When do reception children start school in September?

[headfairy]

Got a massive problem with leave this year at work, so I'm having to book leave now for the rest of the year. I would really like to be off for at least ds's first day at school (pfb), the school year in our borough starts on September 4th, which is a Tuesday. I don't work Tuesdays so that wouldn't actually be too bad. Obviously I don't even know which school ds will be going to which makes it even harder. Do reception children tend to start on the same day as the rest of the school or do they start a couple of days later?

[NickNacks]

Ours start on the same day but do half days for two weeks first. Ask the school?

[vanimal]

My nephew started school on the same day as the rest of the school, but had a settling in period, so was only going in for half a day for the first week, and then started full time the week after.

I would call the schools you have applied to and ask them directly.

[kasbah72]

You need to ask the school because they all work differently. Some have half the class in for the mornings and then the other half for afternoons, some don't start until the 2nd week of term, some start them in small groups (usually related to age) and then slowly introduce longer days, some go straight in to full days for the whole class.

[katz]

lots of school have inset days at the beginning of term, these may not be known yet but some LEA's have them on their websites.

[Sidge]

I've had 3 children all start school at different times!

Often they start the week after the rest of the school, and do half days for anything for 2 days up until half term.

[BetsyBoop]

It really depends on the school. Our school does a staggered start, with children starting on different days over a two week period, but once they start they are full time straight away.

Other school do everyone starting together with half the class on mornings and the other afternoons for a few weeks, other do only some days/sessions per week, i.e they are "part time" for a while.

Sorry you probably won't know exactly what day until a few weeks after you find out which school you've got. If you have a fair idea which school you will get then you could probably find out how they normally do things and therefore how many possible permutations there are!

(In any case it's worth you finding out if the school(s) you might get do a part time introduction, as that often comes as a shock to first time parents - it's not unheard of for them to be part time until the October half term!)

[BetsyBoop]

must type faster, there were no replies when I started, but I see it's all been said already

[headfairy]

part time wouldn't be too bad, he does mornings at the nursery attached to the school we've put down first, our nanny does the afternoon pick up, but I would really really like to be there for his first day. I will try calling the three schools I put down on our options, but there's always a chance I won't get any of those (really over subscribed area, every year at least one or two schools have to take bulge classes) so I could end up totally screwed in which case I'll pull a sickie

[IndigoBell]

Most schools have a training (inset) day first day of term.

Sometimes reception kids have staggered starts. Sometimes they don't.

They normally do half days for a few weeks before going full time.

[soandsosmummy]

don't just assume a couple of days will be enough. My friend's dd started reception in September but not until the Monday - term started on wednesday then she had:

1 week mornings, 1 week mornings and lunch, one week lunch and afternoons, one week of 3 full days and 2 half days (one morning one afternoon) and then started full time in week five

It was a complete nightmare for her from a work and childcare point of view and the poor little girl ended up exhausted as she went from school, back to her old nursery who fortunately agreed to keep her and arrange pick up / drop off during the settling in period. IMO schools should rethink.

[jalapeno]

I had the same problem but our school didn't know how they were going to stagger it until the last minute. Phone and ask them but you may just have to take your best guess, if they have always done it by age and he is a late summer baby then it could be 3 weeks after the first day of term!

[MelodyPondering]

My Ds starts on 6th Sept. The first two days are inset days.

[PastSellByDate]

Headfairy:

Although your LEA will publish the dates of the school year - it is down to each school to organise INSET (teacher training days - 5 a year), etc...

Each school is different regarding taking in Class R - some take everyone from day one - others start with some visits (half-day or full-day) and build up to the full week and full numbers.

So step 1) Inform your employer that your child will be starting school in September and you will be requiring at least 1 day (his/ her first day of school) off. However you can't commit to what day that will be because 1) you do not know which school he will be going to and 2) you do not know the schedule of entry for the new class yet.

It may also be the point to request 'flexible working'. If you pre-arrange with your employer that because there will be times when you will need to attend parent/ teacher meetings, assemblies, learning support clinics (parents come in and learn more about phonetics, for example, and then work with their child) - however, you will make up time off for such activities by coming in early, working late, etc... around this.

When a place is offered the school will contact you and will give you more information about how things will work. Usually there are some visits to the school and parent/ teacher meetings to the school in June/ July. They also will give you an idea of how things will start off (for example our school told us that the first week of school our children will only attend 1 1/2 days each to start to get used to the idea and then would go full time from week 2).

If the school haven't been clear about how all this is going to work - ring the school your child will be going to and explain that because your employer is requesting you confirm the day off now, you need to know the date of your child's first day of school.

If you haven't looked into it - as soon as you have your place - if you need before/ after school child care - contact the provider to ensure that this is all organised and in place before your child starts school. It will take a lot of the stress out of the situation.

[headfairy]

pastsellbydate Sadly I wish I could inform my employer that I'll tell them later which date I need. I have to book it this week as all leave in September has already been allocated (we're having to work around the Olympics). August has already gone too which is another whole headache because I can't get leave to go to my best friend's wedding. I've been off for two weeks and every single bit of leave has been gobbled up in that time.

I've rung around the schools we've put down, our first choice school starts on the normal term date (no idea of inset days yet, even they don't know them) and as ds is the oldest in the year he'd be starting on the 4th Sept along with the rest of the school and going full time straight away.

Our second choice school have inset days on the 4th and 5th, but they don't normally start their reception children until the week later, and they're also happy to be flexible about start dates so basically he can start on which ever day I have leave for.

Our third choice school didn't know, but they're going to get back to me.

It complicates things further that ds's birthday is the 13th Sept so I'm going to have to book leave for that now.

GAh! fucking olympics!

[headfairy]

sorry, forgot to add, don't need to worry about afterschool care, or part time schooling as we have a nanny at home looking after our dd, she will do the school pick ups in the afternoon, whatever time they are.

I just want to be there for his first proper day at school

[Ghoulwithadragontattoo]

Why don't you book the 4 and 6 Sept off and then cancel whichever you don't need? Save the extra day for the nativity play or something?

[PastSellByDate]

Gosh headfairy - I agree with Ghoul then - perhaps the easiest thing is to book a few days in early September and inform your employer that you will only be taking some of them and will confirm, once you have confirmed start dates back from the school.

I understand your employer needs you about to help with the Olympics - but I'm sure they will also understand that you can't help the fact that your child is starting school at the same time.

As you have a nanny - perhaps what you can pre-arrange with your employer in advance - is that you'll be late in on Day 1 of schoo, so you can take your DC in yourself.

I have to say - I don't think it's the Olympics that are the problem - sounds like it's your employer.

[headfairy]

pastsellbydate it's not so much the employer but the job. Hard to go in to on here, but it's not a job that really waits for new school term. Cancelling leave later on is not an option either sadly. As I'm not going to get a summer holiday this year (thanks to said Olympics, Queens Jubilee, Mayoral elections etc etc ad infinitum) I'll have plenty of leave available. I'm just going to have to take a scattergun approach I think and book a few days off, cross everything in the hope I get them, and then do some serious negotiation with the school when I find out which one he's going to. At least one of the schools was happy to be flexible about start dates as they phase them in gradually over a week anyway.

[jalapeno]

I wouldn't normally condone this but tbh if I couldn't book a single day off for something so important to me even when I had given lots of notice and my employer was completely inflexible...I would probably just pull a sickie!! I would hate to do it myself and have never actually had to because I have always worked NHS and that is the one good thing about working for them, they tend to be fairly flexible. I would however do it if I felt I couldn't be there for my children on such an important day. Could you arrange your dentist appointment or something on the same day? Any other loopholes for time off with work? Work from home? Could your DH do the first day if his employer is a bit kinder and you do his Birthday?

Sounds like you've tried everything in your power to get it sorted for your child and your employer, I had the same problem as I was coming off maternity leave when DS1 was due to start and as a young'un I had no idea when he would start. Luckily I arranged with my (lovely but sadly former) boss to come back early from ML and took all of september off as AL but I appreciate you can't do that!!

[mrz]

Have you checked your LEA web site for dates? Mine publishes training days for individual schools alongside holidays information.