to think the whole "phasing in" thing at school is just a PITA!

[Maggietess]

DD2 starts school tomorrow, the equivalent of reception class. We have first day she stays for an hour with mum or dad (great idea). Rest of this week shes in for 2 1/2 hours a day (OK I'm still with the idea in general).

Then some more kids start next week so we've another week of in til 1130.
Then the week after its 1230.
Then finally in the 4th week it's full day til 2.

And this is the improved version of settling in, it used to take nearly til halloween to get them all in with a couple of kids starting every day.

I can understand the teachers needing a couple of days, even a week to properly get to know everyone but is 3 full weeks of it not a bit ott???

They then repeat a slightly shortened version of this in P1.

Add to that that our junior school finishes at 2 and senior school at 3 and you have some parents doing collections at 12.30, 2 and 3. Total pita.

Surely its all just a bit unnecessary given that most kids these days will have been at some form of nursery before??

Or AIBtotallyU?

That's good for people who don't live in areas where there isn't much of a choice when it comes to schools Hulababy.

YY our school has changed some things recently quite happily when parents asked them to, on the basis that there was no-one available to attend meetings at lunchtime etc.

Oh I know. I know that in many areas there isn't really parental choice at all. Just that where there is it is something I would use in my decision making, and it is something I would ask about regardless when looking at schools.

The school my children attended did settling in over the term before Sept, it was chaotic, six weeks of two hours, then lunch as well, then half days and so on, a few times a week, then the six week holiday and then straight in. I just didn't do the settling in period and just started my dd in full-time which worked just fine.

The extended settling in period doesn't seem to stop some children being upset, I'd say the school where they did that seemed to have more children crying in the mornings and this went on all year. A few children don't take to school straight away and all the half-days/go home before lunch change in routines seems to make it worse, not better.

I think this system is designed for the teachers to do the admin (baseline assessments) of each child over a longer time period and not have to teach them full-time. But, why does every single child need to be tested so extensively so quickly and with tonnes of form filling? They are not all starting on the alphabet day one? I think it is tied up with the immense bureaucracy around even tiny children (at nursery and in foundation) and I'm not sure the children benefit from this (I don't blame the teachers, they are reacting to their circumstances).

Yanbu. My dds school gave option of full time in September, starting full or part time in jan with merely the expectation that by spring term every child was full time. They still insisted on three weeks of half days despite all the other options available. To say it was a PITA was an understatement. Especially as we rely on public transport to get to the school so I didn't get to go home for three weeks and dd2 had her lunch on the bus.

The fact that starting school doen't come as a cunting surprise doesn't mean that such a protracted "settling in" period is not Botha PITA and a fucking stupid idea.

It seems schools have a choice. Fuck about and make parents' lives difficult.
Or not.

YANBU. I'm sure it's better for some children but not all. I know plenty of DC including my own, who find the settling in period very upsetting as they are constantly adjusting to the different days- lunch at school one day, home early the next etc.

YANBU
Dd starts Reception on 23 September & only does half days (at most - starting with 1 hour sessions then a mind-boggling matrix of different start & finish times straddling lunch or not) until half term.
They are getting far fewer than the 15 hours a week that 3 year olds get for 1/6 of their first year at school.
Luckily I am on mat leave so can accomodate this, but it is a nightmare for working parents trying to cobble together childcare & time off work around this, for SAHP with older children at school making several trips a day to drop & collect AND for the children who don't know if they are coming or going from one day to the next.
Completely agree with the poster who said children thrive on routine.
IMO it should be staggered entry for 1-2 weeks, a week of half days & then full time for all but those who parents/teachers don't think are ready.

Sorry indie I had been referring to someone up thread saying maybe they phase because of ratios. And I don't think that's why they do it. Didn't mean to be confusing!

Nicetabard I totally agree. I think there is an element of well that's just how it's done, rather than any applied science that it is better for the kids. And I think parent power may be part of the answer in getting things changed. That was certainly why they reduced it from 6 weeks to 3 and apparently it was more successful at the 3 (according to the teacher). So I think there's an argument for trying a little less again until you find the optimal balance and then living with that for a while until you test a change again.

Some schools are definitely changing, eg parent teacher meetings in the evening rather than at alloted daytime slots like in ours, offering the parents/grandparents 2or 3 open mornings a year to come in and see what the class is like (apparently great at building trust with teacher and parents complain less the dcs aren't progressing etc etc).

I'm still happy to be told I'm totally wrong and their is great evidence that it's best for the kids but I'm yet to come across this. I think it's done for all the right intentions but, certainly for some kids, confuses them and delays them getting into a routine more than necessary.

*there not their

Maybe more parents need to complain to schools and higher, and louder too. Then maybe schools will start listening and acting.

The whole home visit thing can be a pain too whether in July or September. Working parents can't all ensure they are at home in the week to accommodate and yet some schools long down on parents who can't do them and really put the pressure on. Yet again my HT wouldn't have oven me the time to stay home for such a visit but still expects our parents to be able to do so. Dd's school visited dd at her nursery setting and she had an hour or so at the school in the July but that was worked around us very much and it worked perfectly fine. Yet many schools, my own included, insist on all three.

What's odder is schools where they have an attached preschool who still insist on the whole phasing in thing. and even more so those who then won't allow the child to remain in the preschool during the phasing in stage either.

Yanbu it is apita, I don't work but had three older children at school and a baby and ds4 was meant to do half days until October half term. Its a good half an hour walk to school and so I already do two hours of walking a day, with half days it qwould have been three hours, drop off at 9 back home by say 9:40 and then leave at 11:30 to be there for 12 there home by 12:40 depending on pace of ds4. Then out at 2:30 to collect the elder ones at 3pm. Utterly exhausting for a four year old and a complete pita. I refused and said he was legally entitled to full time and so he went full time. He had been doing 9-3 at preschool two days a week and wanted to go all day.

Lots of other parents complained as well and spoke to the Lea who said school had to offer full time. So they made it optional for those that wanted it.

Incidentally when ds3 started they didn't have so many half days, it was over two weeks rather than six weeks. Still a pita but manageable and he actually went part time until after Xmas as that was what he needed but he did full days, so all day Mon and Tues, wed at home and then all day the and Fri.

It depends on the child but protracted settling in periods over weeks that change each week etc are often confusing for the children and a complete pain for parents.

Plus there is actually no evidence it benefits the children, no studies have shown a benefit etc.

Thank goodness it is much simpler in our region (Fife). 2/3 days (9-12.40) for the first 1.5 weeks then straight into full days. However, all but two of the children had spent 1.5-2 years in the school nursery in the next-door room. No settling in needed as they were already part of the school. Things are mostly so much simpler in Scottish schools because most children go to school nursery first.

But is the phasing in any more of a PITA than school in general? Not many jobs allow you to drop off at 9 and pick up at 4. So you need childcare am and pm to cover that. Then theres holidays. And inset days. School is just a generally crap solution for those who work FT.

DD's school the entire class goes full time from day one 8.30am to 3.30pm. They have done this for years, their don't appear to be any problems and the children settle well. They know exactly here they are from day 1.

The schools round this way stopped doing this a few years ago as it was felt to be unsettling for the children. Children do full days from day one.

Most children have attended some sort of preschool setting and are used to a school environment it does seem counter productive to drag the process out.

Organising childcare 8-9 and 3-6 on an ongoing basis (or even just having children in before and afterschool clubs) is much easier than organising childcare for mornings or afternoons for a period of weeks. Nurseries won't take those children, lots of childminders won't take them either as they count as under 5s until they start school full time.

Once DS is actually started full time at (nursery) school it will be fine as he can go to tea club between 3.30 and 5.30pm. The week of nothing, followed by a week of 2 hours, then 3 hours etc means one parent can't work at all during that period.

Didn't happen in my day. I can see perhaps some doing mornings and the other half doing afternoons for the first half week - they go back on Wednesday here. Beyond that and I think it is counter-productive.

My DC starting reception this week is doing full days form the start.

We've got several stages of settling in - each 3 days. First 3 days are half the class in the morning, next 3 days are half the class in the afternoon. Stage 3 is 3 days of the full class in the morning, Stage 4 is the full class for mornings including lunch and then it's full time for everyone from 19th September. I'm hoping I get it all right!

I've tried explaining it to DD but it's quite confusing to understand. I'd much prefer if they said a week of mornings and then full time.

Settling in is from 9 to 12 for a month here I think it is too long since it is 2 weeks virtually every where else.

At the school my DC go to, the first week they do a full week is the week before half term.

They do take a long time leading up to it, part day till lunch, part days including lunch creeping in, then with the odd full day.

It works well though, so don't knock it. Not all children have done full days at nursery.

MammaTJ - but that's 7 weeks PT - how do working parents manage it?

Haven't read all the posts. My daughter started school last week in Scotland. She starts at 8.30 and finishes at three every day. There was no fazing in and she has been absolutely fine, as have all her other little friends.