To be cross with dd's school

[TeaOneSugar]

I've just collected my year 1 dd from school, and as I left the playground I was informed by one of the other parents that the teacher had just told them school starts back on the 7th September and not the 6th, which is the first day of term for our LA.

I went back to check and apparently they should have brought a note out with them but she forgot to hand them out. I pointed out as nicely as possible that if I hadn't had a chance conversation on my way through the gate I'd have been bringing dd back to school a day early.

I appreciate the last day of term is hectic and there were some retirements today, which is exactly why this information should have come out a while ago, when parents were arranging holiday clubs and other childcare. The school doesn't seem to appreciate that many parents work and consistently give minimal notice for concerts, readathons etc.

Am I being unreasonable? Surely the school didn't decide today to have an inset day on the first day of next term?

I'm considering sending a message to the new head teacher in September to suggest that some forward planning and communication would be helpful.

INSET days are set by the individual schools, so they are unlikely to be listed on the County website.
I find it quite unbelievable that a school has not informed its parents of the next year's dates, let alone the first day of the next term. I would say a formal complaint is in order - to the Head, the GGovernors and probably the County. They'll be the first to complain if a whole load of kids miss the first day back.
And Teaonesugar, I guess I wondered if the teacher had given you a copy of the letter when you went in to confirm what you'd heard in the playground.

OUr school goes back on 6th, after 2 inset days on 2nd and 3rd september. THese have been published since at least last September. I don't understand why schools give short notice - it's not necessary at all.

Clam - inset days are not always set by the school - in our authority only two are set by the school, the rest are set by the borough.

The local authority website should have the generic term dates for the next 2-3 years up on it somewhere (ours is currently planned up to 2013) - obviously schools add in their however many days' Inset they have to put in during there at their own discretion but generally assuming the first day of "term" is one is a safe bet. Google your LEA name term dates and you should get them brought up (just take care if you've got like Nottingham/Nottinghamshire that you get the right one). I work in 4 different LEAs, all with slighly different term dates so it's what I have to do to have a clue what's going on and who's in school when.

As for letters - last day of term is a blooming stupid day for the office to send them out - it's utter chaos by the time you've excavated the kids trays and everything! They won't have sat down and decided the calendar on the last day of term - just some bright spark's thought the end of term "we'd like to thank Mrs Bloggs and her pet cactus who are leaving" newsletter is the smart option to put the September term dates on... not a smart move on the last day (another reason I used to send all the "last day" stuff home a few days before).

I used to physically stand at the school door and hand letters out as kids left because it was the only way to guarantee they had a vague chance of making it into parental hands and being read.