Naps in nursery / reception

[sashh]

I was reading through the thread on children being allowed to go home for lunch and it brought up some memories.

I started school in the early 1970s. It was quite common for young children to have an afternoon nap.

We didn't do this at my school but we did have to put our heads on the desk for a rest every afternoon. Does anyone else remember this?

It seems to have disappeared so small children have a 'full' day and then go home to do reading / homework.

I think children were told to put their heads down on the desk because the teacher wanted a break.

I remember playing "heads down, thumbs up" and a boy in my class fell asleep.

As someone with many years teaching reception it's very rare they need a rest, most of them are like Duracell bunnies and never stop. Although some may fall asleep in the afternoon on occasions in the first term or when unwell.

I suspect that your teacher asking you to put your head on the desk was so the teacher could have a break rather than because the children need it.

I think a couple of them could probably do with the occasional nap still in reception...when DS2 went to holiday club (9-5) in the half terms of reception, a few times we'd go to pick him up and he was asleep on a big bean bag. DS1 was a duracel bunny type.

we didn’t have naps in reception (would have been 1994-1995) but Home Lunches were allowed. DC2 often fell asleep in reception but he’s always been an incredible sleeper and I’ve recently realised he’s probably shattered because he’s hypermobile WHOOPS!

I was quite often phoned by the school asking me to pick up either dc2 or dc3 in reception and year 1 because they had fallen asleep. Had this for my youngest in year 7 this week too.

Year 7? You need to start campaigning for 'falling asleep' to be included in the Olympics your kids would get gold, silver and bronze.

@Spoodles Maybe, a smart move if she was.

A quick google tells me it was common in the USA.

There are lots of countries where 5/6 year olds would commonly still nap - but they would also then go to bed a lot later than is typical in the UK. Obviously there are places where this is also common for adults! There's nothing wrong with having a 'split' sleep pattern in this way but in the UK people normally want their children to sleep quite a lot earlier than adult bedtime and to sleep through until morning - most parents wouldn't be impressed if school encouraged a 5 year old to have a nap and they were then up until 11pm!

I remember this - we had a lovely infant teacher, and we would have a short sleep at the back of the classroom or quiet play for a little while after lunch and playground play. We all still slept at night - but then we were all far more active back in the 70s so would be tired by 7pm.

In French schools the kids have a choice of a playtime or nap - I think still at around age 8 for example - which seems wild to me! Learned this from extended family members, maybe it’s not everywhere but they found it completely normal.

My relatives who live abroad (in different countries, Europe and Asia) have dcs who still nap at age 5-6, sometimes 7. My eldest went to a day nursery in the UK and she continued to nap until she left the nursery to start reception aged 4.5. She wouldn't nap at school but at weekends she'd have an afternoon nap, and she probably would have had a nap in the week if only there was a quiet place for her to lie down!

I think it's healthier to have naps to help process the information they're receiving, and dcs in the UK drop naps at a younger age more for parent convenience (getting them to bed as early as possible so they can have adult time).

Most likely 🤣. I do vaguely remember doing this in 1959/60. Naps in school nursery classes had stopped by the 1980s when I became an Early Years teacher but some schools still had the camp beds.