Anyone else no idea when their school starts back after summer hols?

[mycatisblack]

I'll start by mentioning that we live in rural Ireland, before anyone posts about contacting LEA's etc.

Our National School (Infants/Juniors combined) broke up on 21st June and I'm expecting them to return during the last week in August sometime. Last year they started on Thursday 30th August. I found out the date by bumping into one of the school Trustees (similar to governors) in the nearby town a week beforehand.

The website hasn't been updated since February (last newsletter that was posted) and still has the name of the acting Head on it. The Headmistress actually returned to the school in April following maternity leave.

It's a Catholic school and there's a lot of information that seems to be spread by word of mouth (via post church chats?). We're not Catholic so don't attend the church and I think we do miss out a lot on general info. but as it includes pointless gossip, I try not to get involved.

I've asked a couple of mums I've seen since we broke up but they only know the start date for the secondary school. They don't seem very concerned about when primary re-starts.

I guess I'll find out by September.

Have you thought of looking online at the school website?

We get a news letter every Friday with all the dates and activities.

Apologies, just realised I missed that bit about the website not being updated. That's appalling.

I didn't, but one school sent an email and I'll have to look up the other school eventually.

Are you not friends on social media with any of the other parents? I often see posts about term dates and inset days from parents (and from people who actually work in schools wondering when they're due back in)

Call the school. If it's anything like ours there will be office staff in for quite a lot of the holidays, and they will be able to tell you the dates.

I’ve got a vague idea but will check nearer the time
Maybe look at flights from your local airport, when they halve in price the kids are back at school!

No idea but it doesn't matter because we'll be on holidays! (also in Ireland so no rap on the knuckles for missing a few days). No book lists available yet either which is unusual and annoying as I wanted to get that sorted before going away.

I’m in England but it’s the same at our village school. Website is an absolute joke, hasn’t been updated in ages. Dates are presumably in the newsletter which is emailed out. Except you can’t read it because it’s been formatted by someone who I’m guessing has never used a computer before and is completely unreadable.

Not updating the website is very unhelpful of them. That is surely how the majority of parents get their essential information these days!

Are they assuming people are psychic?

We've driven through Ireland a couple of times to visit family etc. although we have never lived there (we're in Essex). Knowledge (or psychic abilities) did seem to be assumed in place of putting actual information up on road signs. Does that type of assumption also extend to the publication (or lack of it) of school term dates?

I think a lot of 'business' is conducted via the church car park after Mass.
No, staff definitely don't work during the school holidays. The only people in the school have been the decorators.

We actually live near to the school so can see if there's anyone parked outside.

No recent newsletter and website is very poorly designed. I think the school secretary struggles as the newsletter is full of grammatical and spelling errors and each section is a different colour and font.
(Not kidding!)

I'll unclench and wait and see what develops.

Do you have a class WhatsApp? That’s usually a good source of information.

Or you could text another parent or two (assuming you have their numbers) and ask them.

Hi OP we’re also rural Ireland and mine start back on Friday Aug 30th
I am also a teacher and my school starts back the same day.

@IceRebel There will be no one in an Irish school this time of year.😂😂 Possibly in a few weeks time if there’s interviews happening but again I don’t think they would answer the phone.

Our school returns on Thursday 29th August. Earliest ever time.
The other local school returns on Monday 2nd September.
As people booked holidays for last week. I’m guessing there will be lots out till the Monday.

A class WhatsApp? Lol, definitely not.
Parents drop off outside school gate, collect at 3pm and that's it for involvement.
The other parents that I know, I've already asked them.

Another Irish mumsnetter here and I've just received a text from school telling us that school starts back tomorrow.
Talk about lack of notice!
Good job I'd bumped into a teacher a couple of weeks ago so I already knew the start date.

Do Irish schools all set their own term / hol dates?
In Scotland you can Google and find the dates for your area's education authority.

They can't expect you to be psychic + that's probably an un-Catholic thing to be, anyway.

I have relatives in ROI and they all know when their kids start back. They ask on the day they break up! And the school sends a note/email to the parents also. There is flexibility about the exact return dates, but most are the last week in August from what I have witnessed.

Funny that everyone knows the date of the break up!

Longer school hols there too by the looks of it. All of July and August for Primary, and all of June, July and August for Secondary.

Why not ask at end of term?