A crazy long 3 week confusing start into reception class in Sept!

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My DS2 is starting school in Sept - I thought that it would be the standard few days of mornings and then mornings and lunch then start school. (He currently does 3 full days at nursery school on the days I am at work ,with an afterschool club that we pick them both boys up from.)

But NO I have just been to a meeting and it is the most complicated 3 week carnival around. I can not even begin to think how we are going to manage it short of taking unpaid parental leave.

It is as follows:
Week 1 - Monday to Wednesday - Teacher and TA doing home visits to every single child starting school = 3 days of no school and no childcare available as can no longer attend nursery = 3 days off work.
Thursday - children surnames A-K to attend school in morning 9 til 11.45
Friday - children with surnames A-K to attend in afternoon 1.15 to 3.30
(visa versa for children with the surnames L-Z which means I can't even share with my best friend as she is P surname and I am a H surname)

Week 2 - School 9 til 11.45
Parents invited to attend lunch from 11.45 to 12.30 with their child on either Wed/Thurs or Fri depending which class your child is in.
All very undoable with work, I cant really go in at 9.30 after dropping off and then leave at 11 to pick up from school.

Week 3 - School staying for lunch 9 til 12.30
Again confusing as the lunch time break lasts until 1.15pm so this means they will just eat their lunch and go home, no exposure to the playground.

Then finally on 26th Sept they start full time school!!

I just can't understand why it is so bloody confusing! I really don't know what to do short of cancelling my summer holiday and taking it in Sept but that is unfair on my DS1 as he wont get extra time with me in the summer holidays.

That is a bit messy, but have you checked out the school's wrap around care for that time? At DCs school they have extra provision to cover that time. An additional expense, and stress for the DS of course, but it might help.

Be grateful it's only for 3 weeks and not a term!

DS's school did this when he started - it was fine!!

3 weeks - we get away lightly -some other schools have p/t reception till january!

My DD starts on the Wednesday (the day after the others in school go back) and that's it she's full time. Bob's your uncle, Fanny's your aunt. Yours doesn't half sound complicated....oh well, I'm sure someone will come along and tell you there's a good reason for it.

God that does sound confusing. What's wrong with just starting on day one with a proper school day routine. Can't stand all this faffing, but that's probably just me showing my age :o

When ds was due to start school according they did half days from Sept-Xmas and then full days from January onwards. Ds was already doing full days at nursery so I informed the school he wouldn't be starting in the September as this would cause me problems at work and he started full days in the January. Didn't cause him any problems.

Do they not realise that some parents work???

Betty - how was it fine? I am not worried about my DS2 starting school but it seems to be not very managable for any working parent. I work 3 days a week my husband works full time - the only way I can see that we can manage this is to have 3 weeks unpaid leave or move my annual 2 week holiday.

Bloody hell that's a bit crap!

DD2 is starting in September, we haven't discussed the phase in yet but last time it was less than 2 weeks. With the school accepting that some children may still not be fully adjusted and parents may want to keep them out for afternoon etc if that would help.

With DD1 we had 3 days pre lunch finish, 2 days post lunch, 2 days 3pm (instead of 3.15 ) and then full time school.

School here do home visits (if requested) for children this term. It really is a badlt thought out plan which is all over the place for the children and not really helping drawing out the whole process imho.

Has anyone given 'feedback' to the school on just how unworkable their proposal is?

My d (slightly barking) sis is up in arms that her ds2 will have to do 2 weeks of settling in! As he's effectively primary 1 (scottish system) so should need it If only she knew!!!

The actual detail of it is confusing, but in all honesty it just boils down to a 3 week lead in to full time. Most schools have this at the very least, many don't start full time until after Christmas. I agree it's difficult for working parents, but I think you just have to expect to take 3 weeks off work (or get parents involved, whatever), there's no way you can work around the times and I think this sort of thing is to be expected.

Be greatful it is just 3 weeks my friend had to deal with a whole term of it! She had to drop DC and his brother at school for 9 - head to work, come back for 12 take DC home for lunch or to her office for lunch then drop him at the childminders for 1 - the childminder couldn't have him before then, and then go back to work, pick eldest up from school at 3, then pick the youngest up from the childminder! FOR A WHOLE TERM!

I think its a carry over from when most children were at home - with maybe no any preschool until 4 - now of course most children have had a least some nursery so I think its out of date - I would complain as I know the my DS's school changed it this year due to comments from parents -
any chance your DS's dad and possibly grandparents might be able to help out - and I guess week 2 and 3 you could do swapping with your friend

hmm its daft. My DS1 goes into the reception class in september and his new routine starts like this although its not as busy as yours.

They normally have 60 children in 2 classes of 30 children. This year they are having 60 children and 3 classes of 20 children so they will get better one on one time.

The new teacher hasn't been chosen yet though. They are interviewing this week. The only problem is that they only have room for 2 classrooms and not 3. They are closing a shared area and making that into a 3rd small classroom used for registration, activate and reading/singing at end of the day.

For the lessons the 20 children for class 3 are split into 2 groups of 10 children and sperated into the other 2 classes to make it up to 30 per class so they can do maths and numeracy/phonics etc etc

BUT to choose the children who wont be settled permanently into a class i.e class 3 the reception coordinator has liased with the nursery staff to which children would be OK with change and moving around everyday, these are the children that are better at working on own initiative and mingling.

Confused??? Yeah i was too

Then the first week he will start on afternoons then the week after he will be there for morning and dinner and then the 3rd week they start school full time.

I struggled with DD going until 1 for half a term last September and then picking up DS at 3. She has moved schools since then who very sensibly going in full days straight away.

I'm just remembering to back to the dark ages when I was at school - I was just taken in the morning and picked up in the afternoon. I'd never been to nursery either (as kids didn't then).
I survived. My Mum survived. The teachers survived......

You have my sympathies. I have DC starting school this September as well, and they're not in properly until October. I've had no choice but to take a full week off work for the first week, and my fabulous CM will be doing the running back and forth after that. It is a nightmare for working parents definitely.

However, the teacher explained to me that they do this for very good reasons. School is different to nursery and even those children used to full-time nursery care find it tiring to adjust to school. Research has shown that this way has significant benefits for all children (just not for their parents ).

This scenario, although ridiculous is not as bad as the 5 weeker for my daughter last year. We didn't even get as much notice as you.

They are too young to understand why everyone is being treated differently - my daughter got quite upset by it.

Don't feel pressured to stay for lunch. They will probably allocate a teacher to the kids whose mums can't be there. It is an invitation only.

In my experience, schools have little understanding of working parents' commitments..be at school for this meeting, that meeting, sports day, parents eve, snow days...

sounds very complicated, my son starts in Sept and its part time for 3 weeks but i dont know which sessions he's going to yet, home visits are in july so easy enough. i need to get back to work really but i've decided to just not look til after September, its not like you can just take a week off. hopefully a grandparent will have retired by the time my daughter goes to help out.

When is your child 5? If it is NOT between Sept and Dec, you could defer them starting until after Christmas (or Easter) and then keep him/her in nursery until then. Might be easier with childcare.

I think this sounds ridiculous - DS started school five years ago - he had a couple of 'taster' days in the previous term and then a proper start 9-3.30 or whatever from day 1 of the new term; no problems at all. Surely this 'softly, softly' approach confuses the child even more - with mum coming in for lunch some days and some times not at all .

It does sound very confusing and complicated, but you have too realise that the school is about educating children, not providing childcare for working parents.

They have to put the children and the school first, even if that does make it a PITA for parents. Sorry, I know that's not very helpful.

Can you still take parental leave? I'd guess that this sort of situation is exactly what it's for.

Doesn't seem confusing to me and your child will go full time a lot sooner than some do. Mine weren't full time until January.

Lord above I thought my DS school was complicated. His had;

home visits first few days.
Autumn births started f/t Mon
Spring births am only following Thurs until mid Oct.
Summer births (my DS) following Mon am only til after Oct 1/2 term.

He did actually do 10 days at his day nursery as I am LP and work. They usually will take children until they're 5yo? Then started his CM when he started school and did PM with her and then when f/t just the before/after school care. Complete nightmare finanicially and not doable if it wasn't for tax credits.

They have scrapped it now after so many complaints - mine was basically it hindered DS settling not not helped as friendship groups were hard to form and he thought and was genuinly convinced he must have done something wrong not being allowed to stay like others.

They agreed with me when he went F/t and was so much happier.

YADNBU.

It sounds very confusing!

Mine starts in September and is mornings only FOR A WHOLE TERM!! Think the school in my borough might be in cahoots with childminders