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.

All the childminders in my village and the nieghbouring one are full. Most would be reluctant even if not full to take on a child for just the picks up and holidays as it uses up a space in the tight quotas they have. I fully intend my daughter start the after school club on her second week of P1 (not the first as they start on a wednesday) Yes every child is different but working parents with no family support available have little choice!

When this happened a couple of years ago to my GS his nursery carried on providing care until his 5thBirthday. This was really helpful to DD in the first half term too

Can’t believe they are still doing this. My DC is a teen and went to day nursery. The children went to a mix of local schools and all apart from DD’s (she was full time day 1) had a weird mix of settling in - mornings, then afternoons then stay for dinner then don’t. One had a full half term of it. It resulted in upset and disruption for families and children - x’s grandma who child didn’t know collecting them, dad driving at speed on his lunch hour to pick child up and drop at old nursery for pm, all sorts of faffing around for children that had been in nursery 8-6 since babies. The schools with the most faffing carried on in similar vein randomly finishing at 2pm on last day or term or and parent assemblies at 11 am on a Tuesday etc.

I get that one really do I have no family suport either. But that's really not the schools problem.

@PegPeople

There is a some with parents at home but a lot do still go to daycare/childminders in the area who do drop off's and pick up's at school.

So pretty similar to children in England. But children here attend for a few more hours of school each day rather than spending that time in another childcare setting.

When at school where you are is the entire time they are there spent with the children being actively taught? Here in most eyfs classrooms children will do normally a short carpet session for phonics and maths and maybe some adult group work at some point in the day but the rest of the time they are playing.

No there is no formal teaching in eyfs, it is all learning through play and again a lot of carpet time for phonics. They do very little 'work'

Surely though children who are in school until 3pm or whatever time it is in England still then need to go to a childcare setting after school until parents finish work at 5pm?

I would say in a class of 27 there is i think 4/5 collected by daycare providers, another 2 or 3 by childminders, some by grandparents and then probably around 50% of the class by a parent.

@Plumbear2

I get that one really do I have no family suport either. But that's really not the schools problem.

Exactly, if you don't have family support then before you have children you accept that either financially you have to accept a cut as a result of working hours around children or you pay for childcare...or you decide that children don't fit in with your life at that time and you don't have them. Schools are education, not childcare.

We used breakfast and after school clubs as we both worked full time so collected between 5.30 - 6 - same as nursery.

DT’s changed school after the October half term and at their new school breakfast and after school club were at the school as were holiday clubs.

I dont think they can insist.
In dds reception year, they were required to add a bulge class, so 3 classes.
The extremely sensible Head said that all were full time from day 1 until half term. If any parents wanted shorter hours to just tell their class teacher what they were doing.
In her view, kids gelled as a group and found friends much quicker that way.

@jumpbounce well firstly, people’s circumstances can change. Secondly I would be quite willing to pay for childcare but I think I will struggle to get anything that covers those specific hours for 3 weeks and thirdly I really don’t think that the school having a random policy on transition at reception should impact on my decision or ability to have children.

The UK has one of the lowest percentages of working mothers of children under 6 because of poor provisions like this.

[quote Smarshian]@jumpbounce well firstly, people’s circumstances can change. Secondly I would be quite willing to pay for childcare but I think I will struggle to get anything that covers those specific hours for 3 weeks and thirdly I really don’t think that the school having a random policy on transition at reception should impact on my decision or ability to have children.[/quote]
Except it is not a random policy is it? It is a very common policy. Have you prepared for all the holidays, the random inset days and the various half days for all manner of events? Often many of these are announced with little notice so you may want to figure out a back up plan now for the future.

I would say in a class of 27 there is i think 4/5 collected by daycare providers, another 2 or 3 by childminders, some by grandparents and then probably around 50% of the class by a parent.

Only having approximately 7 children who don't have a parent or grand parent to collect is very impressive, especially as they do such short hours. Being able to pick your child up so easily and then presumably work form home with them is a very privileged situation and sadly one many parents in the UK could never aspire to.

It is a random policy, which is inconsistent, not evidence based and not legally enforceable.

@jumpbounce - holidays and inset days were announced well in advance and we booked annual leave and holiday clubs.
The staggered start isn’t the same for all schools and not compulsory so can come as a surprise to parents.

Except it is not a random policy is it? It is a very common policy.

Of course it's random. If it were common every school would follow the same pattern but they don't.

Have you prepared for all the holidays, the random inset days and the various half days for all manner of events?

Holidays and inset days are not random, they are set out years in advance. I've also never taught at a school with odd half days, the only unexpected days off I can think of were snow days or if we were a polling station.

No - we should live in a country that has standardised and reasonable costing childcare from the very early stages that would enable both parents to work if they choose, it would be great if governments actually moved with the times instead of pretending to change but actually still constructing society to force women to stay at home/sacrifice careers/reduce hours etc. If Schools do this settling in stage for weeks/months then it just makes things difficult for everyone (and I honestly think it would be more disruptive to my child).

For all those who always say 'school is not childcare', fair enough its not but it is where children have gone from 9-3 term time for as long as everyone can remember. How one earth can you expect two parents to work unless one has the most flexible job in the world if this expectation isn't met to an extent. I am a nurse and work shifts. I can't just 'finish a bit early' or 'do a half day' or work from home. Mine and my partners leave don't cover all the school holidays. We don't have family nearby (DH parents both dead). We muddle through with after school clubs etc but still like this literally tips our precarious position into impossible. I am not more important that anyone else because I am a nurse but its funny how we are 'heroes' and 'angels' when it suits but when we struggle as all parents do join the group of 'entitled' and 'treating school as childcare'.

*stuff like this

It is random as the OP says as in Scotland we don't do it!

It happened this way for all for my children too! It's so frustrating especially when the majority of other primary schools in my area didn't do it! We booked holidays

Of course schools ol is not child care

It's what you arrange childcare round - so that's wrap round care for full school days.

Not a temporary (and possibly unsettling) regime for three weeks, just at the time you're DC needs to be setting in, not coping with more, avoidable disruption

It is a very common policy

No it isn't. If anything it's in the way out, because there are no particular demonstrable advantages, and it is wildly inconvenient.

A few days, yes. Three weeks is utterly unreasonable.

@PegPeople

Except it is not a random policy is it? It is a very common policy.

Of course it's random. If it were common every school would follow the same pattern but they don't.

Have you prepared for all the holidays, the random inset days and the various half days for all manner of events?

Holidays and inset days are not random, they are set out years in advance. I've also never taught at a school with odd half days, the only unexpected days off I can think of were snow days or if we were a polling station.

Well clearly that's another place where our schools differ because we have just had notice about 2 inset days In 2 weeks time and that is fairly common. The normal school holidays do remain generally the same but you couldn't always completely guarantee what days they would be off. Also for further information I do live in the UK. England is not the only part of the UK so yes it does vary widely even within the UK.

My son's school didn't do this. Children with additional needs started one day earlier than the rest of the reception cohort but that was the only differentiation.

My son had been in day nursery for full days for years and found Reception just an extension of that. Which it is as it's EYFS. In fact it was easier as only 6 hours a day! There are very few children who haven't been in some sort of EYFS setting before they begin reception these days so no logical reason for these protracted so-called "settling in" timetable.

As others have said, you can just use the oft worn MN mantra of "that doesn't work for me" and have your child start full days at the beginning of term. I dare say you won't be alone.

You could keep your child in nursery for those 3 weeks and start school afterwards, full time. Or take unpaid parental leave?