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.

This is indeed just the start of school assuming you're sitting at home, twiddling your thumbs all day. Put your DH down as primary contact because if your child is ever ill, they will be deeply unimpressed by you being 90 minutes away

This happened to me in 1996 with ds1. I ended up taking redundancy (and a career break )as I didn’t have anyone at all (and I did try really hard) to do the half days for half a term that was required - wrap around care and childminders being thin on the ground too.
Not everyone has ‘grandparents or someone’. We didn’t. I hope you can sort it out - but it goes to show that people who go on about sahm and dads don’t always realise that there isn’t an alternative when children are at school ( not to mention the numerous holidays) people need to work and keep their jobs these days / schools should take this into account a bit more these days in my opinion!

Schools are terrible for assuming the kids have a parent at home all day!

When DS1 started reception were a week behind everyone else (which like you we were told at fairly short notice) They did however offer the option of a 'full' start or a staggered one so he went full time straight away. He's one of the older in the year but had no problems.

Also look out for short notice of - inset days, sports day, assemblies parents can attend

Can you find a local nanny or childminder who you could start getting to know? My ds was part time until after xmas, but luckily we already had a part time nanny for the dcs, who did the early pick ups.

Not RTFT but this doesn't sound bad for a summer baby. In ds' infant school they didn't start FT untl January!

DS is an autumn baby so we had a week of mornings only, a week of afternoons only (the most difficult to manage but my mum came to stay) and a week of mornings with lunch. DH and I each took a week off.

It is a real pain and all schools do things differently eg a local primary school only had a week's part-time for their autumn borns.

To be fair though, although DS was in full time nursery he was exhausted by school. I have a photo of him fast asleep on the sofa after his first morning :)

Just to say childminder isn't necessarily the answer as they can't take over their ratios, and if your child is 4, they have to be in full time education to be treated as a 5 year old under the ratios. I don't know if my cm had it right, but she interpreted that as actually being full time in school, so wouldn't take my ds until he was in week 4 and going all day.

It’s very annoying. I’m hoping when it’s our turn his childminder will be able to help.

For what it’s worth though I started school in 1990. Autumn born were full time from the beginning. Spring born did mornings until Christmas. Summer born did afternoons until Christmas then mornings until
Easter and only full days in the summer term.

Goodness only knows what a working parent did. And how could a teacher plan for that??

I've heard of even longer settling in periods! I'd speak to the head teacher and ask that your DS either starts full time from when you were expecting him to or you will be withdrawing him for the week and sending him to his previous pre school.

They may start talking about unauthorised absences etc but as your DS is under 5 legally there is anything anybody can do.

However a child being off for a week will make an impact on their attendance figures which I suspect is why they are saying collection at 1.30 I suspect lunch would finish earlier, children will come in and get their registration mark and then go home.

Going home after getting the afternoon registration mark will not make a difference to their attendance figures.

We had this at my kids school......twenty years ago. There weren't even after school clubs then and the half days went on for two weeks. I remember it being a pain then, but it is standard.

I think it helps with the transition to school for the new starters.

I'm wondering where the posters who say 'get a childminder' for those couple of weeks live? All the childminders in my area are massively in demand, they wouldn't take anyone for a couple of weeks, why would they when they have a waiting list?

I have no idea how I'll stretch my annual leave this year, maybe one of us will have to take parental leave but I'm unsure if we can afford it as we are paying nursery fees for our youngest. We'll figure it out but it'll be a struggle.

Normal and very annoying

It’s very standard practice OP

Our school doesn't do phased starts or half days. Neither do any of the local ones I know of. All my DC started the first week of September, doing full school days like everyone else in the school. Everyone - teachers and pupils- seems to be doing just fine. So the mess the OP describes is not the norm.

*Put your DH down as primary contact because if your child is ever ill, they will be deeply unimpressed by you being 90 minutes away

I also like Kokeshi's point.
@MissMarplesKnitting when you say How the hell do you think teachers with reception age kids cope? We take unpaid leave if we can, beg friends etc and have to suck it up.
... Well, the rest of us get 4-5 weeks of leave a year and are 'begging friends and sucking it up' for many of those 10 or so blimming school holiday weeks already. And not all of us have handy local friends or family for childcare, or the ability to take a week's unpaid leave.
Teaching is a tremendously challenging job with lots of difficulties not faced by others but managing school holidays is one area where surely you can see that parents who work elsewhere face different issues.

Our school doesn't work like this.

Staggered first days but they go straight to full days. I think there may be a rule about no breakfast club for the first 2 weeks but that's it. They claim it works best for the children to get used to a full day as quickly as possible and that half days can be unsettling as it gives children a false impression. Other local schools start children in the way you describe. So clearly there's no consensus about what works best.

YANBU - and the comment about a grandparent would have left me fuming.

I'd be very interested to read the evidence on staggered starts, especially for summer borns. OK, they're younger and may take longer to settle in, but surely giving them less time in the new environment just draws out that process? I think someone posted a link on another thread suggesting that one possible contribution to the summer born disadvantage was that they were often not in school reduced hours compared to their older peers. It would make more sense to me to start the younger ones first to give them more help in those first few days and weeks!

We have been offered staggered start for late August-born DS but I think we will probably go full time very soon as he's used to long days in nursery. If he's shattered and needs to take a nap in the story corner I have absolutely no problem with that (apparently it happens quite a lot in reception!) but I don't want him to have less time to make friends and get used to his new routine and its demands.

Separately we need to decide whether to start him in wrap around care in August so he's already used to that when school starts, or whether to see if we can be around to pick him up before and after school so we can help him with the emotions of settling in. It's a minefield!

It's one week of your life. - no it's not, the DS that had to do staggered starts (August born) didn't start full time until after half term, at the end of October!

Didn't start til mid Sept, then a couple of hours with parent for a week, a couple of hours without, etc etc. I used up about 15 days of annual leave, which was 15 days I couldn't spend with my children in the holidays that year.

Also, that was the school that couldn't cope with his (as yet undiagnosed) SEN so I had to move him 6 months later anyway - to a school that started with no settling in period.

I found it a total waste of time to be honest.

I'm about to face this too. Had a letter about two meetings. Short notice, and within working hours. Also my eldest, so I had no idea, no matter how standard it is. And when the current childcare isn't an option, and everyone works, it's no reassurance to hear that 10 weeks is enough to perform a miracle. Sharing your dispair op.

Our school used to have process where they started a week later and summer burns then did a week of afternoon, then mornings now full time. Working parents complained so they changed it so everyone does the same as your school and there isn’t an optional second staggered week

So do you know parents is your Ds doing morning because he is summer born or is everyone. If it’s just his birthdate I think you could approach the school and explain the situation and that as he has been at nursery 8-6 he can cope

Personally I think pushing you child from a legal view into a situation where they will be the only child is not starting school well. Asking for a summer born to be treated like autumn born because he is used to long days and the teachers are teaching anyway is different

We had half days for 6 weeks! Alternating, one mornings and the next afternoons! i think they have changed it to three now. So think you are getting off lightly tbh. Did you not thinking about asking about settling in arrangements when you checked out the school?

Some people I know used a nearby childcare who did the drop offs etc or got a student to help...might be ideas?

I suspect our children's private schools were a bit more reliable in telling you the dates although even one of those with at least a year or two's notice had Friday afternoons off so we had to spend 8 months teaching their daily nanny to drive, get her through her test (she looked after the younger 2 at home) so she could drive 30 minutes there and back (our 5 year old used the school coach at other times which inconveniently did not run at noon on Fridays when only the youngest were free) to collect her.

Things we have done included adverts in local paper - we found a lovely older lady who drove and did little bits of part time work so could do school collections etc albeit at £10 an hour., It was quite expensive but it maintained our two full time careers which over the years (I have been working for over 30 years now without a break) was a really good investment in future prosperity.

If there are other parents in your posiiton may be you could find a local student who could do the pick up and take the child back to your house or flat. In our case all relatives were hundreds of miles away.

I have the opposite here, I expected a staggered start for my ds starting in september, but actually he is doing a week of full days before beginning of July to transition in and then in full time from day one in September. I'm worried he's going to be a bit overwhelmed!!

Some do this until half term. Thankfully ours was full time from first day

My DC's school started everyone on full days immediately. They said they found it easier for everyone, including Summer born children. My DC is Summer born and was a bit tired the first time (he was in preschool only 2.5 days per week the term before) but was fine.

There are online chichild care companies like babysitters.com or something like that where you can get ad hoc child care. I should know as I work ad hoc hours, ad hoc weeks, so only need sporadic child care. Been doing it for years. Nothing is impossible. If you work and have children its just part if the package not the schools fault