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?

Dd will go from 1:10 till 3:10 first week then 8:50 till 11:30 2nd week and 8:50 till 3:10 third week and from then on.

When DD started we had the option of starting full time or some form of phasing in. AFAIK almost everyone chose the full time straight away. The sort of phasing in described here would have been a nightmare to work with.

And of course I didn't see school as free child care. I had been paying for reliable child care for years and had organised suitable wrap around care to suit school hours. But that would have been blown out of the water by this sort of staggered start.

TBH DDs days out of the house actually got shorter when she started school. Before then I worked 4 days a week and she was in a private nursery so one of us was dropping her at nursery at about 8:30am and picking her up shortly before 6pm. When she started school I changed to 5 short days instead of 4 full one so I was able to take her to school myself and leave her there at 9am then pick her up from after school club before 5pm.

I'm dreading this next year (that, and the fact that breakfast club opens at 815 and I'm in work at 820, dh at 730). I just don't get it. ds has been in nursery every day from 745 to 430 fur the last 3 years. school is going to be a shorter day, albeit without all the snacks.

Oh don't get me started on breakfast club... We don't have one and you can't drop them off before 9.05am...so we have to pay a clean fortune for breakfast club at a nearby nursery as both of us start before then.

Astronaut,

I know that it seems for some parents as if their children could cope with a much longer school day, given the comparison with nursery.

The point is that, while nursery has 'childcare' as its prime aim, and so it is fine - indeed good - if the child spends some 'downtime' there, school doesn't have that downtime. Reception may look much like nursery, and in the first few weeks often is to soften transition, but there IS much more need for focus, much more of the day when things will be demanded of your child.

I teach much older children now, and tbh I think some of them WOULD be fine with longer days (although very many of them have days lengthened by childcare / out of school clubs and activities anyway - my 10 year old is out of the house for over 13 hours continuously 1 day per week, and never for less than 10, mainly with activities that cann for at least as much focus and energy as school). But at 4 / 5, school hours, in a properly planned Reception setting, is plenty.

our council started all day intake from day 1 nine years ago , and has been a great success. most kids have parents who work so are used to separation.

I agree and think it's completely unnecessary and counterproductive. We are a family of 2 parents working full time so perhaps I'm biased but I honestly think most children would be absolutely fine with full time from the off, straight into the routine. It's just a couple of weeks of mornings only at my daughter's school but has still meant my partner and I having to take 5 days each off, unless we can wangle some of it as "working from home." If we can't, it will be a full working week each of our precious annual leave and 10 extra days we will have to find childcare for all our children and miss out on seeing them during the Christmas or Easter or half term breaks.

We are lucky there are two of us. I just don't know how working single parents manage to spend any time with their families sometimes. We are also very fortunate to have relatively generous annual leave agreements (6 weeks each plus bank holidays) and flexible employers. The statutory minimum annual leave entitlement is just 28 days inclusive of bank holidays. Surely very few people want to spend over 1/3rd of their holiday entitlement wrapping around their 4 year old's very short school day, especially if they know that said 4 year old has managed full time daycare since babyhood? I agree that school is different in kind from daycare, but reception is the first gentle step into school and should not really present a massive shock to the system of a child used to being in an early years setting.

Hulababy, the better of the two local nurseries does pick up at whatever time they finish, as does the creche run by the largest local employer, so that is ok. I worked full time by the time my DC started school but worked nights, so just didn't sleep, not much different from when they were at pre school.

It was a PITA though, you're right, but as they are quick to say, school is not chil care, it is education, it is up to the parents to deal with child care.

YANBU - DS's school did this last year and I think it led to DS being really unsettled. Unfortunately I had no idea until July when they sent round a letter telling us there would be 4 weeks of settling in. DH was working two contracts simultaneously in September, and September is one of the busiest months of the year for me, so even if I had had any AL left, I couldn't have taken it (moot point anyway as AL generally gets booked at least 8 months in advance).

The nursery DS had gone to since he was 6 months old couldn't take him, so I ended up having to find a childminder for 3 weeks, who DS had never met, which was far more unsettling than just starting school.

I agree there may be children who would benefit, but in DS's case (full-time at nursery from a baby), it made the introduction to school far more stressful and unsettlling than it might otherwise have been. I don't really understand why it couldn't be optional - if you feel your child needs it, as I understand some children may benefit.

Ds2 starts. Fortunately he is only part time for a week.
That's because I asked for him to go full time.
The new law, introduced in 2011, to support working parents, says that Children should go full time, if parents request.
I requested. I got it. Other working parents shod do the same.

DD2's school used to have a system whereby all children with birthdays in autumn term started f/t from day 1, those with spring or summer term birthdays had to do half days until the term they turned 5. This was a nightmare as when DD1 started at this school there were no childcare providers of any sort who would do a midday pickup. Fortunately the school allowed us to defer her start until January when she could do f/t and she settled in just fine. With DD2 there was provision and I took it - and I wish I had deferred her too. She was miserable at having to do half days when so many of her friends could stay all day and have lunch at school. Add to that the fact that all the numeracy and literacy work was in the mornings and all the 'fun' stuff was in the afternoon when she was missing out - and she knew this full well - and we had to deal with a very angry, unhappy, unsettled, difficult little girl for a term. None of that would have happened had she been allowed to start f/t.

The school in this case wanted to accommodate her f/t - they agreed she was ready - but it was the LEA who imposed a blanket rule (this was before the change to allow full time from the start).

Schools should be allowed - and made - to be fully flexible in the interest of all children - a prolonged settling in period is definitely not best for all children.

I also found that my dd was so excited to start school that it was a huge disappointment to only have a morning.

Provided schools are flexible and prepared to make allowances for those children who's parents feel need the gentle introduction then I don't know why they can't just go straight to full time.

I realise schools aren't child care but at the same time it is just not always physically possible to find people to do it.

See, I think schools and childcare providers are missing a trick. I have no desire to provide childcare- although the age group I tesch are all too desperate to be out of the door- but I can't understand why schools don't start having on site facilities for childcare. If there'd been something line that where I work, it would make a fortune. and been useful for childcare students.

Many schools now do have before and after school childcare.

But they start and finish at the normal school times so not any good fir staggered starts.

YANBU. DD started on full days and was fine. When DC start school you need to save your annual leave for school holidays, why on earth would you want to use it all up in September!

DD's primary has excellent on-site before and after school care. It's brilliant. However, it can't help with the part-time beginning of Reception, because it's in the school canteen - so exactly when the half-day starts or finishes (depending on whether you are a morning or an afternoon child) the canteen is full of the rest of the school ... and the playground (which the after school club makes extensive use of) is full of 400+ hurtling bodies.

Before and after school care is, though in school buyildings, not run by the school, but by a committee of parents, who then employ professional staff (like most pre-schools). I seem to remember that if the school itself runs it, then it gets attached to e.g. their Ofsted inspection, with any weaknesses being counted against the school. I don't know of any schools where such clubs are run by staff emplyed by the school, though i know of many run in the school buildings.

YANBU. No one in the school could explain why the entire class started on day one but left at 11.45 for three weeks. DD1's new CM did pick up but she was on her own until the other charges were picked up at 3.15. CM is lovely but a weird way to start the school year, all alone with a new childcare provider. DD was so unsettled as she didn't know whether was coming or going. Got much better as soon as they got in to the proper routine.

I would have been more accepting of the situation if the school could have offered some explanation for their system, or if all local schools followed a similar pattern. Some started full time from day two. The DCs were absolutely fine with it.

I am seriously thinking of keeping DD2 in nursery for a few weeks more when she starts next year.

astr0naut yy to this! I have often thought a savvy business could be making a mint with wraparound childcare on the premises and the school could increase their funds by charging a rental (enough to cover any insurance issues plus a margin).

School isn't supposed to be childcare but my goodness the sites are well designed to facilitate it! (I recall a thread about using schools for summer schemes, that is in the same vein!)

Dd2's school does a split intake,the kids born before march will start full time from Thursday. The rest of the kids will start full time from the following Thursday - and they get shown the routines by the kids that were in the first start.

Dd2 was in the second start when she began and I just kept her at her day nursery until the day before she started.

yanbu. Thankfully DD only has a week of half days.

I don't know of any local schools that AREN'T used either for before and after school clubs, or summer schemes, or both - though some don't offer schemes throughout the summer because it's prime building-work time in schools.

..and of course the school are getting funding for full days aren't they even though the child may have 4 weeks of full days

'4 weeks of half days'
I am surprised more parents don't just think sod this and send them to nursery for the first month til fulltime starts.