The number of children who were toilet-trained before starting school this year has increased significantly in a city where parents were given potty training guides with their first school offers.
York was the subject of the city-wide pilot, which also put on workshops for parents and offered special training for early years staff.
Twenty local authorities across England are now signed up to launch similar schemes to tackle the number of pupils starting school without being fully toilet-trained.
The government said the pilot’s results were “encouraging”, and confirmed they were committed to 75% of pupils reaching a good level of development at the end of their first year in school by 2028.
Since April this year, parents across York have been targeted via GP surgeries, pharmacies, family hubs, schools and nurseries with information and offers of support on how to potty-train their child ahead of starting school.
Potty training guides were sent out to all families across York who had a child starting reception in September – with the aim that all children could use the toilet independently by the time they started school, except those with medical issues or special educational needs.
The results from all 55 mainstream primary schools across the city, shared exclusively with BBC News, suggested there had been a 43% drop since last year in the number of children who were not fully toilet-trained when they started school.
Across York last September, 148 out of 1,364 reception pupils (11%) were recorded as not being toilet-trained when they started school. This year, that fell to 85 reception pupils out of 1,374 (6%).
Parents Natalie and Lucy, who both have daughters starting reception next year, have welcomed the extra support on offer.
