To think primary transition days aren’t much help if you work?

That is a lot especially if then you have two weeks of settling in at the beginning of term. it potentially could be three weeks of leave needed.
Have you made friends with anyone local who's going to the school so that you can share the days with?

My point is are you actually sure there will be space in the wrap around provision. It's not uncommon to find there is no space once they actually start the school.

If it's days in the summer term then between you and their dad I'm sure you can arrange some time off to accommodate the days. Even with a change in hours next year you'll likely need to take time off at some point for illness.

After having embarrassed myself by showing I didn’t read the OP, I can say that the staggered start to Reception is really useful for several reasons.
‘It gives the child a chance to spend a short time in class rather than a full day, which can be pretty overwhelming.
It gives the teachers the opportunity to spend some 1:1 time with each child - in their first couple of weeks the children will be screened against a baseline and it’s often here that any concerns are spotted. Our EYFS lead does a speech and language screening and sends off referrals to SALT, which means the child can be seen in the Autumn term. She would struggle to do this in a timely manner if she had all 30 children in at once.
I appreciate that it’s often challenging on parents to manage this staggered start, and in reality of a child is 5 the school has to have them in full time legally, but where possible, transition should be staggered to ensure the best start possible.

Can they go to their usual childcare before/after? So you’re just having to manage the drop-off/pick-up assuming their childcare provider doesn’t offer this?

We are in a village so most kids were going to the same school, bar three or four, so nursery staff took the kids to the school, stayed with them, and then took them back to nursery for the rest of the day.

It’s not visiting a few times during the summer term though, it’s ’settling in’ often over a period of weeks doing half days, random days in the week etc in September that’s the problem.

You've been given plenty of notice because they know some parents need time to get things organised. You have a right to additional parental leave precisely to help with this kind of thing. A gradual introduction to school is what is most beneficial to the child. Out of yourself, the child's father, and 4 grandparents, surely at least one of the six of you can rearrange normal commitments for a couple of weeks as a one-off opportunity to ensure the child's launch into academic endeavour is a positive experience?

No doubt they will have childcare arranged for the not al school day.

The problem with the ‘settling in’ is that it might just be mornings, or alternate days etc - which is far more difficult (and expensive) to organise childcare around if also trying to work full time.

And taking two weeks off then means a bigger problem covering the rest of the school holidays.

But a school setting is very different to a nursery. It’s still a big change and one schools know is easier for most children if they have had the chance to visit on a couple of occasions during summer term to prepare and get to know key adults a bit.

Talk to your employer. Transition days are very common, and employers will have dealt with this before.

If you really can't take time off then your DC can't go, but how are you going to cope with a poorly child who needs to be collected at mid-day. Do you have a backup carer because you will need one.

It's better than your kid not settling and refusing to go in when term starts, it's not for long and it helps. Schools know what they're doing. I used annual leave.

Well as much as a they can be a pain in the arse you really need to make it happen for your child's benefit.
How you going to cope with the school day once they start?

School isn't childcare, and shouldn't be. Your child's care is still your responsibility. What are you going to do when your school rings you are 11am saying come pick up your child as they are ill? What are you planning to do for teacher training days ? What about snow days. You need to be planning for this. School is not childcare and stuns me that people think it is

I don’t know, most kids round here have been in nursery full time since a year old, so a 9-3 isn’t much to cope with.

OP yes it’s massively inconvenient to working parents and absolutely everyone I know has complained about it.

Yours sounds like it's only a few days so book annual leave

My daughters were 2 weeks of half days

Why won't they be able to do them? Are you saying your child won't be collected at the end of the school day when they start school? In which case I hope you've got concrete childcare in place as it's very likely there won't be space in after school care.

It's a bit annoying if this is your first child going into school, however you'll soon get used to having to use annual leave to cover school holidays and will be shocked how stressed out you were about managing three days.

Do you have a partner who can split the days so you don't have to cover all three yourself?

Transition days are vital for young children starting school. I was a Year R teacher for years and the benefits to your child will outweigh the difficulty to yourself. Could you reach out to a fellow parent to help? Hope it all goes well - such an exciting time!

A school near us does like two weeks of half days for kids just starting school, which must be a nightmare for working parents.

Our nursery took the kids to, stayed with and then took back to nursery for transitional activities that happened on days they were in.

Sorry OP, I thought you were talking about secondary transition.

Presumably, you will be picking up at no later than 3:30 once school starts anyway. After that it's all the fun of planning how you will cover the hols. All part of the process

So what’s your answer then?