To think SOMEONE should be contactable in the school office over summer?

Firstly I’m sorry your husband was a complete arse and that you have had such a hard time.
if it was me I’d be losing sleep until the inset days with the uncertainty. I would say his school place is ok with the council though and and your pressing issue is the before and after care. I would be looking for a childminder as a back up.
Also on the Facebook site maybe message a couple of the mums directly for some advice. I’m in school Facebook group of my village primary still. My children are now in year 12 and 11 however if another mum needed help I’d try and point her in the right direction!
Are there any school age children who live near you, would you feel confident politely speaking to mum?
Most of all good luck ! In a few weeks you’ll hopefully be all settled. Then in the blink of an eye you’ll be putting your children through GCSE’s it goes that quick!!

It certainly is in every school I’ve worked at.

Not necessarily. My HT won’t even be back in the U.K. until 31 August. We are part of a trust so don’t have Business Managers any more. I work in the office and will be in school on Monday 2nd while my colleague is at another of the schools doing training and on the 3rd we will swap.
No one will be in our school on the last week of the holidays as our caretaker is on his own family holiday.

Schools all operate similarly but differently - some offices are micromanaged by the HT who will also check admin emails - our HT trusts the office staff to do their jobs so doesn’t have access to admin emails. Some answerphones can be accessed from off site - ours is antiquated and can only be accessed in the office.

I have worked in Finance in an academy trust looking after a group of schools. I had a year round contract and the finance offices were based in one of the schools. Apart from very senior people in the trust, though, we were the only ones not on term time contracts. The building got very quiet during the holidays as it was just us and the Chief Exec!

Oh interesting. I wonder if private schools are different,...

In every school I've worked in the only people NOT on term-time only contracts are Teachers and the school Business Manager.

Our Business Manager will be in during the holidays, but she'll be in her office working not sat at Reception manning the phones. Teachers will be popping in to get their classrooms ready and do other bits but again they won't be answering the phone. It would make no financial sense whatsoever to pay a member of the office staff to work over the holidays just in case a parent in OP's position should happen to call. It's hard enough to recruit and retain decent people as it is, I don't think we'd find anyone willing to pay for childcare in the holidays so they could come and sit in the office waiting for the phone to ring.

Most schools have inset the first day back, this is a good time to catch someone. As others have said I would buy a school jumper, you can sort the rest of the uniform once everything is confirmed.

OP I hope you've got this all sorted out by now but I'll just remark that the schools here go back next Wednesday and when we passed our local primary yesterday, the car park was full so obviously staff were there, though whether that included office staff, I don't know. People tend to forget that things don't happen in exactly the same way, at exactly the same time as they do where they live. So it might be worth continuing to phone each day but, as I said, I really hope you've already had your mind put at rest. Good luck.

Id say however that phased entry is starting to get pushed out. Our school did away with it.

I hate to add a cautionary note op but as a fellow working parent, school is much harder to manage between ages of 4-8 than nursery years are.

Breakfast & afterschool clubs seem to only ever have places for a fraction of the kids in school and often get filled up by kids with older siblings whose parents know the drill and get them on waiting lists early. Some schools will have one but it won't run Fridays due to low demand, some will only run to 5.30pm.

Reception kids do get more tired than even the most demanding nursery, the simple reason being the lower number of adults. They have to operate much, much more independently as one of 30 in a room with only 2 adults, than in a nursery where 30 kids may have four or even 5/6 adults. It means they have to be "on" all the time and they are very tired. Few cope well with 8-6. Ask around about local childminders as this is a lower stress option in that first year.

Food in wraparound provision can be basic or limited, its really catering for slightly older kids who can manage on a snack or light tea and eat their dinner at home. This doesn't work so well with an exhausted reception child plus its means you need to juggle cooking that dinner around work. Again, a childminder may be a better option if you want a proper cooked meal.

School holidays are a nightmare. Loads of camps/activities run hours like 9.30 -3 with no wraparound. Places are limited at longer hours ones and imho, provision can be quite shit, often staffed by bored teenagers and very little time on the activities advertised.

This may be a challenge financially but if you can manage going to 4 days a week its easier

@Lmnop22 i echo what other posters have said, that you sound brilliant and you’re doing a great job. Moving house and areas on your own with two little people is no easy feat.

I agree it would be very helpful if schools checked in even once a week during the holidays with messages etc.

as others have mentioned there will be inset days before the official opening so you should hear back next week from someone.

most primary school uniforms are quite generic and if you bought the wrong thing I’m sure you could return it if needs be.

also just to mention on the phased entry - most primaries do do this from reception and it’s to ease the kids in gently. Especially the younger ones in the class or ones who haven’t been to pre-school/nursery before etc. However I’m pretty sure legally they have to take your child full time from day 1 if you want them to. So if you needed a date to start back to work you could take the first week off and agree to a phased start but then start back at work the following week etc. I know people in our primary who did that as they couldn’t take the two weeks off work and didn’t have family nearby to help so the child just started full time from the first day.

Good luck, hope the children settle in and the new house is going well.

Our head and business manager won't be. It really does differ from school to school. It's been repeated a lot on this thread that teaching staff will be in the week before school, which isn't my experience either - where I work, and lots of teacher friends I know, go in right at the start of the holidays or on sporadic days throughout.

For those saying office staff can work remotely, does anyone really want to be paid for an hour a week when they're on annual leave? It wouldn't be worth it for anyone. When I'm on holiday, I want to turn off and have the freedom to do what I want. Regardless of the fact it's not operationally necessary for most schools.

It's not right to say reception always have a staggered start, we're in the Midlands and none of the schools round here do. Reception start full days from the same day as the other kids. All info should be on the website though.

Well THIS is early in the morning for ignorant shitposting, isn’t it

Not sure how the OP could have planned for her circumstances, clearly not read anything other than the OP… 🙄

Also my experience re. staffing.

YABU. You left it late due to house move for your own benefit. All fine and understandable and luckily you have your preferred place confirmed. You’re now complaining people aren’t available on your schedule and didn’t check before applying what their before and after school provision is. It’s also very normal for reception not to be full-time at first - at any school. This is all your own distraction and lack of planning.

Usually there will be a school leader nominated to receive safeguarding information over the holidays, and school leaders typically work a few of the summer weeks, too, so the registration application will likely be seen by someone.

It’s actually fairly common for schools to have a child or two just turn up in September without an application being submitted, so leaders will be geared up for these sorts of events. I’m sure everything will be fine for you. They will likely want to organise the home visit and discuss your child’s needs/progress once the term has started.

Yes sadly you are being unrealistic . Although mine also did long days at nursery and preschool they will be really tired starting school and will only manage shorter days 9 - 3:30 for the first few weeks building up to more.
There may not be space in breakfast and after school clubs. You definitely need a plan B .

I’m a school office administrator and yes, we have term time only contracts. As does every single administrator in every single school in my authority. In fact I’d go as far as to say in all the authorities in our part of the country

Yes-this exactly. From someone that works in a school office, we don’t get paid for holidays, in fact we actually pay for a lot of the school holidays out of our (shitty) salaries, which are pro-rat’d to cover all the school hols.

What we do get paid wouldn’t be enough to cover our own child care costs etc if we were expected to go in to man the phones for the very odd person that isn’t sorted before school starts.

Not having a dig as I moved this summer too and had similar worries but the timing of the move was really your choice (as it was mine) and the school office staff shouldn’t be expected to have to be there because you moved when everything closed. That’s not on them.

Suggest you push ahead as if child is starting and do what you normally would. Reach out to other parents if you can find details anywhere. And contact school via email. Our head will often dip in and out of emails in holidays so perhaps the head at your school will pick it up. Good luck

After School Club provision varies massively. I work in a primary school and our wrap around care runs until 6pm. We also take children right from the start of Reception (and not from after October half term as someone else mentioned). We also open our booking for September from the end of the summer term.

It varies so much school to school, that the OP really needs to check with her specific school (or look on their website) and see what they do, as no one else’s school is necessarily the same!

That’s not true.

Summer Born children who are starting reception at Compulsory School Age (the term after they turn 5) will, by definition, be 5 not 4. This is becoming more and more common.

However, my understanding is that a ‘full time education’ can be defined as ‘all the sessions offered by the school and available to the child’. Therefore, if a school does a phased start and a child attends all sessions available to them, that is ‘full time’. I’m happy to be corrected on this though, as it may have changed.

But also, more schools are no longer doing a phased start and getting their Reception children in right away full time.

Why would you expect someone to be there when school is closed??? Do you go to work when you’re not being paid!!!!

My private school is also non communicado over the summer holidays! Am hoping the office will reopen in a week or so so I can sort out wraparound care etc!

Yes but that would be from January for the oldest reception children in England as they all start at 4.

OP it sounds like you've done amazingly to get all this sorted at a very difficult time. Schools are often very last minute but somehow things get sorted and children welcomed in.

By the way my kids school didn't do staggered starts. And accept all ages in wraparound care. Also you can decline the staggered starts if you're really stuck . So don't worry. School may have second hand branded uniform available too - ours does and it's free. So worth asking before you go to a lot of effort to get it.

I really don’t think you should be blaming schools here, whose budgets are shot and whose staffing is skeletal.