To ask how your primary school is dealing with staggered starts?

[Desperado40]

I am not sure if I am missing something, but can I ask how your schools are planning to deal with staggered start and end times for different year groups? I understand the idea is to avoid crowds gathering at the same time, but with siblings at almost opposite year spectrum, I will have 25 minutes between drop off for one and the other. I am not sure what I am supposed to do with the younger child, if not wait around the school area to drop her off 25 min later. I am not even going to mention the impact on my work (that’s for another thread). AIBU?

Thanks for the info everyone. I think generally staggered times make sense unless siblings are involved. I only have 2 but I expect it will be worse for parents with more children. I think that siblings going together at earlier time is a good option, so is sorting them out alphabetically if needed. I have a car, but for those who don’t it will be a bit grim waiting around at school gates for up to half an hour, especially in winter. Defeats the objective, surely. Unless it is a plot to get more kids in breakfast club. I am tempted to pay for the club to not have to wait around!

2 drop offs 10 mins apart. School divided in half by first letter in surname.

No staggered starts here. Everyone starts at 8.50am and goes straight into the classroom, no waiting in the playground and no getting there early.

Ours has staggered starts/ pick ups by last name - gets round the waiting for siblings problem.

Juniors 8.40 - 8.50, infants 8.55-9.05
Siblings can be dropped off together though.

I only have one in primary and we have had nothing about restarting arrangements yet, he goes back next week I work from home so it doesn’t really matter when he goes in but I can see how frustrating it is having a staggered drop off especially if you can’t wait in a nice warm car!
When DD was year 6 and DS was year 4 DD started 15 minutes earlier than DS, the reasoning was that the extra 15 minutes meant they could start learning promptly at the usual school start time rather than wasting time lining up etc to get the extra SATS preparation in. We just waited in the car but I felt the pain of those without especially in winter.
There are so many different sibling/year combinations that i can’t see any way schools can stagger the drop offs and make it fair to everyone.

2 entrances - different timeslots for different years
multiple kids - drop off at the timeslot for the youngest

Nursery AM Session

8:30 - 11:30

Reception 8:40 - 15:00

Year 1: 8:50 - 15:10

Years 2/3: 9:00 - 15:20

Year 4: 9:10 - 15:30

Year 5: 9:20 - 15:40

Year 6: 9:30 - 15:50

My DD is year 6 and I'm not best pleased about picking her up so late but at least I don't have to wait an hour between drop offs.

Three groups staggered by surname, so if you have dc at different stages, there will still be the same interval as before even if it’s offset by 10 minutes.
It seems workable.

Three gates

Yr6 - gate 1
Yr4 - gate 2
Yr2 - gate 3. To arrive 8.45. Finish at 3.00

Yr5 - gate 1
Yr3 - gate 2
Yr1 - gate 3. Arrive at 9.00. Finish at 3.15

Yr R -gate 3 Arrive at 9.15. Finish at 3.30.

If this was last year I would have a half hour wait at each end of the day, but luckily I’ve only got one in primary now so can drop/collect and go.

Eldest (year 10) gets dropped off at 8:40 at entrance A. Dc2 (year 8) gets dropped off at 9:10 at entrance B. Entrances A and B are 20 minutes walk from each other by the roads (they are not allowed to cut across the school grounds) and both dc are disabled.

Primary school where dc's 3, 4 and 5 go to haven't told us anything yet.

No idea we haven't heard anything at all yet and she goes back next Wednesday!

During lockdown it was done by year but for September it has been changed to surname split into 3 alphabetical groups so no waiting for siblings

Ours have 10 mins between drop offs. Siblings can be dropped off at the same time, and have a special (supervised) place to wait.
Not sure how it works at the end of the day.

I’m not in primary school so I couldn’t possibly say...

Our school is doing staggered drops offs by surname, if your children have a different surname you pick a time slot and name to suit all drop offs. If your child makes their own way too and from school we have to send in a signed form to allow them, all procedures will be reviewed weekly.

Three children, staggered over 30 minutes. Best thing ever with an autistic child. Really can’t wait 🤔

We can drop off in a 45 minute window and pick up is the same, there's no set time for any class and all we've been asked is to "not come at the same time everyday". The whole set up is ridiculous to me. Why they can't say reception start at 8:45 - 2:45 year one 8:55 -2:55 etc is beyond me. The teachers are going to be coming to the door every 2 minutes to let out the children as and when the parents might turn up, it'll be different every day and what if 90% pick up or drop off at the same time?

Our school has yet to say anything about return, staggered starts or otherwise. Which is fine because it’s not like parents need to plan or anything.

Each year 15mins apart, with Reception starting latest - although if they have older siblings (arriving earlier) they can enter with them and go to own classroom so parents don't need to hang around.

Our primary is doing x3 drop off/pick up times. Divided alphabetically. Only parents of P1,2 and 3s allowed in the playground.

The secondary has staggered starts by year group.

No staggering here, at either Primary or Secondary. Primary will be one way system around the site, Secondary, each year group gets a different gate. (Quite urban!)

8.30-8.45am Nursery and Reception Drop Off to their classrooms

9am-9.10am Year 1 and 2 dropped at gate not allowed on school grounds

9.20am-9.30am Year 3 and 4 Drop off at gate

9.40-9.50am Year 5 and 6 drop off at gate not allowed to walk in without an adult being seen

12.30pm - Drop off at Classroom for Nursery pm session

Pick up:
11.45am For Nursery Am Session
3.10pm From infants playground for N and R
3.30pm From gates for KS1
3.40pm From gates for 5/6 no leaving without an adult
3.50pm From gates for 3/4

No wrap around, no grandparents. Can only enter or leave at their time and you can’t pick up or drop off with siblings from other bubbles.

I give it a week before the system changes.

Our primary has 14 classes (2 for each year) they have drop off for everyone between 9& 9.30 ( as in there is no specified time for any one class just whenever suits in the 30 minute window) seems quite sensible as no issues with siblings having to be there at different times. There are 5 separate entrances being used. All classes finish at 3. We’re in Scotland so no requirement for any of the children to social distance but they are trying to keep the kids in year group bubbles so have staggered breaks / lunches so that they can segregate the year groups to specific areas of the playground. All kids eat lunch in their own class & all sports outdoors. They have been back 2 full weeks & apart from the onslaught of (non-Covid) bugs all seems to be going ok so far