3 weeks of half days for reception children.

[Tohaveandtohold]

So my child is starting reception in sept and we got an email on Friday of their plans for
their transition and the new term. My main issue is they expect them to do 3 weeks of half day so half of the class will do 9-12 the first 2 weeks and then at week 3 they’ll be there for lunch so 9-12:45. The other half of the class will do half day in the afternoon.
I just feel this is out of touch. My child currently goes to nursery 4 days a week doing 8-6 though she’s picked up around 5 anyway and has never been clingy, so I can’t see how 3 weeks of half day will benefit her. Also we both work, luckily I’ll only go to the office 2 days a week so dh will pick up those days and we’re not using up all our annual leave unnecessarily. Can I request she only does half day for a week and that they have to provide her with full time education.
Like I don’t want to be ‘that’ parent at the beginning of her school journey but I feel 3 weeks is just ridiculous and out of touch

Why don’t you send your DC full time from day one? Schools like to think that they must give consent but it’s out of their hands.

Ours used to do straight in full time then after covid changed it to the half day thing but only for the 1st week it was a pain in the arse especially for parents who were working. They split it into groups though so half the class did morning to lunch then the other half lunch till the end of the day. So it wasn't like the teacher went home. Maybe request they can go all day. I also didn't like it because they didn't do the whole lunch time routine in the 1st week so that was still new to them when they finally went full time.

I absolutely agree they should be phased in with half days, but make it mornings or even 2-3 mornings the first week and build up to 5 sessions, then the full week. Alternate mornings and afternoons is ridiculous and incredibly unsettling.

It's arguably cruel not to utilise a pre-school too . Help prep your kid and get them used to going

Welcome to primary schools! They will be expecting you have a handy grandparent to do pick ups/ drop off in the middle of the day.
they seem to assume there’s always a parent / grandparent around to collect unwell kids/ see plays/ assemblies/ meet the teacher/ parents evening / see your child’s work/ etc always at 9am or 2.30pm
then they will expect you to produce dressing up outfits for book day/ pirate day/ topic day at fairly short notice
/help with school fayres / sports day / cake sales etc etc

its going to be a continuous stream of requests until year 6

I thought they had to legally offer a place only when the child turned 5 - at 4 you can still take your child out for holidays and not be fined.

From the UK gov website

Compulsory school age

Your child must start full-time education once they reach compulsory school age. This is on 31 December, 31 March or 31 August following their fifth birthday - whichever comes first. If your child’s fifth birthday is on one of those dates then they reach compulsory school age on that date.
For example, if your child reaches compulsory school age on 31 March, they must start full-time education at the beginning of the next term (summer term that year).
Children must stay in full-time education until they reach school leaving age.

It's ridiculous. 1 of my children's schools did this for the first week only. I think the it's okay for the first week, but not any longer!

The other child's school did the first day as half the children in the morning and half the children in the afternoon, then all children in for a full days after that. Which was completely fine and makes more sense to me.

Allowances should be made for children that wouldn't cope with full time straight away.

3 weeks is ridiculous.

My daughter will start the Wednesday and do a part week then properly from the Monday. She goes to nursery 4.5 days a week so like yours she’s used to it.

Ours did this for the entire half term! Starting with an hour a day for the first week 🫠

Is a pain and doesn't really help settle the children who dont settle well iyswim. I think it should be optional, I'm a SAHM but I felt it really unsettled my kids.
We actually moved from England to Scotland when DS3 had just completely his first year at reception. Despite knowing this they made him go part time again for months to 'settle' as he'd gone in to Y1 in Scotland (their first school year) 😂

My friend is a primary school teacher and has been teaching reception for the last 6 years. Her school decided to trial full time from day 1 a few years ago and it was in her words it was ‘a disaster’. They changed back to 3 weeks of half days the following year for the sake of the children and staff and are sticking with it.

She says some parents do query it, understandably it can be a nightmare for working parents, but they’ve never had anyone insist their child does full time once the reasons have been explained. She and her husband both work as teachers so there’s no time off in term time so she really does get it. However, she said she would never want to do those early weeks of 30 kids in from day 1 ever again and in her opinion the kids took much longer to settle in.

Exactly this! Plus normally they do half the children in the morning, and the other half in the afternoon. So it’s not so overwhelming for them all. It might be fine for your kiddie to be full day earlier but for lots this gentle transition is best.

I know it can be awkward for the 3 weeks with drop offs etc, but they’ll whizz by and before you know it the 7 years will be up!

But this assumes that these are the only two options.

They aren't.

The system does make it things very difficult for working parents. However, don't assume that because your child has already been to nursery full time that they won't get tired. School is a different and much more demanding environment.

I'm
A teacher and had similar when my youngest started reception. Absolutely ridiculous and certainly outdated practice!

Email the head (I did!) and my son started from
Day 1 doing full days!

Awkward is an understatement when, if you decided to use the staggered start, you would have no where for your DC’s to go when they were not in school. Two full time working parents (if you take annual leave for the staggered start, DC’s will need to use holiday clubs for a longer period), no family in the Uk and friends are in the same situation as being a two working parents family.

The nursery we used doesn’t offer hours to cover staggered school hours(or take and fetch them from and to school) and limited childminders in our area.
Hence we sent them full time from day one - they were only just 4 (July birthday) but we’re more than ready for school and coped fine with school hours, breakfast and after school clubs

DD started in reception last year (Sept 22) and her school had a 3 week transition. Thankfully her nursery was able to take her but had they not, it would not have been workable. DD didn't actually start full time until 20th September - a day later owing to the Queen's funeral. My niece starts reception this year - different school - and will be going full time from 5th September. I would have much preferred this.

What the fuck?!?! You had your Reception age child get the bus to & from school???????? At age 4 or 5??????

Yes, she, like 95% of her Reception class caught the official, supervised School bus. We lived several miles away from the nearest school (catchment 10 miles!) And didn't have access to a car most days. How else would she have got there?

Very normal in rural areas where rural schools serve huge catchments of lots of tiny little villages. The children are eligible for school transport if the walk to their nearest school is more than 2 miles (its a bit more complicated than that, but that's the gist). Our school had a mild mutiny about this last year - every single one of the 9 children starting reception had been doing full days in the school pre-school since they were 3. The pre-school shared a classroom and a teacher with reception. It would have been far more confusing for that cohort to have been collected at dinnertime when they were used to staying the whole day! School relented without any fuss and everyone got on with their lives as normal.

We had this 11 and 09 years ago, three weeks of half days. I was in same position, worked full time in an office, both kids were used to ten hour days at nursery. I thought same as you before they started, but was shown need for the half days once they started. It's the social aspect of meeting and interacting with so many new people and increased expectations that make it tiring for them.
I found our old fashioned one form primary was not set up for families with two working parents. Constants demands for time and money. After school clubs cancelled at short notice. I calculated holiday clubs plus ten inset days plus before and after school childcare for two, it was not financially viable to continue in office role full time. I switched to a term time only role in education and although pay much worse, overall financially and stress wise was better.
I suggest you trust the school and start making plans for induction plus inset days etc.

Have a look at the schools admission code - I can’t copy and paste from it on my phone but do a search for the word “full” and you’ll find the part that makes it clear than a reception place must be offered full time from September of the reception year.

No CSA is different to the date a child must have access to a full time school place.

Your child isn't the only child in that class, the school have to make decisions that are right based on the overall cohort and having a class of 30 kids, many of whom will never have been away from their mum's is a big overall adjustment that needs to me managed carefully. Saying that 3 weeks does seem excessive, usually it's 2. However you can't just demand that your child is looked after by the school for the rest of the school hours while the other children have gone home 😂. Teacher sare very busy and their role extends far beyond their contact time with the kids; this "free time" after the kids have left during these three weeks will have been scheduled and alloted to the other tasks teachers need to undertake, such planning the curriculum for the whole year and generating resources for the term coming up, you can't just expect teachers spend that time babysitting one child instead! They aren't child minders.

some schools round here do this. Drives working parents round the wall.

our lot had some introductions sessions in July and then in full time from day 1.