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Original poster

Bloody bloody half days for reception kids

400 replies

Icylightning · 28/07/2019 11:08

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

OP posts:

JustTheCrowsAndTheBeef · 31/07/2019 22:48

Only because teachers on MN always say they don’t have the whole six weeks off and work either end of it.

Nice little swipe, OP.

MarshmallowHeat · 31/07/2019 22:58

My oldest wasn’t allowed full days for a whole term because he was ‘hyperactive’! I had just moved and could not get a childminder to work around this temporarily, and so went into massive debt, with hardly any work in those very small hours. I was a single parent.

I could understand in a way and didn’t argue with the school. However he’d thrived in full day nursery 2 days a week up until then.

It is tough.

CallmeAngelina · 31/07/2019 22:59

Only because teachers on MN always say they don’t have the whole six weeks off and work either end of it.
That doesn't mean they're on the school premises or answering emails. Or restructuring the first two weeks of term because some parents haven't got their act together with childcare.

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about these subjects:

Childcare & nursery Families General education Primary education

NoIsACompleteAnswerSometimes · 31/07/2019 23:07

My grandson's school had a most peculiar system. If you were born between September and March, you had a few days of mornings only, then full time. If you were born April- August you had a completely different set up. One week,9 til 12, next week 1 til 3, then 10 til 2, then 11 til 3 then 9 til 2, or something similar, so 5weeks of buggering about. The older children got very upset at the younger kids coming and going and didn't understand why the young ones were going home and they weren't. Madness.

JassyRadlett · 31/07/2019 23:36

Or restructuring the first two weeks of term because some parents haven't got their act together with childcare.

Gosh, it must be really nice in your bubble.

tapdancingmum · 31/07/2019 23:40

I run a preschool and have just read my 'bible's regarding funding and attendance (the joy!) As a preschool we are only allowed to have three weeks of reduced hours before the child has to attend for their 15 hours otherwise we can't claim from the beginning of term and would lose money. i don't understand how some schools get away with reduced hours for weeks and weeks.

When DD (22) started school she was a December baby so went in full time straight away - if you were born after Easter you were part time till Easter so only having one term of full time school before going into Y1. DD2 (18) is a March baby but luckily they had changed it to 6 weeks part time before being full time! Now they do about 3 days of staggard start then everyone in full time. It needs to be standardised over the country as schools are the first to complain if you take them out willy nilly. What about the children starting at OP's school who will turn 5 on 1st or 2nd September - by the sounds of it they will be denied full time school from the off as well.

NewSchoolNewName · 01/08/2019 00:58

As a preschool we are only allowed to have three weeks of reduced hours before the child has to attend for their 15 hours

I’ve no idea whether the rules are different for primary schools, but surely in most schools a week of half days is 15 hours?

Brain06626 · 01/08/2019 02:14

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x2boys · 01/08/2019 11:16

How old is your oldest Marshmellow, schools arnt allowed to.just say a child can't attend full time due to hyperactivity or anything else did they have anything in place to support him ie an EHCP,or a Statement as it was ,1:1 etc? If they don't ent they were acting illegally.

isitsummeryet1 · 01/08/2019 17:38

@CallmeAngelina I can assure you I am not a shitty parent. My child had been in nursery from the age of 10 months from 8am to 6pm, the whole coming and going for days at a time would have been the shitty thing and totally out of her routine. I left my daughter at school all day, she went to lunch with class 2 and then had 1:1 with her teacher for the rest of the afternoon. On the second day, 4 other children were there when they realised a child was staying. By day 3 there was even more children. My child was not affected by other children going home, it was an adventure for her. Upsetting her routine would have been more detrimental, which is the view of the OP.

tapdancingmum · 01/08/2019 20:30

@NewschoolNewname I agree a week of half days is 15 hours but some people are posting that they have up to a term of half days (or half a term which is 6 weeks). I don't know how schools can manage to claim their funding if children are not attending their full hours as they get 30 hours funding in school.

MarshmallowHeat · 01/08/2019 22:44

@x2boys he’s 16 now so it’s 10 years ago. No diagnosis, I was under so much pressure I didn’t even think to fight it.

Alislia17 · 02/08/2019 04:55

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CallmeAngelina · 02/08/2019 11:58

isitsummeryet I seriously doubt that your child had 1:1 with their teacher, regardless of what you might have been told.

Mistressiggi · 02/08/2019 14:00

...and if she did, it was at the expense of whatever else the teacher had been going to do - writing plans now she had met the pupils, for example.

Lolyora17 · 05/08/2019 03:17

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prh47bridge · 05/08/2019 10:34

I seriously doubt that your child had 1:1 with their teacher

Why do you doubt it? Infant class size limits mean that the child probably couldn't legally be put into a Y1 or Y2 class and it certainly wouldn't be appropriate to put her into a KS2 class. Not teaching her at all would also be in breach of the law so what else would the school have done?

and if she did, it was at the expense of whatever else the teacher had been going to do - writing plans now she had met the pupils, for example

Bluntly, that's tough. Schools must provide a full time education from the start of term for any parents that want it. If all the parents opt for half days giving the teacher time for something else that is a bonus. Don't blame parents for making the school comply with the law.

Mistressiggi · 05/08/2019 13:31

Yes but this could involve giving the child a task to work on (which at this level would basically be a game/play activity) and leave her to do it for an hour - not quite the tutoring style input that "1:1" implies!

woodhill · 05/08/2019 14:02

I think that is fine and it enables the teacher to do stuff as well.

The parent may need to do the same at home

CheerfulMuddler · 05/08/2019 16:47

Put her in with the nursery children. They'll have the smallest class sizes of the year as all the four-year-olds will have moved up, and the spring and summer term babies won't be there yet.

TeenTimesTwo · 05/08/2019 17:10

Cheerful You do know that many schools don't have a nursery attached to them, don't you?

Of the 4 schools in my town, only one has an attached nursery.

maddy68 · 05/08/2019 17:20

Firstly school isn't free childcare!
Secondly it's the best way to introduce children so they can all have extra time to settle with the teachers and have a gentle introduction

greathat · 05/08/2019 18:23

I'm a teacher, my two were both used to nursery 8-5.30. They did half days and to be honest OP at the start I was like you, but school exhausted them. They suddenly needed naps again and were very highly strung to start with. I was very glad they did half days, they'd never have managed full ones at the start.

Rapidmama · 15/08/2019 22:55

UPDATE

Have change login since I posted this but I am the original OP.

School came back to me with a reply. They have consulted with their legal team and “education policy” gives them scope to offer half days.

So that’s that. I don’t have the energy to argue with them tbh.

Rosieposy4 · 15/08/2019 23:12

YANBU OP, it was the main reason my dc didn’t go to the village school. The reception teacher had been there since year dot and they had the bizarre thing running for the whole first half term where some kids did 2 mornings first week, the 3 afternoons the next, then 5 mornings the next week, then 5 afternoons the next week etc etc, different for different kids. My oldest dc were in adjacent years and there is no way my s would have tolerated that amount of disruption especially as my dc had been in nursery for 10 hours a day.
So I did choose an excellent alternative school where they started full time from first day and over the four dcs I can only recall a couple of kids who struggled to settle in, and in both those cases there was conflict at home between the parents. It was a shame they didn’t get to go to the village school but I couldn’t see how seven weeks of mass disruption was in the kids best interest.
The reception teacher finally retired from our local school about 4 years ago and the first action then was to alter this and allow ft from day 1.

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