high achievers, have certainly experienced this. I think some children never get to experience that because they are always chasing, always behind. They loose sight of what learning is and see themselves are dumb/difficult/slow. Politicians don't seem to comprehend this, it's alien to them as they just got it all the way through life. I fear they just label the 'others' as dumb/difficult/slow and imagine this is the way of things. Maybe they even think they are superior and deserve to be 'on top'.

If we let children grow and be challenged at their own rate I feel a greater number would be succeeding by the time they move to senior/highschool. Of course that means letting go a little and trusting teachers which is problematic for some here in the UK.