It struck me today as I work in a preschool and had 2 of my summer leavers come to visit me, who are starting Reception and neither of them were in school! Chatting to mums they told me of the very slow start to Reception and I was really surprised. I had a 2 year old start today (about 28 months), who was in from 9am-12pm. The only time she cried was at pick up time because she didn't want to go home! Now, I'm well aware not all kids are like that, and sometimes we call parents to pick their children up if they are very upset and they build up to longer periods maybe over a week (max) but to be honest, this is quite rare. Others who are a bit older, like two 3 year olds who started yesterday, will stay till after lunch for a couple of days and then do a full day (no tears or clinginess from them either), just having loads of fun.
So why is the default Reception settling-in so ridiculously drawn out? These children are 4 going on 5 and the majority have been in a preschool or nursery for at least a year already so used to being in a setting for a decent length of time. I said Goodbye to my 4 year olds in the Summer and they were more than ready for school, yet for Reception they are going in for 1 hr a day for several days then 2 hours, then lunch, very gradually building to a whole day. I'm just shocked it takes so long (sometimes 3-4 weeks) to go to a full school day. I'm sure kids are well able to handle much more than this so it feels like really low expectations to me. Obviously if a child was really struggling the school could be flexible on hours, but I believe the majority of children could go all day within a week without a fuss. My own kids are now in Y10 and Y8 and it definitely wasn't that slow for them.
Is there a decent rationale for this? Do other countries do it so slowly? Do parents prefer it this way? What do you all think?