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.

YANBU, it’s bonkers. A week where half do mornings, half do afternoons and then swap should be more than enough. And why no school at all for reception in the first week of term?

We didn’t have this, started full time from day one but part time was available if required

If you haven't had kids in school before it can come as a shock how little they accommodate for working parents. It's a very different ethos to nursery.

Friends school had a mini rebellion over this a few years ago. Village school without a nursery where lots of kids went to a pre school in the same village. In past years the pre school had agreed to pick up and drop off at the school to accommodate the settling in period but then they stopped doing it as they were filling more places and ended up having to delay the start date to the pre school new starters. Parents were pissed off before as they were paying a the preschool when their child was entitled to full time school but when it cascaded into taking unpaid leave for 3 weeks then they rejected the settling in period en mass and sent them full time from day 1.
My school does 1/3 on the first day 2/3 on the second and all in on the third day. I agree that reception kids are knackered but being shunted from pillar to post isn’t a relaxing experience either.

Ours did first day till 12noon then full time from second day onwards.

It’s totally ridiculous.

I’m so glad I saw a thread about this on MN last year so I was prepared for it! DC1 is starting Sept and is doing half days for the first 2 weeks, I think 1 week is probably about right but luckily I have lots of annual leave and don’t work Fridays.

The chopping and changing of week 1 mornings, week 2 afternoons, lunch on some days but not others etc. Seems like absolute madness.

It was non-negotiable when my eldest started a decade ago, but parents can now insist their child goes FT. The big plus for the children used to be that they have a higher staff to child ratio while they are still figuring out where the loos are etc, but of course the more people insist their child goes FT, the more this gets eroded. Hard to quantify or provide evidence for, but having helped out in reception it makes sense to me.

I think it also did us no harm to have to fit work round the child's schedule, just this one time in their lives, for a few weeks. If your child's normally in nursery FT then a few extra afternoons with mum or dad will be a real treat, especially if any siblings are in school or nursery.

Every kid has this. You might want to get used to the general disruptive nature of having a primary school aged child before you become that parent.

It might seem "ridiculous" to you. So will trying to find a giraffe/wizard/spotty/number outfit with 45 minutes notice. As will school randomly finishing at 1.45pm for no other apparent reason than it being the last day of term.

It is what it is and everyone else with kids has to go through it too.

Every kid has this. You might want to get used to the general disruptive nature of having a primary school aged child before you become that parent.

I think it's clear from this thread that not every child has this experience. Also I don't think questioning why a school needs 3 weeks of half days, staggered starts and general disruption makes anyone that parent, especially when many other schools offer full time from day one and the children are fine.

@denverRegina

Every kid has this. You might want to get used to the general disruptive nature of having a primary school aged child before you become that parent.

It might seem "ridiculous" to you. So will trying to find a giraffe/wizard/spotty/number outfit with 45 minutes notice. As will school randomly finishing at 1.45pm for no other apparent reason than it being the last day of term.

It is what it is and everyone else with kids has to go through it too.

It’s quite clear from these responses that not every kid has this. There is lots of variation. I also agree that having no notice for things is not helpful for anyone. If schools want to support their students then they need to be mindful of their impact on parents too. I have no issue with some settling in, but almost 3 weeks is just excessive. And being “that” parent is fine by me. If I bring about a change in thought to the SLT, to consider making this optional then yes I will do so.

@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.

Gah this is such an annoying thing to say. Unfortunately OP it's also an attitude you'll meet regularly in schools. In my experience the most successful schools are those that see the benefit in the triangle partnership between parent, child and teacher. We have a couple of very outdated teachers at my child's school who cut out the parents in this dynamic and they're very difficult to engage with. This patronising view that parents are irrelevant to schooling is sadly still common.

As a PP said, an inconvenienced parent equals an inconvenienced child. Scattergun childcare being arranged around the crazy settling in schedules don't help children settle into a routine, and this mornings sometimes, afternoons other times doesn't give children the whole picture of school so it's very confusing for them. If some children take longer to settle then half days are an option for them, but most can and do settle in straightaway.

Ours does 5 weeks.

It was awful for routine-reliant DS1. Especially as they swapped from mornings to afternoons and back again...

DS2 was easier to handle, but by the time be started last sept - we'd been 'homeschooling' for 6 months - so disruption was just the norm!!

I understand that a lot of overtired little ones is probably hard for the school. But reckon they could push through in less than 5 weeks!

At our school it's 3 weeks for Summer borns, 2 weeks for Spring borns and 1 week of half days for winter borns (so they start school 2 weeks after the Summer borns).

Might be worth reminding your school of their legal obligation to provide full time education from the start of the autumn term.

No point using up your annual leave in September when you have the rest of the school year to cover school holidays.

That's ridiculous ours was 2 days first day stayed till dinner time second day stayed till half 1 so had dinner then 3rd day all day.

Our school years 1-6 go back the first week I’m guessing to setttle them back in and get all that sorted.

Then reception start two weeks of half days, in that week they are not in school would of normally been a home visit but that was done away with due to covid.

When my oldest started you could send full time if you wanted too if the child had been in nursery full time before. By the time my middle started it was part time only no ifs or butts as they had so many children where falling asleep.

We are not an academy don’t know if that changes anything.

It's normal. They did this when I started primary school 25 years ago!

Parker231 statutory school age is still the term after the term in which they are five, so I am not sure schools are obliged to provide full time education for four year olds in September. Happy to be corrected.
Our county once had a policy of part time reception until half term!

Not normal at our school. Dc3 starting in September and they start with normal times from day one. They have a couple of settling in morning’s and afternoons in July and the reception teachers go and visit them in their preschool/nursery settings in June. This was the same for Dc1 & Dc2. You can accompany your child into class from day one and then you leave after 5 minutes, this was in 2019 and last September. After the October half term you drop them off at the gate and go. This is the plan for this September too. It seems to work very well and most kids seem to settle well.

Totally normal to do setting in sessions. All the schools round here do a day on and a day off and no wrap around care for the first term. B
Be glad it's not six weeks of settling in that's what I had with my eldest.
School is a massive adjustment, even children who've been full time at nursery often get more exhausted by school.

We had 6 weeks - entire first half term and shifting between morning and afternoon sessions it was extremely disruptive to many children as there was a shifting array of family members collecting them and taking them different places.

It was three weeks for youngest and there was talk that they'd stop doing it as most of the intake was by then attending the preschool in same area as reception classes so knew school and teachers.

I was SAHM with very young in school year children - all of who were went to preschool before school term time mornings - I don't think it benefited them much at all I think it was unsettling for them to chop and change even with them being picked up by me- though I suppose smaller groups may have helped the teachers to get to know them.

Yup, normal though annoying. When DS started last year they only started in mid-September, and were settling in for three weeks. He only went full time for two weeks before half term. I ended up being furloughed at the time so was able to manage it, but I don't know what we would have done if that hadn't happened.

Here’s the legal stuff - we contacted the school and advised that DC’s would be attending full time from the start of the school year as did many others in their class.

“You have the right to start your child at school on a full time basis from the September following their fourth birthday, providing they have been allocated a school place. While schools are free to suggest a preferred induction process, parents retain the right to formally request that the school provide a full term schedule for their child from the beginning of the school year.

You also have the right to delay your child's start date (known as deferred entry), until later in the school year, but not beyond the beginning of the term after they turn 5 and not beyond the beginning of the final term of the school year in April. Your child may also start part time later in the school year, but not beyond the beginning of the term after they turn 5.”

*School is a massive adjustment, even children who've been full time at nursery often get more exhausted by school.'

No one is disputing its a huge adjustment but how is 3 or in your case 6 weeks of adhoc childcare and the child being in a perpetual state of uncertainty over whether today is or isn't a school day any less exhausting than being in full time from day 1?

Realistically it would be a very small minority of children being collected and going home to chill out with their parents and schools should be very accustomed to tired new starters. I always used to make my afternoons very calm and there was always a comfy book corner for really tired ones to snooze in.