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.

It always baffles me why this comes as a shock to parents.

This is standard and has the chance for your child to get to know their school and teacher in smaller groups rather than being thrown into a class of 30 children. It's also exhausting starting a new setting, with new rules, totally unfamiliar adults and children and expectations.

In nursery the ration of adults to children is much higher and in school it can be as little as 1:32 if you're that unlucky!

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

It isn’t standard at all.

@CoffeeCakey

Why do they do that? I suppose it makes sense if the children haven't been to nursery or preschool for whole days but most children round where I am have.

Very few kids do whole days, 5 days a week.

It's been standard at every school I've taught at and every school that my kids and friends kids have attempted. It's not the law, it's good practice.

Very normal but yes annoying if you have to work.
Ours did 2 hours for a week then a week of morning plus lunch before finally going in all day. It's partly so they can have half the class in at once so the teacher can get to know them and it's less overwhelming for kids with only 15 there.

You have the right to insist you will be sending your child in all day every day.

Where my sister lives they had a phase of taking the piss like this, despite almost all of the intake coming from full time preschool settings and being used to the general environment already. Parents grouped together and insisted that they would accept one week of settling in part time but would then be sending the kids in full time. The school no longer take the piss with with it now.

@PegPeople

As a former early years teacher I actually much prefer full days from day 1 and I find it suits most children. The chopping and changing for weeks on end is often more disruptive and causes many children lots of uncertainty compared to doing full days.

When DS starts school I shall be requesting he does full days from the beginning if they try to prolonge the setting in process. From my past experiences the uncertainty of knowing when he's staying to, who is picking him up or whether today is a lunch day or not is far more unsettling than knowing that knowing this is big school and you're here all day.

I agree with this. I work in a school which does staggered starts and it's so disruptive for the children. Going after dinner this day, but not the next, then collected by mum after the first morning, dad after the second, granny on day 3, childminder on day 4 etc as the parents are trying to juggle work and pick ups. I'd prefer them all starting on day 1, and wish more parents would complain as then SLT might change their minds.

My son didn't start school properly until September 30th.

We had mornings only; afternoons only; whole class mornings; whole class until after lunch.

Was a right ballache.

The school I’m a governor at changed this years ago, followed consultations with parents. It’s now full time from day one. The staggered start isn’t possible for working parents and a mixture of childcare and school, is unsettling and not a good start to school life.

Unfortunately this is completely normal as teachers know children better than their own parents do 🙄. My DD1 was terribly unsettled by all the coming and going. She has ASD, undiagnosed at the time. The lack of a fixed routine and cobbled together childcare arrangements were detrimental to her. DD2 is a 30th August birthday but hadn’t napped in two years. Wasn’t tired at all from school but was upset at not being allowed to stay to lunch like her sister. They could offer reduced hours as an option and let parents decide but we can’t be trusted to know our own children. If this was really best practice with evidence backing it up all schools would do it.

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

As I've already discussed having been on the other side as a teacher in a school operating this system and in schools which went full time from day 1 I actually found the complete opposite. It left many children confused and unsettled. Plus it caused far more disruption to their routines in being juggled here there and anywhere for a few hours at a time for weeks than when I taught the whole class for full days.

In our school all children are in at the same time for the part time hours so no further opportunities for staff to get to know children in smaller groups. It’s not consistently applied from one school to another, just down to the whims of the school and ‘how we have always done it’.

Local school recently did away with this as nursery places are full time now in Scotland so children are already used to attending for a full day.

One of the reasons we love our kids school is that there is none of this nonsense. All in full time from day 1. Very experienced head of early years there thinks it's better to get the children used to the right routines from the off.

Is this normal?! What are working parents supposed to do for those weeks?

Normal in most schools I know and we used a mixture of a couple days flexible working by pre building up some hours, some annual leave, and 1/2 days. dh and I shared equally. This is what I have seen other colleagues use too.

If you know other parents in same class you could potentially save some annual leave by sharing the load for a couple of days. Use grandparents or family if available/willing. We didn't have any of these so we both put aside some annual leave to use. The good news is you have plenty of notice to put plans in place.

We signed up for afterschool, but they did not take them until after the settling in period either. In hindsight I can see why as even though ds was in nursery 4 days a week from an early age he was still incredibly overtired after school days for the whole first term.

@Sawyersfishbiscuits

It's been standard at every school I've taught at and every school that my kids and friends kids have attempted. It's not the law, it's good practice.

I disagree that it's standard or best practise. We're the only school in my area that does a staggered start, the rest are in full time from day one. A few days of staggering the intake to make it less overwhelming is one thing. However, several weeks of half days, no school one day but in again the next and a hodge podge of collection arrangements is confusing and disruptive for children.

I thought this nonsense had been phased out. A week of half days is one thing. But two weeks is a nightmare for working parents, especially lone parents who have limited leave and support.

It’s not consistently applied from one school to another, just down to the whims of the school and ‘how we have always done it’.

I agree with this entirely. There was absolutely an element of this logic at the school I worked at who did staggered starts. When I queried if it was actually in the best interests of the children there was lots of comments along the lines of well no one has ever complained.

@DancesWithTortoises

Schools are run for children, not the convenience of parents. Many children struggle to settle and this is the tried and tested method that works.

No. This farting about with settling in periods is old fashioned bullshit. My kids hated it as they had been in childcare and at preschool for many hours each week and were more than ready to move forward.

Get started with the new routine right from day one. Don't faff about with it for the first few weeks.

OP, just ask if your child can go full time right from the start as you will be unable to arrange the hours with work. If they offered the school place then the place is actually there anyway regardless of whatever settling in crap they have put forward.

I'm afraid this crap is normal, unnecessary in most cases and an absolute pain in the arse.

Schools are very often extremely slow to adapt. They are stuck back in the 1950s, 60s and early 70s when there was much more often a SAHP on tap, usually the mother. This may not be the last such occasion you will be expected to materialise at the gates at the drop of a hat.

@Marmite27

I was so pleased our school didn’t do this. They started with 8 children on the first day, then added 4 more every day until the full class was in. All full days. They prioritised children with physical/educational needs, then children who didn’t have a sibling at school, then everyone else in alphabetical order.

I think you can refuse settling in, and tell school they’ll be attending full time, but I’m not entirely certain.

This seems very unfair. Some parents have to find full time childcare for 2 weeks while others start straight away, some children getting a gradual settling in period while some have to go in to a full class of kids who already know each other. Imagine being one of the final 4.

Also my mum was a primary teacher and said same as pps on here - it's actually more disruptive and unsettling for the children doing staggered starts. At our school 70% of the intake comes from the preschool close by and the children generally already know each other from a tight knit community.

Who it is easier for is the teachers - with fewer kids in at once for a few weeks it gives them a bit more capacity. But if some schools manage just fine with them all in from day one it does beg the question why they all can't do the same.

Hi Op

You can refuse this plan as your child as a legal entitlement to a full time school place from day 1. If school have trouble understanding that ask them if they'd like to provide a magic money tree to pay your mortgage.

Schools enabling the decline of feminism and women working with this shit drives me mad.

It is so unnecessary and highlights how hard to is for working parents and just piles on more guilt.
Mine are older now but we had this for 2 weeks too and actually the year my eldest started school was the first year the school started the whole of reception at same time before that the children with April and beyond birthdays started in FT in the 2nd term and 1/2 days for the whole of 1/2 term ! Beyond ridiculous.
The people who do not see it was an issue are normally those who are either SAHM or have family childcare to rely on, you have my sympathy.

Mine did that too. With DS1 it was 6 weeks!! Fortunately I was on maternity leave with DS2.

By the time DS2 went it had dropped to 2 weeks

It's normal in my experience, but very annoying. When DC1 started our school were flexible and she only had to do a week's settling (she still had to wait till mid September to start though).

The most annoying thing about it was that we had to pay full nursery fees for the weeks in September, as the funded places finish at the end of August.