Should I refuse reception settling in days if I can?

[Jiski]

Hi,

Has anyone ever gotten their child to stay full time when it’s supposed to be a settling in day. Can you do it? How did you do it?

I’ve read on an old post that it was possible, but the link to government guidance doesn’t work and I don’t know if I just can’t find it or if it’s outdated advice now.

My son already goes to nursery full time and does lots of other activities like Squirrels and swimming so he’s used to long days. Also, I don’t think he needs to settle in as he’s been to playgroup at the school a number of times and should be in a class with 3 of his nursery friends.

FYI I don’t have any annual leave left as my annual leave year resets in November.

Thanks

Settling in days would have been more disruptive to the routine they were already use to.

I work in a school and agree with this. Settling in sessions and staggered starts are disruptive and often confusing for children. Trying a softly softly approach is confusing and many children are often collected by a hodgepodge of relatives and family friends, as parents / carers try to work around the random hours and half days their child has been given.

If some children need a more gentle start then the school should offer this, but the rest of the children should be alowed to attend full time from the start.

We do 3 half days for all our reception children, many of who have not done full days with 60 new kids and 4 new adults with different routines before. After that they are full time. We see less burnout and reluctance to come in later in the term. You only start school once and we don't want to rush them in and overwhelm them. Our intention is to make things easier for the children,not ourselves as some people are suggesting, and not to deliberately piss off working parents. We tell parents six months in advance as well, so they have time to sort childcare or let us know they can't.

Settling in isn't a thing at my children's school, or for any primary within the Trust.

They recognise most children have been in nursery and just start full time a few days prior to the rest of the school.

You can only ask and see what the response is but I don't agree with others comments about it being "essential" to have a phased settling period.

My dd school have 3 weeks of settling in sessions,
Week one is group one children 9 to 12, group 2 children 12 to 3
Week two they swap over
Week three all children in 9 to 1pm
Week four full time
More than half are already at the local nursery doing 8 until at least 4 every day

Some schools have been criticised by publishing on the school website details of a staggered start as fact rather than what is covered in legislation. The consequence is many parents aren’t aware of their entitlement to send their children full time from day one .

The need for transition.

Not all children need it particularly those who have been in nursery FT.

There as some children who have been in care, adopted and/or have disabilities need a longer transition.

The OP actually needs the links on parental leave including emergency leave, as she shouldn't take sick leave if her child is sick.

Has anyone ever challenged it?

Honestly how can some think 3 weeks of different routines is in a child's best interests?

We do 3 half days for all our reception children, many of who have not done full days with 60 new kids

It must be incredibly unusual to have a cohort where the majority haven't done full days. Most 3-4 year olds will be doing longer hours than 9 - 3.30, even if it's not 5 days a week.

I hope you advised parents of their legal rights to send their children full time from day. Telling them six months in advance of your plans for a staggered start is misleading and misinformation.

Another one calling BS on the phased transitions.

When DD started reception a phased start was available and recommended, but it was optional. We chose not to do that and found we were actually in the majority by doing this.

We had put childcare plans in place for before and after school and had planned holiday care. But beggaring about with half days here and there for the first half term would have been massively disruptive.

In any case, DDs days actually got shorter when she started school. Before then I did 30 hours a week over four full days so she was in nursery from about 8:30 until 18:00. When she started school I changed to do 30 hours over 5 shorter days, taking her to school myself then finishing work at 16:30 to collect her from after school club. Hence, she was in school from 9:00 until 17:00, about 1.5 hours a day less than nursery. No problem going full time straight away.

I'm sure some parents must of, its such a long drawn out process, the local primary they go full time from day one.

You don’t have to challenge it. You email the school advising them that you will be sending your child full time from the first day of school.

It’s not a day, I phrased my question badly- sorry. it wouldn’t just be me who will be asking for the full time place. One of the parents who probably won’t be able to get leave is a teacher etc.

My first ever thanks. Short days were of zero benefit to my DC. First had undiagnosed ASD and having to go alone to a brand new CM, then return to school for 3.15 was really disruptive. DC2 couldn’t understand why she was coming home earlier than her sister.

If this was really beneficial there would be consistency between schools, and they would be able to explain with evidence what the benefits are. They can’t because there isn’t any.

I’m all for shorter days at the start for those who request it.

That's what I meant by challenging it.

Why didn't you save some A/L for this purpose? It's pretty widely known that most schools do this.

Another reason schools do it is for the teachers to get to know the children a bit better individually in a smaller group (ie most schools do half the class in the morning and half the class in the afternoon).

It's all very well saying the OP has the right to insist on full-time hours straight away, but if everyone did that, it would be to the detriment of the whole class.

Take parental leave you can both take a week book it now though as they can refuse the week you ask for

Why didn't you book some for the first two weeks of school?

You need your annual leave to cover school holidays.

Yes, obviously from this year, but the OP's child is in (presumably all year round) nursery until September.

Why would it be at the detriment of the class? I used to teach foundation and all my kids came in full time on day one.

Parents don't need to use annual leave just because someone has randomly decided their child should do half days which in my opinion is more detrimental than full time from the start.

We were told by the school that our kids go / went to:-

“In our experience children settle best when they know what is happening. So we start all children full time at 8:40am on the first day of school and then they come to school every weekday from then on.”

It is bloody obvious really - no one is going to get settled going at all sorts of random times and then having to go to whatever childcare their parents have managed to cobble together.

It was also very useful to have saved my holiday for that first October half term when they were shattered.

You probably need to get used to how schools generally think women are all 1950s housewives who stay at home all day and have no problem dropping everything at the eleventh hour to attend various parent events during the day and help children with craft projects.

I did. My daughter had been in the school nursery full time for getting towards two years (since 30 hours kicked in). The preceding term they spent lots of time with the reception teacher and I had not been in my job for long enough to earn enough annual leave, and my holiday childcare couldn’t help. I said I’d find it very tricky to manage, and the teacher said it was fine, as long as she didn’t struggle with the transition. Term started on a Thursday so we agreed she would do two half days, then full time for the settling in full week. She was absolutely fine. The approach was suggested by the senior TA who worked a lot in the nursery so knew my girl.

Widely known for teachers and if you have friends with school children? Not widely known for anyone else…