Soft start time at school

[Daffntulip]

If your kids have a soft start at school, what happens during that period?

Gates open 840 ish and kids need to arrive by 855 and go straight to classroom - register closes by 9. At meet the teacher, the teacher gave an example of if a kid is 10 mins late all week, they will have missed 2 1/2 hours of arithmetic over the week. This seems odd if it's soft start.

Previously, all kids arriving before 855 played in the playground.

I know in the past my child has mentioned that they each read to themselves first thing on a morning.

Thanks. Is that during a soft start too?

IME soft start is meant to ease children into the day and is not directed teaching tine, Typical activities include, loose parts play, colouring, puzzles, self directed reading etc. if a child arrives at 9:10 all week then they may well have missed important maths teaching time (50 mins total). Typically maths and literacy are covered in the mornings.

So do they start arithmetic at 8.40, ten minutes late is 9.10? So kids don't need to be in till 9 am but by then they have already missed 20 minutes of arithmetic or 1hr 40 minutes for the week? That seems a crazy way to do it.

Sounds like they maybe do some independent arithmetic practice in the first 20mins, nothing new will be taught but they’ll be practicing what was taught last lesson/earlier that week. Then maybe maths proper starts at 9.

child arrives at 8.40, gets 15-20 mins independent practice in then starts learning new stuff at 9. By 9.10 they’ve done 30 mins of maths (tbf a small amount of time will have been spent on putting their stuff away and doing the register but with older kids this is probably literally 2-3 mins).

child arrives at 9.10, they’ve missed all independent practice and the first bit of input, theoretically totalling 30 mins per day which is 2.5 hours per week.

Soft start is usually before the register is taken. So at my school children can arrive between 8.45 and 8.55, but they are not late until the register is taken at 9.00. Teaching starts just after that. The soft start activities may note be compulsory but if some children are arriving at 8.45 and doing 10 mins of maths or reading that's only going to be an advantage surely.

DD at primary school year 5l, they arrive 8.50-9 and in the 10 minutes they are supposed to go get their work out and start on maths practice. She usually goes to breakfast club anyway so they go from breakfast club to the classroom at 8.50. I don't think they would miss anything significant if arriving at 9 rather than 8.50 really, but school wants everyone to aim for 8.50 rather than 9.

When she was younger they went and sat down on the rug and chatted with the teacher while everyone was arriving.

DD at secondary is supposed to be there 8.55 but registration is until 9.10, when 1st lesson starts, so not officially marked as late until then. They get told off if consistently not there by 8.55 though

DD's school practices spellings, but they only open doors 10 minutes before official start time.

We have a soft start. Kids coming in early have an early morning task book. Lessons begin at 9

Surely by “late” she means after 9am?

Soft start is usually in place to make sure children are in, have put their coats on hooks etc and are sitting in their seats ready to actually start properly learning when school starts. If they're late in it may mean they are busy faffing and unfocused at the start of the proper lesson. Also, soft start time is often used for intervention or extra practice in aspects certain children are struggling with.

I use it in my specialist setting. If you have kids who find transitions hard and are demand avoidant, hitting them with a demand as soon as they walk in is not the best way to get them into school calmly. They have choosing time and we check in with them and assess their state of regulation. Some kids actually do need to walk in to structure, so they might come in to intervention or an activity set up for them.

In our mainstream department, kids who need soft start are usually given breakfast club placements.

We used to have bagels to eat and then I would plan some activities including times tables and handwriting. They could also read or do a craft like finger knitting. I also had a Lego table that was very popular. We did this until 9 am which was register time.

There’s usually a small task waiting for the kids like a quick times table or handwriting worksheet. Late is arriving after register and there’s no judgement about whether you turn up at the start/middle/end of soft start.

Our school started this during covid and continue to do so.

I drop my daughter off a few minutes after the doors open and their are a few children at their desks reading usually.

I’m a year 4 teacher and our register is at 8.55 (so this is official school start time, they are classed as late any time after this) but our doors open from 8.40. In the initial 15 minutes, I lay out times table or arithmetic practice for the children to be getting on with. I don’t teach any new material in this time, but it’s good for pupils who struggle with a particular concept previously taught, to put their hand up and get additional help. Any children that arrive for 8.55 certainly aren’t missing any teaching, so they aren’t missing out in that sense, but those earlier 15mins certainly don’t harm for a bit of extra practice.

Late is after 855/900. I would have taken it as a kid in teacher's example as losing 50mins, not 2 1/2 hours. Apparently, it's walk inside, hang coat up and down to work in silence. Seems a bit sad.

Wonder if it's to do with needing to be taught a certain number of hours a week? Did that change after lockdown (before they all played in playground). What time do others primary schools finish, how long are breaks etc?

It is to do with the number of hours children now have to be in school. Although it never became a legal requirement most schools put it in place anyway. Some made the day longer at the end and added in an afternoon play or a soft start at the beginning.

Mine was very much a time to catch up with friends, chat, play with the Lego or finger knit which became a real thing. If they got too noisy then we all stopped for five minutes reading time before the register.

I liked it because it actually allowed me to catch up with any issues, deal with anyone who came in unhappy and do an intervention with anyone who needed a bit more help. Maybe mine was too relaxed but we were at the end of the corridor so we got away with it!

The catch up with friends, low pressure fun activities etc sounds nice.

The government decided all schools have to have a minimum of 32.5 teaching hours per week. Any school that didn't meet that requirement already, had to find that extra time somewhere. Some schools added it to the end of the day, some at the beginning , some to both.

It’s just time to settle in. Gates open at 8:40 and I think they start 8:50/55, though technically children are meant to be there by 8:45.

They put their water bottles and reading logs in the right bins, hang up bags and coats, use the loo, find their seat, talk with friends, sometimes there is drawing on the tables for them to do or I see some reading. Mine is Y2.

It’s basically the stuff you do when you arrive at a meeting 5-10 minutes early.

This was in the White Paper but never implemented.

It sounds more like when they arrive at a meeting late in ours.

I teach Year 3. 8.40-8.55 there is an activity set that most children can do independently, times tables, reading or grammar usually. It’s also the time the children can take ages hanging their coats, have some toast and speak to me or their friends. It means that at 9 I close the register and can start actual teaching.