To wonder how the heck schools expect working parents to cope with this?

[Worriedaboutdog]

Apologies this may be a rant. DS1 is due to start school in September. We have therefore put childcare plans in place based on him starting school on the first day of term in September. School have just announced that:

a) reception start a week later
And
b) as a summer birthday, DS actually will do half days for another week after that, and ‘must be picked up at 1.30pm’.

No mention of either of these things was made when we looked round the school. We have already juggled the time off we have available to look after him over the summer. As it happens it’s probably easier for us than most parents as DH is a shift worker so can cover some days, but we were relying on him going to school at the beginning of September, and being in after-school club on days DH isn’t at home until I can get there to pick him up. Wtf are parents who both work Monday-Friday meant to do about two extra weeks?! This was all announced today in a meeting (I couldn’t go, because it was at 3.30pm, but DH did), and when he asked the class teacher if they had to go home at lunchtime or could stay and then go to after school club, she said they had to go home and we’d have to get ‘a grandparent or someone’ to pick them up. So we’ll just magic up a grandparent physically fit and willing enough to do a whole week of half days childcare, who is actually able to drive to the school, then.

He can possibly go back to his current nursery for the week he isn’t in school at all, but the half days are stumping me. I think I probably am being unreasonable to be cross - I realise school is not designed to be childcare, and therefore not run for the convenience of the parents, BUT they must know that parents make assumptions (based on the information on their website!) about the dates of terms and the length of the school day, and make arrangements accordingly. And that this just isn’t feasible for everyone, and if they don’t bloody tell you about it until June then plans (and budgets) for September childcare are already in place! Argh.

im.not really sure how it helps children settle in ds2 is severly autistic and has learning disabilities and goes to a special school , when he started the whole class started full time from day one bearing in mind all the children have significant special needs they managed just fine

@NotTakenUsername this isn't for the child though, it would be for the parents

@EstrellaDamn it’s not only on mn. The school is legally obliged to offer a full-time place from the start of term. Parents who challenge the system change the system. I tried it, it worked well.

How do you plan to cover the schools holidays, that's an ongoing headache for working parents

I think this is pretty standard.

It's worrying how much stuff that schools know that they assume everybody else knows too - but they don't - especially if it is your eldest child and you don't have anything to do with school before starting. It really wouldn't hurt them to think this through just a little and have it in their standard info so parents that don't already have older children and that have already been through the system have an idea of what's going on...

When ds1 started school they eked out the staggered starts and part days for what seemed like forever. Most of the kids that had been doing a full day at nursery ended up really discombobulated with the constant chopping and changing and half days or half day plus lunch before they got full days, and all the parents agreed that they would have settled much better if they had started full days right from the beginning - maybe with a proviso for the first half of term that if any of the dc were struggling, then they could be picked up a bit early or dropped off a bit late, without worrying about attendance figures. They only really began to settle down once the full days started.

By the time ds2 started, they had changed it so they started a week late still (they like to use the time to visit all children at home, so most of them stayed at nursery for an extra week; this was well advertised up front so people didn't lose their nursery place because they didn't realise) then they got the summer born to start on the monday, the spring term born to start on the Tuesday and those born before Christmas to start on teh wednesday and that was it. Again, well publicised so people using nursery could plan their leaving day. Children were all so much happier and settled much more quickly - think the older dc that had had a tempting vision of half days of school, half days with mummy/etc but then had to settle back into full time school ended up much more disappointed as they'd seen the joy of free afternoons! (or mornings in some cases...)

Here's a radical thought. Why don't parents lobby Government to defer the school starting age until 6 yrs old?
It would do away with the need for part-time formal education and bring this country into line with other enlightened countries who sensibly realise that 4 years old is too young!

You don’t have to accept staggered starts - very unsettling for children who have been in full time nursery. All you have to do is notify the school that your DC will be attending full time from the first date of term.

OP is your child Spring or Summer born? Because another, slightly more extreme way of getting round the pantomime is to withhold your child from starting school altogether until the staggered starts are over and keep them in their previous childcare setting. If they are not yet 5 you are entitled to do that and entitled to keep getting 15 hours a week paid for. Then you would keep your routine and predictability. I kept DC1 in preschool till after Christmas the year she started reception, not because I was avoiding the staggered starts but because she was still a bit on the young side imo to be going to school just days after her 4th birthday. She started straight in at full days in the January and had benefited from being one of only a small handful of older children in the pre-school’s phonics and numeracy group, and was more than ready for school when she actually started. The school complained bitterly about how inconvenient it would be for them for me to send her in a term later than the others, but it did her a huge amount of good - see, I do have my child’s best interest at heart! In spite of what school think

Op I speak from experience. There were times when Dd was younger I stayed quiet so as not to ‘upset the apple cart’. I still feel guilty about it.

But this is of little consequence to your Ds so a totally different situation!

Schools are 50 years behind government employment policy. If you are a single parent, you are expected to seek work as soon as your child starts school (by the government) and to NOT work, and to be available for everything, by the school.

There is a definite air of "your child NEEDS you to be involved with the school!" I caused uproar when I informed my son's primary I would not be coming to watch swimming lessons because I had a job.

Which is insane. There isn't a teacher in this country who can just have every Thursday and Monday mornings off to watch their own two children walk up a training pool with a float, why is it assumed everyone else can?

A school near me has half days which are a mixture of mornings/afternoons until Christmas. My children's school only did half days for a week.

I’m reading my way through the info pack. Apparently we need to set up a standing order to make a voluntary contribution to the school each month.

‘Voluntary’

One of the schools near me introduced the staggered starts over a five week period. 80% of the parents notified the school that their DC would be attending full time from day one. The staggered start idea was then dropped. The majority of the children had been in nursery from 8-6 and both parents worked full time.

School is not childcare.
They do not have a responsibility to working parents.

I never really understand this.

School is ‘childcare’ in the sense that we are compelled by law to send children to school, where they are ‘in care’ of them until the end of the school day.

I can’t just decide I’ll do what I like with regards to the ‘care’ of my child once they reach school age - I have to prove I am giving them the opportunity for education. I can’t choose alternative ‘childcare’ even if I wanted to - my only other option is home ed, and that’s not ‘childcare’ either.

So schools are childcare. They need to support working parents wherever possible as they should recognise that education and welfare of the children does not occur in a vacuum - Home situation/support/environment is crucial.

Like many others, I would say this is common, all the schools round here do soem kind of staggered start, some more complicated than others.
I seem to remember we had a week of mornings, a week of afternoons, and two days of mornings plus lunch before they let them go full time. It was ok for us as I was on maternity leave or work from home at the times, but I can see it would be a massive pain for two full time working parents or a single parent.

Even if legally you can insist he goes full time I agree with everybody that would be weird and horrible for him.

In our area, there are always Facebook groups set up for children starting Reception in each school, who then try to arrange get togethers over the summer. Maybe worth seeing if you can meet some other people starting at the same school, and you may hit it off with someone who you could take turns on the lunchtime pick up with.

Unfortunately for you, from my experience, (having so far gone through 8 years of schooling with three children) most things to do with primary school are a massive pain if you work full time. They are always 'inviting' parents to come and watch things or join in with things during the daytime, and usually give very little notice when you need to collect your child early or similar. This is why I currently work very part time from home. The good news is it improves at secondary school where they seem to realise most parents work.

OP - check whether your school is a polling station ASAP. Childcare cover for election days is always particularly tricky (and these days are in addition to inset days). Plus ask about planned building work - our school closed for an additional 4 days for this. Meaning we had 6 extra days to cover that school year (by-election and scheduled election).

My kids school had a ludicrous staged start strung out till half term when DS1 started, but the parents rebelled queried it and it was then deemed to be unnecessary and they said they would have a "child-centred" approach. They all went full time. DD 2 years later started full time the second day of term.

Your child is legally entitled to a f/t education from the term after they turn 5 so yeah, you could insist on that but you have a plan for the first week - nursery if possible; then potentially you and OH could share the half days off? The "summer born" thing seems utterly arbitrary and if he's been in f/t nursery then the adjustment won't seem massive

Our school didn't do a half day option... thank God. Waited 5 years for that day

Haven't read all the thread yet but when mine started years ago they started three weeks after the older ones in the class and then when they did start they did half days until the term they turned five! This was Easter for one of mine.
It was a bloody nightmare.

Well, the bottom line is that how "working parents cope with this" isn't actually the school's concern. They have the children's best interests at heart, and a staggered start has long been held (by most schools) as being conducive to them settling in better.

How various parents organise their childcare is up to them.

My son is autistic and this would never have worked for him so we kept him in nursery until all the children were full time in October and he just did it in one go. He would never have understood the part time element and it would have been a nightmare for us.

Oh and there’s also an info sheet from the PTA with dates they’re arranging informal meets over the summer in the local park for the children to meet and play. They specifically say they’ve tried to vary the days and times so that as many people can make it as possible. Lovely idea. Except not one of the dates is on a weekend.

I’m actually feeling really despondent - I was so looking forward to DS starting school as I genuinely think he’ll love it. But now it just seems like he’ll be permanently missing out because he doesn’t have a SAH parent.

They have the children's best interests at heart

Loads of parents here are disputing that, though. Kids in FT nursery really might find it more unsettling to be picked up at random times by random people for prolonged periods.

I think a short staggered start is OK - so not all 30 children in on Day 1, but all in by the end of the week.

Parents who think their child needs more time to settle can opt out, rather than it being imposed by school on children they don’t yet know anything about.

Starting Reception parents of this kids will certainly know more about their particular child’s best interests. May not be the case by the end of Reception, but at the beginning they definitely do!