Staged/part time starting of school is unfair?

[FurierTransform]

My DD has just started reception.
The school she's attending have this system where the children don't all start on the Monday full time, but have 4 x 2-3 hour sessions, spread across 2 weeks, to 'ease into it' before attending full hours.

AIBU to think this is totally ridiculous?

I'm sure many people have had to take 2 weeks holiday from their work to bridge this gap between their children finishing nursery, and actually starting school full time, so potentially now will have to forgo a summer holiday, or work over Christmas etc!
Luckily we have flexible jobs so have just about coped.

Seems so ill thought out and inconsiderate to families with 2 working parents.

My eldest who is in year two now had a five week part time start to school, two weeks mornings, two weeks afternoons and on week five it was morning plus lunch. I don't remember how we managed that. DS2 started reception this year at the same school and now they do full time from day one.

School is really different to nursery though, there are a lot more rules and instructions. Flexibility is good - I agree it’s a pain with full time work, but it’s what’s best for the child that matters.

I don't know it works now but I was very glad that my son was an autumn born.

The process for his school was

Autumn born: first week mornings, second week afternoons, third week mornings with lunch. and then full time. So three weeks to work around which was workable but still not ideal.

Spring borns were half days until October half term.

Summer borns were half days until Christmas.

The afternoons only were the most difficult (and a bit silly as the kids were only in for about 2 hours).

My son had been at nursery so I thought the whole thing was silly, but I will say that he found school much more tiring.

Schools are for the purpose of educating children and not providing childcare. Teachers do what is best for the children. Many primary school teachers are also parents and they have to work out their own childcare as they can’t take annual leave

When my dd started it was pretty much normal from the beginning but if it hadn't have been it would've been really hard as I had a crap boss and barely any annual leave in that job so yanbu

Ours was 45 min visit on one day in week one, following week was one 2hr drop off (only on one day), next week was 2 hours per day (every day), plus one day staying for lunch.
Finally they started full time on the 4th week, but couldn't use breakfast/after school club until the 5th week.
I was very grateful for flexible employers and helpful family.
I also don't think it did my child any good - I kind of get one week of half days, but anything more than that seems ridiculous.

Depends on the individual nursery and Individual CM.

Remember not all nurseries and CMs are the same.

Well yes but small children struggling with transition to school is on the increase not tbe decrease, as is SN diagnosis etc. the idea that nursery in general is setting them up well for school is not proven.

It was why we initially went private with DD1. One school wouldn't accept a start until, if I remember, the Summer term, and one staged weeks of part days, part time. Both because DD was a July baby. I requested an early start as DD had been in full time nursery since she was 6 months old, and could already read and write, but neither budged.

In nursery there are some children who attend part time while they are at school part time but if they are doing half days then it only works if parents WFH.
But half days/alternate days has been around for years so why are parents shocked every year?

My DS has just started reception and has had two half days this week and then is in full time from Monday. Some of the other children are staying on half days for another week if they haven't settled but DS has been. So many of my friends with children at different schools are on weird part time arrangements until half term which just seems like an absolute nightmare to manage (both for teachers and parents). I only think DS will settle more quickly with a predictable routine and so I'm glad our school are quite sensible about it.

Our school only does half days for the kids who didn't go to the school nursery. It was supposed to be two half days but reduced to one (today) because of delayed refurbishment to the classes. Then from Monday it's normal hours for all! I'm quite glad really - a lot of my friends have got a week or two of bizarre hours.

I'm going through this at the moment and yes, it's very annoying. Especially on top of a long summer holiday as DS had termtime nursery - he will have been out of full hours childcare for 9 weeks by the time he starts.

On the other hand, the teachers have a HUGE task to settle that many 4/5 year olds at very different levels of experience and confidence etc. Some will be confident kids used to long hours in nursery, some will only ever have been home with mum, some will barely speak English, some will have SEN, some will just find the whole thing frightening and wet themselves repeatedly.

It's a pain but I'd rather have this and they settle fairly smoothly than have a stressful start to school that puts them off and makes the whole thing unpleasant.

It’s ridiculous. Who do they think will care for them in the afternoons, the flower fairies? Not everyone has grandparents on hand and most childminders wouldn’t entertain such a part time arrangement.

I live in an area where school nursery is full time only. They are split into 2 groups and each do 3 half days weds-friday then full time from the first Monday. It works fine.
In reception, they don't stagger or split at all. Full time from the first day.
It baffles me that other places fanny about like that

Where I live kids do 8.50 to 1.40pm for their first TWO YEARS.

Our school does three days finish at 12, then two days where they stay for lunch then go home at 1, then full time from the second week. Seems to work well.

Dd1 started in a school where it would have been a phased introduction for the first full term; she would have finally been in full time for the whole week the week before Christmas! I didn’t work at the time so it wouldn’t have been an issue but I did wonder wtf working parents were supposed to do.
We ended up getting our preferred school choice after a month and moved her straight away, it was weird at the first place anyway
not even taking the very phased entry into account!
I can see both sides of the few weeks phases introduction though tbh, nicer for the kids and staff (on the whole), adults get to spend more time with the children as there are fewer, have more time to talk to adults at the door as again there will be half the amount, and gives the children brief stints. Lots will have gone to daycare of some kind before reception but there will also be some that haven’t, it can be overwhelming. And what a pain in the arse for working parents trying to stretch limited amounts of leave to cover it all.

Years ago my summer born DC did a term of mornings, a term of afternoons and went full time at Easter. It was great for them but such a pain for me.

Scottish state primary schools used to have all P1's (aged 4.5 to 5.5 at entry in August) on half days until late September or mid October (it varied from local authority to local authority). I think under parental pressure this has largely been done away with, and most kids are in from 9am to 3pm from Day 1. Personally I favour the Scandinavian model of kindergarten until age 6 to 7, with formal schooling not before age 6. The children settle much easier and quicker and are ready for the more formal and structured routine of school.

At our primary school, the new Junior infants finished at 12 noon on their first day then at 2pm for the remaining 2 years until they’re in 1st class where they all finish at 3pm.

I forgot about the 12 noon finish on the first day when DS started infants and got phoned by the teacher at 12.20pm asking where I was. 😳
Luckily, I was shopping in the nearby town so it only took me another 10 mins to drive back to the village school. 😂😂

I think farting about with a much shorter day for infants at the beginning of term is counter productive for most children, although I’m sure some will benefit from the gradual settling in process.

Good lord it's almost as if school isn't child-care and that what's best for the child may not be what is most convenient for the parent.

Rite of passage and with hindsight I think it is better for the kids as a transition.
Consider OP those of us who don’t meet the norm of two working parents who had to juggle it alone!

But is it really best for my DS if I'm trying to juggle work and having him here at random hours, frazzled because I'm ending up working all night to fit stuff in and shoving him in front of an ipad when I have calls? I don't think that's ideal either (but is probably the reality for many working parents).

This line is trotted out regularly along with only a few weeks of your child’s life ..

so much evidence goes against this .. we have just had 6 weeks of childcare to cover..

many parents struggle with childcare around this not everyone can take ad hoc childcare. Try telling the uc you can only work around these hours

teacher themselves - child goes into reception - who looks after the children around that. Esp if single parent or both parents are teachers ?

my dc has left school started full time so it doesn’t affect me but I can see the issue here