To think SOMEONE should be contactable in the school office over summer?

[Lmnop22]

I am moving house this week to a new area and local authority. my DS is due to start reception this September.

I was unable to apply for a reception place in the new area until I had a date to exchange contracts in order to prove I was in the very small catchment area for the school I wanted.

I didn’t exchange contracts until mid July when the summer holidays had already started. I immediately made the application for the Reception place and the council offered me the place a couple of weeks later. I accepted.

Then nothing. I have had no response to my email accepting the place. I have called the council and they say their part is over now and I’ll “hear from the school” but the school is closed over summer and there are no staff. When I told the council this, they said “oh yeah there won’t be anyone in until September now”.

So do I have the place? Do the school have my DS on the register for September? What uniform etc do I buy? How do I organise breakfast/after school club provisions?

Am I being unreasonable to think a member of staff ought to monitor emails and/or voicemails over the summer and communicate with parents in my position?

First day of term is normally an INSET day so office staff will be in checking emails etc. if the council have offered you a place then that’s it. I would buy the uniform etc. you can ring school on that day and they will be able to sort out breakfast club etc. office staff don’t work during holidays as we are on 39 week contracts.

It will all be very rushed but there should be a couple of Inset days before school opens. Check the school holidays on the schools website.

Also, check to see if the school runs a Holiday Club, they may have a contact number for this, a mobile number, then maybe you can speak to someone.

I would say buy 1 jumper and everything else keep neutral and send a packed lunch as the free school lunches may need setting up still.

Definitely check for Inset days as they will have staff in then. My Sons school return on the Wednesday with Monday and Tuesday being the Inset Days. My school also mentioned before the holidays that they will only let you book breakfast clubs etc nearer to September as they need to switch all the kids up a year and they didn’t want prices messed up so this would be last minute.

Ask HR at the LA to send an email to the headteacher to contact you and look on the school website for information ref uniform and contact details to leave a voice mail.

Most schools will have an inset day on the first Monday back and senior staff will check email during school closure.

Head teachers and business managers will be in the week before.
Email the school and ask them to contact you. Also (sorry haven't read all other answers) but they'll be a group either on Facebook/whatsapp with the new reception parents who'll be able to help with uniform ASC etc

I'd also not stress it if he misses the first day. Also worth bearing in mind he'll likely have a phased start so don't plan for a full 9-3 days for the first (at least) week x

What you think is reasonable I would agree with you. However with the limited funding schools have, I don't blame them for having no staff over the summer holidays.

Hope that the suggestions others have made are helpful.

Have you actually read anything that OP has said? Your comment is massively unkind.

OP just to say, it’s gona be alright! Honest! It’s stressful now, but you’re good. You’ve done all the organising and as much as you can. Get settled into your new place and give the school a bell next week. Everything is going to be ok

I’m a primary school office manager. I can tell you what happens where I work, but that isn’t the case for every school. I work in the holidays, but I’m one of only 2 primaries in the area where this is the case, so I wouldn’t expect a response from most. The Local Authority send the the email with the child’s paperwork to me (and sometimes to the Head, but there’s no consistency there) and I’m supposed to contact the parent within three days to arrange a start date. I wouldn’t assume anything until you have had contact from the school.

we have 2 inset days at the beginning of term where you would be able to come in and see us, buy uniform, etc. but the term dates should be clearly visible on the website - this is a legal requirement. Reception children then don’t start until the following week.

email any addresses you can find on the website and someone will contact you as soon as they’re in work.

I really don’t think you should be blaming schools here, whose budgets are shot and whose staffing is skeletal.

OP it sounds like you've done amazingly to get all this sorted at a very difficult time. Schools are often very last minute but somehow things get sorted and children welcomed in.

By the way my kids school didn't do staggered starts. And accept all ages in wraparound care. Also you can decline the staggered starts if you're really stuck . So don't worry. School may have second hand branded uniform available too - ours does and it's free. So worth asking before you go to a lot of effort to get it.

Yes but that would be from January for the oldest reception children in England as they all start at 4.

My private school is also non communicado over the summer holidays! Am hoping the office will reopen in a week or so so I can sort out wraparound care etc!

Why would you expect someone to be there when school is closed??? Do you go to work when you’re not being paid!!!!

That’s not true.

Summer Born children who are starting reception at Compulsory School Age (the term after they turn 5) will, by definition, be 5 not 4. This is becoming more and more common.

However, my understanding is that a ‘full time education’ can be defined as ‘all the sessions offered by the school and available to the child’. Therefore, if a school does a phased start and a child attends all sessions available to them, that is ‘full time’. I’m happy to be corrected on this though, as it may have changed.

But also, more schools are no longer doing a phased start and getting their Reception children in right away full time.

After School Club provision varies massively. I work in a primary school and our wrap around care runs until 6pm. We also take children right from the start of Reception (and not from after October half term as someone else mentioned). We also open our booking for September from the end of the summer term.

It varies so much school to school, that the OP really needs to check with her specific school (or look on their website) and see what they do, as no one else’s school is necessarily the same!

Yes-this exactly. From someone that works in a school office, we don’t get paid for holidays, in fact we actually pay for a lot of the school holidays out of our (shitty) salaries, which are pro-rat’d to cover all the school hols.

What we do get paid wouldn’t be enough to cover our own child care costs etc if we were expected to go in to man the phones for the very odd person that isn’t sorted before school starts.

Not having a dig as I moved this summer too and had similar worries but the timing of the move was really your choice (as it was mine) and the school office staff shouldn’t be expected to have to be there because you moved when everything closed. That’s not on them.

Suggest you push ahead as if child is starting and do what you normally would. Reach out to other parents if you can find details anywhere. And contact school via email. Our head will often dip in and out of emails in holidays so perhaps the head at your school will pick it up. Good luck

I’m a school office administrator and yes, we have term time only contracts. As does every single administrator in every single school in my authority. In fact I’d go as far as to say in all the authorities in our part of the country

Yes sadly you are being unrealistic . Although mine also did long days at nursery and preschool they will be really tired starting school and will only manage shorter days 9 - 3:30 for the first few weeks building up to more.
There may not be space in breakfast and after school clubs. You definitely need a plan B .

Usually there will be a school leader nominated to receive safeguarding information over the holidays, and school leaders typically work a few of the summer weeks, too, so the registration application will likely be seen by someone.

It’s actually fairly common for schools to have a child or two just turn up in September without an application being submitted, so leaders will be geared up for these sorts of events. I’m sure everything will be fine for you. They will likely want to organise the home visit and discuss your child’s needs/progress once the term has started.

Also my experience re. staffing.

YABU. You left it late due to house move for your own benefit. All fine and understandable and luckily you have your preferred place confirmed. You’re now complaining people aren’t available on your schedule and didn’t check before applying what their before and after school provision is. It’s also very normal for reception not to be full-time at first - at any school. This is all your own distraction and lack of planning.

Well THIS is early in the morning for ignorant shitposting, isn’t it

Not sure how the OP could have planned for her circumstances, clearly not read anything other than the OP… 🙄

It's not right to say reception always have a staggered start, we're in the Midlands and none of the schools round here do. Reception start full days from the same day as the other kids. All info should be on the website though.

Our head and business manager won't be. It really does differ from school to school. It's been repeated a lot on this thread that teaching staff will be in the week before school, which isn't my experience either - where I work, and lots of teacher friends I know, go in right at the start of the holidays or on sporadic days throughout.

For those saying office staff can work remotely, does anyone really want to be paid for an hour a week when they're on annual leave? It wouldn't be worth it for anyone. When I'm on holiday, I want to turn off and have the freedom to do what I want. Regardless of the fact it's not operationally necessary for most schools.

@Lmnop22 i echo what other posters have said, that you sound brilliant and you’re doing a great job. Moving house and areas on your own with two little people is no easy feat.

I agree it would be very helpful if schools checked in even once a week during the holidays with messages etc.

as others have mentioned there will be inset days before the official opening so you should hear back next week from someone.

most primary school uniforms are quite generic and if you bought the wrong thing I’m sure you could return it if needs be.

also just to mention on the phased entry - most primaries do do this from reception and it’s to ease the kids in gently. Especially the younger ones in the class or ones who haven’t been to pre-school/nursery before etc. However I’m pretty sure legally they have to take your child full time from day 1 if you want them to. So if you needed a date to start back to work you could take the first week off and agree to a phased start but then start back at work the following week etc. I know people in our primary who did that as they couldn’t take the two weeks off work and didn’t have family nearby to help so the child just started full time from the first day.

Good luck, hope the children settle in and the new house is going well.

I hate to add a cautionary note op but as a fellow working parent, school is much harder to manage between ages of 4-8 than nursery years are.

Breakfast & afterschool clubs seem to only ever have places for a fraction of the kids in school and often get filled up by kids with older siblings whose parents know the drill and get them on waiting lists early. Some schools will have one but it won't run Fridays due to low demand, some will only run to 5.30pm.

Reception kids do get more tired than even the most demanding nursery, the simple reason being the lower number of adults. They have to operate much, much more independently as one of 30 in a room with only 2 adults, than in a nursery where 30 kids may have four or even 5/6 adults. It means they have to be "on" all the time and they are very tired. Few cope well with 8-6. Ask around about local childminders as this is a lower stress option in that first year.

Food in wraparound provision can be basic or limited, its really catering for slightly older kids who can manage on a snack or light tea and eat their dinner at home. This doesn't work so well with an exhausted reception child plus its means you need to juggle cooking that dinner around work. Again, a childminder may be a better option if you want a proper cooked meal.

School holidays are a nightmare. Loads of camps/activities run hours like 9.30 -3 with no wraparound. Places are limited at longer hours ones and imho, provision can be quite shit, often staffed by bored teenagers and very little time on the activities advertised.

This may be a challenge financially but if you can manage going to 4 days a week its easier