Bloody bloody half days for reception kids

[Icylightning]

Why?!! WHY?!!

Don’t the school realise what a nightmare this is for working parents, I’m a single working parent so it’s even worse. TWO weeks of half days. To ease the children into full days apparently. DD has been doing 5 full days at nursery for 18 mths. Longer hours than she will be doing in school.

I’m using most of my annual leave in the holidays but now need to ask for two weeks of leaving at lunch time ffs. I thought they couldn’t do this anymore?!

Her nursery won’t take her back for those two weeks and is nowhere near her school either. Bloody nightmare

My primary school only did a week of half days and I thought it was ridiculous. Like OP, my child had done 8-6 at nursery since she was 10 months old, so this change in routine was likely to do more harm than good. I spoke to the council, who informed me that the school is obligated to take them full time from day one. So, I didn't collect her at lunchtime (i did inform them I would be doing that) and she stayed the full day from the start.

But how do working parents access afternoon childcare for 2 weeks?

We use after school clubs, as working parents, but these don't start until 3pm.

They would have withdrawn their child from nursery and you cant just pop them back in for a fortnight of afternoons and how would they get to the nursery? How many nurseries do a pickup service?

Same as childminders you can't expect to be able to find one that has availability for a fortnight of afternoons.

And nannies and babysitters are expensive. How many families could afford 30 hours of babysitting and would many babysitters even be available or willing to do this?

And if you are lucky enough to find a childminder available or can afford a babysitter, is is really beneficial for a child to have a new adult to get to know at the same time as starting the big change to school?

Another solution would be to continue to send the child to nursery for the first 2 weeks and then send full time afterwards. But would this get you into trouble to lack of attendance? And again, is it in the child's best interests to begin school 2 weeks after the rest of their class?

I remember this. I used to drop my dd off then in my lunch hour drive to the school then drop her at the childminders then go back to work, took all my lunch for the first term! Luckily when my DS started they only did this for a week.

She had been doing full time 7.30-6 at nursery/preschool for the two years prior and went to a special summer school all of the holidays that was designed for children to start school.

A week of half days starting school and DD regressed. In fact most of the 20+ kids starting that year that came from the same nursery also regressed.

Op. I feel your pain but you need to quickly get used to. Its only going to get worse. The state system is not geared to working parents. And the state system doesn't care either. I think your request is reasonable but it's targeted to the wrong provider. I used full time private nursery and full time live in aupair costing me several grand a month for X2 kids when my kids were your age. Luckily I had a partner to split the cost as not all parents single or double can afford the £3k a month childcare costs that I did.

My kids are going to secondary but it's not any easier as they have long holidays and finish school at 3:15 and study leave means they have to leave premises by 4.30pm latest. Which is ridiculous as there is no after-school club , no meals and I can't get back from work until 6.30pm latest or from a flight whatever in EU.

Private schools are much better suited to working parents.

You are never going to solve this in state education. Its the wrong place to ask. There's little or no money in state, it's extremely stretched as it is and as they are not profit organizations they won't ever offer decent wrap around care.

@CookieDoughKid I totally sympathise. I had this when my daughter started junior infants (I am in Ireland so our equivalent of reception). Her hours for two and a half weeks were 8.30 to 11.30. It was ridiculous. Then most crèches that people were using for after school were unable to collect at this time so people had to put alternative plans in place until it went to normal time of 1.10.

Heard anything from the head, OP?

Our head is camping with her family at the moment, what with schools being closed.

The time for this conversation with the school was back in March when offers were made.

Bit late to the party but our school only does this for a few days (I think 3 hours for two, 5 hours for 3 and then Monday they're doing the full thing). Their view is that taking too long to get the children up to speed is counter productive. So they accept that they need a few days to settle but they get it moving pretty damn quickly, focused almost exclusively on getting the children into a routine during that first week. The week is STILL hard for parents who can't manage the childcare, but we all reassure ourselves that compared to other schools it's manageable.

This seems a far more sensible approach. A friend had to hire a nanny for half a term when her DD started school. Was insane. And frankly, even more unsettling for the children who now had a new school AND a new nanny to cope with.

chocito But the children have already needed childcare from birth/end of parental leave until starting school? So what I'm asking is why it seems to be a shock or considered U by a few parents that they will also need childcare after their child starts school.

But nursery or a full day childminder is very straightforward. Wrap around is hard (and oversubscribed in many places), and even then it's usually available from end of the school day not lunch. If you don't have family around then it means parents taking days off, which is such a waste of days when you've also got the whole school holidays to cover also - and also a waste of money when you then have to buy extra holiday clubs because you don't have as much leave, Vs if they'd just started on day 1.

Yes, a staggered start is nice for children, but having parents in work is even more helpful.

Then parents need to lobby for better childcare provision. But not from schools, as their job is to educate.
No one is disputing that finding childcare is a ball-ache. But lots of people are pointing the finger in the wrong direction.

It's bloody ridiculous. In saying that though I'm guessing the reason the head thinks that it's in the best interests of the children is because the majority of mums are SAHMs and therefore the majority of the children wouldn't be used to a full day of nursery let alone school.

I was a SAHM but my children's school only do the half day thing for the very first day. To prepare my children for it I put them in nursery for 2 days 9-3 and 1 day 9-12 for the year before they started school. They all settled with no problems.

@bellesausage

Do you have a child in school in England?

I have to ask because of lines like

"you purposely chose an exceptionally poor school for your child. "

Like every other parent who can't afford private school, I put down my favourites on an application form and the LA decided which I got.

Besides the unfortunate organisation of the first few weeks, the school DD is in is great, but in regard to the staggered starts they weren't.

"These are basic questions that you ask when you look round a school- what wrap around care is available? What start do you do for reception? "

Yes, and I booked her onto the aftercare which starts at 2.50pm, not lunch time. They didn't know the dates of the staggered starts, as I have explained.

"You had the child. You must have known having a child would require more time management and activity juggling than not having a child."

Yes, I also know that the house we live in and the food we eat is paid for by the work me and DH do. Work that can be flexible but only to a point and very few people have the kind of job that will let them leave at lunch every day for anything up to a full term if you read some of the replies on this thread. I'm lucky in that the jobs me and DH have allow us to not need to utilise benefits, but there are thousands of people with children going into reception this year who are required to demonstrate that they work have worked a minimum of 16 hours in the week in order to receive essential benefits, staggered starts dictating that they cannot work those hours threatens their financial security. Many people work zero hours jobs out of necessity, or shift work and cannot just ditch work.

You are being incredibly condescending. We currently time manage both parents working full time, one on shifts, a child attending school 8.50am to 2.50pm and all the various household/life admin. We are not just sitting expecting school to do everything for us.

I’m agnostic as to whether a staggered start is better. I just really object to your entitled attitude towards school.

@Lwmommy

Everyone is in the same boat. Everyone has stuff to sort out. Public services can’t be run to suit all family schedules. It has been ever thus.

I have kids. I knew when I had them that I’d need to rearrange things to make schools drop off and pick up work. It is a pain but I’m not going to throw my hands up and finger point at the school because I know that school is run for the good of my child and not as service for me.

This is like getting a dog and then moaning that the NHS doesn’t provide free babysitting for dogs. It is not the point of that service.

It's ridiculous. Have the same problem. Again my daughter has been at full time
Nursery since she was 1. My eldest was totally bored those two weeks and wanted to stay at school! School may not be "childcare" but it is bloody inconsiderate.

My youngest’s school did this. I came on mumsnet for a main and was advised to make a fuss because legally they are required to provide full time education. So I mummed up, emailed the head and said I am sorry but I am unable to take two additional weeks off work as I simply don’t have that amount of leave so my son will need to start school full time in September. Please confirm if he can have school dinners or if he will require a packed lunch.
He replied packed lunch the first week and school dinners will be organised for the second week, have a good summer.
That was that.

It's really nothing like expecting the NHS to provide care for animals.

As was posted above

The Admissions Code is clear that the child is entitled to a full-time place in the September following their fourth birthday. If you want your child to attend full-time you should insist. The school cannot legally refuse. If necessary, point them at the Admissions Code paragraph 2.16(a).

@Icylightning count yourself lucky it’s only two weeks in Ireland they finish an hour earlier than the rest of the school for 2 YEARS 😂😂

I am wondering how on earth our school would cope if a parent said they are bringing their child in full time from day one, despite us making it clear from the outset that we have staggered starts.

We would obviously have to move a staff member from another role to look after that child after the others had gone home. We would have to plan stuff for the child to do - probably on the hoof if the parent had left it this late to tell us of their intentions.

Or we’d have to get a supply in. The money for that - £165 a day in our area - would have to come from another part of the budget. I wonder what would have to give to allow this to happen?

Family your school should be prepared, given that parents have been able to request full days from day one for several years now.

Or they could just do the sensible thing and instead of demanding staggered starts, offer flexibility to all parents. As many schools are perfectly able to do.

Two weeks isn’t long at all round here, round here it’s six weeks

Lard where I am it used to be day one for autumn born children, a whole term for spring born children and until Easter for summer borns. I do not understand how any school could expect a working parent to cope with that. There isn't enough leave in the world.

I had my DD1 start after Christmas because to compound the problem, there were no childcare providers who were able to do a midday pickup from school.

And yes, back then the vast majority had SAHMs. Fortunately times are changing.

I'm surprised about the "pick another school" and "You should have asked when looking around" comments. I put 3 schools down, my first choice has breakfast and after school.clubs. We didn't get it. Not in catchment, over subscribed. The other 2 - 1 in catchment, got a place,lovely school. Small. No breakfast or after school club. The 2nd, actually closer to home than catchment (by 5 miles!!) Also didn't get
Also has no clubs. I've had to change my working hours, and arrange with 2 family members and a friend to do some school rubs/childcare. I'm lucky I have willing family and friends!

I'm sure management are aware of the Admissions Code and have a suitable contingency plan FamilyOfAliens.

I am 100% on your side OP and I’m a teacher. Two weeks of annual leave is ridiculous, that’s almost half the annual allowance for a lot of people. The vast majority of children are fine going straight into full days and if there are children with specific needs that require shorter days that can always be arranged. One of my considerations when picking a school for my DC was finding one that didn’t do this. They were used to long days at nursery and had no difficulty settling in whatsoever.

Your headteacher may not check their work emails until the a day or two before the start of term OP so you may not get a reply to your (very reasonable) request.

This would have been very difficult for me too. Here in Wales, children tend to go to a school nursery from the term after their 3rd birthday and these are only half days so we knew well in advance that dc1 (November born) would have 5 terms of 9-11.30am and dc 2 (May born) would have 3! We ended up having to pay a childminder for a full time place for the entirety for both of them. After that, reception class started full time from the first day - phew!