Primary school settling in for 3 weeks?!

[Smarshian]

My eldest is due to start school in September. We have just been sent a letter about her settling in. Reception will not be in the first week (1st-3rd September), they will then do mornings (9-11.30) for one week and afternoons (1.15-3.30) for one week, before starting full time from 20th September.
Is this normal?! What are working parents supposed to do for those weeks? She goes to nursery full time at the moment and I will obviously ask them if they can do any wrap around either side, but it just seems a ridiculous amount of settling in and we can’t work around 3 weeks of 2.5hrs or less of school.

I haven't commented on whether the staggered starts serve the needs of children or not. I've said that in looking at whether to have them or not, it will be the needs of children that are considered rather than the needs of parents.
In my dc's school the class was divided in 2, mornings and afternoons. This meant that instead of having a full class all at once the teacher could get to know half the class at a time. I'm sure anyone could see the benefits for children in that. This only lasted two weeks though (a week and a half with inset) which I think is enough.

[quote Lettuceforlunch]@MarjorieBouvier - I’m not even going to waste my time. If you choose to be professionally offended by a turn of phrase and want to turn what I said into something it’s not, fine. Have fun with your bad grasp of the English language - can’t be easy going through life like that, mind.[/quote]
This is very rude.

it will be the needs of children that are considered rather than the needs of parents.

It is utterly ridiculous to not acknowledge they are interlinked.

I've said that in looking at whether to have them or not, it will be the needs of children that are considered rather than the needs of parents.

But in many cases neither are taken into consideration, many schools do it because it's always been that way and no one has complained. It's certainly the case at my school.

And it's that attitude that has made teachers jobs so much harder

Is it the attitude, or is it the introduction of policies like this - pretty new and abandoned by most schools as entirely counterproductive because of impact the community? Schools that do more than a couple of days of settling cause enormous problems.

And as most schools do not do this it's really hard to make a case of necessity. There is no evidence to support positive effect from protracted partime attendance.

And a great deal of disruption to the child, who has to undergo multiple transitions, rather than just one.

Well I suspect that's why many schools don't do it, or do it for a few days only. I think you are trying to miss my point though.

@Mistressiggi - in the past, schools may well have tried to meet the needs of all children (note I used meet and not serve, just so that we’re all clear ) with their staggered starts. In 2021, staggered starts and chopping and changing meet the needs of no one - children, parents or society. The majority of children will be used to full days in nursery. Just 3 hours in school each day for 6 weeks will come as a shock. Parents struggle to cover the downtime and employers/wider society lose out. It’s an old fashioned practice and one that has, technically at least, been outlawed. Parents can demand their children are in school full time from day one and so they should be. My DCs’ schools are thankfully rather more modern than some on here.

It's very normal, my dds are 17 and 14 and that's the way it was when they started. It's a big transition starting school and very tiring for them.

Ours is a week of till 12

Then a week lunch and collect 1

Then full time

Mad really as used to doing all day at Pre school

Tho obv has the 6w summer hols inbetween

@FallingStar - it might have been over a decade ago but it’s not now!

@meditrina I think you've misunderstood. I said it was the entitled attitude of schools being there to 'serve' parents that made teachers jobs harder.

I 100% agree it should be full attendance from day 1, with a more staggard start for the few children who need it.

@Mistressiggi - what’s rude is a poster with a bad grasp of English becoming offended by a phrase they have misunderstood and then going off on a tangent about it, thus derailing the thread. It’s a weak tactic oft-used on here, sadly.

@Mistressiggi

Well I suspect that's why many schools don't do it, or do it for a few days only. I think you are trying to miss my point though.

I don't believe i'm missing you point. You said in looking at whether to have them or not, it will be the needs of children that are considered rather than the needs of parents. However that's not the case in my school. We do a staggered start because it's always been that way, parents and children don't factor into it. It's just done because it's what the school is used to doing. Each year I wish parents would complain so SLT would have a reason to consider if it's actually beneficial or not.

@MarjorieBouvier - except no one said that, did they? You’re clearly being deliberately obtuse now

Have fun with your bad poor grasp of the English language

[quote Lettuceforlunch]@MarjorieBouvier - except no one said that, did they? You’re clearly being deliberately obtuse now [/quote]
Honestly, you are just proving you actually do have that entitled attitude I'm talking about with your comments. You can scroll back and see in, black and white, where you said schools are there to serve parents.

As an old MNetter, I'd like to point out that although some schools required DC to delay start until Jan (or even April) based in when in the year their birthday fell, this sort of mandatory long term part time attendance was exceptionally rare before this century (I won't say 'never' because someone's bound to pop up with a counter example)

It's a recent thing (fashionable about 2000-2010) but one which now is arguably wrong in law, as schools must offer full time places to all those whose parents request them, from the start.
(I can't remember which year that came in, but I think early teens?)

But no-one wants to get arsey with a schools at the outset, even though schools are in the wrong in having protracted mandatory part time regimes.

There is no particular benefit, and for some families there is significant difficulty, and for many children there is additional disruption from unfamiliar temporary bridging arrangements.

That's why most schools have abandoned this. It harms the community for no particular benefit.

I think avoidable my causng entirely predictable detriment to your new joiners and their families is a sign of a good school which values relationships with the community

I do think it is more about the teachers getting to know the pupils in smaller groups, and then spending time creating planning based on this, than about how tired they will be. Though mine were both very, very tired!

They were doing this when mine started (will be Y9 in Sept). Fortunately my parents did the first week where they were only in for part of a morning, I then worked half days/half holidays for the second week. They'd previously been in nursery 8-6pm so would not have had any problems with 9-3:15pm.

It is for your child's well-being not for yours.

You do realise that most parents who WOH don't do it because it enhances their "well-being"? They do it out of necessity. It's not going to be very good for a child's wellbeing if a parent loses their job is it? I'm so glad my DC's school doesn't hold with this nonsense, all children are in full time from day one (unless they need a bespoke transition due to SEN) because they recognise that in the real world people need to work to keep a roof over their child's head and very few are privileged enough that they can pick and choose their own hours or take up to a months unpaid leave.

Also, what about those of us who work in schools? I wonder how many of those saying OP should suck it up because schools aren't there for the convenience of parents would be happy for their child's Teacher to be absent for most of September because they're settling their own DC into primary school!

No teacher parent is going to be able to do drop off and pick up daily anyway, so will already have childcare in place. Our childminder extended her hours for those days. It would be good for schools to have an after school facility as well as I know not every place has Childminder's. To be honest most children seem to be collected by a parent - or grandparent - I don't know how they manage it but on the one day I collect that's what I see.

Here’s a spanner in the works. Why shouldn’t a parent feel entitled not to have their child unsettled and messed about?

Am I being entitled when I expect my doctor to treat me? Is it entitled to want a community midwife to do all the proper checks?

Obviously, we are appreciative and polite. But it isn’t entitled at all to not want this!

@Mistressiggi

No teacher parent is going to be able to do drop off and pick up daily anyway, so will already have childcare in place. Our childminder extended her hours for those days. It would be good for schools to have an after school facility as well as I know not every place has Childminder's. To be honest most children seem to be collected by a parent - or grandparent - I don't know how they manage it but on the one day I collect that's what I see.

No full time working parent is able either. So they arrange long term childcare for before and after school, however, 3 weeks of needing to be available to drop and pick up at odd times which aren’t part of that arrangement means short term childcare arrangements which will further unsettle children. We don’t have family or other support around us to facilitate this, which is why we rely on permanent childcare arrangements.

Yes but mistress that childcare won’t necessarily be able to cover part time hours.

I agree three weeks is too long.
There are working parents who can take leave and make arrangements, flexitime and shift time - I made the point about school staff as another poster raised it, they are ones I definitely know cannot use flexi/annual leave etc.
I thought it might be useful to hear from people about how they had managed it as obviously many of us have had this situation.