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?

Not in my area-straight into full days here.

During school holidays emails will be monitored for safeguarding reasons only most likely.
Admin staff tend to work term time only - there simply is not the budget to even pay o/t for adhoc email checking during these times.
I have checked our inbox and can see several emails from county advising of new starters and also requests for wrap around care - these will be responded to on the inset days so I would expect contact to be made 1 or 2nd September at some point from the school.
Try not to worry too much and enjoy the final couple of weeks.
On a side note - please label everything clearly with child's name not just initials and check frequently that name is legible!

We had the same. We had to wait until school opened. My boys didn’t start school until end of September that year.

Is there a holiday club? At most of the primary schools here the wrap around care is the same provider as the holiday club so they'll be contactable during the holidays on a different number to the school although IME quite unlikely there will be space at such short notice.

Usually the first couple of days back the pupils aren't in but there are training days so the staff are.

You won't be the only person to have ever been in this position so don't panic. Within a month it will all be sorted and routine. Good luck with the after school club.

On a side note - please label everything clearly with child's name not just initials and check frequently that name is legible! anyone who's kid has been to nursery knows this

Chill out, it will be fine. Check their website,all this stuff is usually listed there under ‘new starters’ or similar. Find out the term dates online. Then try and call them a week before school starts to see if someone there. Find out the uniform on the website, ie navy joggers/white t-shirt? Usually need black shoes. Don’t buy the school branded stuff yet and just go to the local uniform shop once you’ve spoken to someone. They won’t care if your child isn’t in proper uniform to start with. If you really need wraparound care maybe reach out to local childminders. Your LA will have a list online and it will say which schools they cover. Our childminder is a godsend. They also might know more about school stuff if they look after other kids going there.

Not being funny but it was your choice to move house so close to the wire, not their fault. They shouldn’t have to employ someone over summer just because people might move house and leave it late to apply.

This.

@OpizpuHeuvHiyo that's alot of assumptions about how the first day of reception works. It may be your experience but hasn't been mine and have never heard of parents waiting at the gate until it's their turn

Yes, I’ve done this and already got some of the literature from the new starters evening that was back in June.

Thanks everyone for this suggestion, it’s mad what you don’t think of when you’re panicking!

Not sure why you are getting some stick for this!

My plan of action would be, extend Mat leave until end of September if this is financially feasible, ask on local fb group if anyone has the info for staggered starts/wraparound care, crack on sorting uniform and then start calling the school from next Tuesday.

You would think so but they don't - I fully expect to have a pile of unnamed jumpers, hats and water bottles - probably the odd lunch bag and not one will have a name in it by the end of week 2

Yes, it was my choice for my ex partner to leave me my 4 year old DS and my 5 day old DD (at the time) necessitating me moving back to the city my parents live in so I could give my child the best possible childhood and manage everything on my own with a little local support. You’re right, what a selfish person I am to move over the summer and leave reception applications too late!

Great-hopefully you’ll get some useful replies :)

I suspect some one will pick up things ad hoc and you’ll be contacted soon. It might be a good idea as a pp suggested, to contact the safe guarding team as that is likely to be monitored more regularly. Check the website for an email address fir safeguarding.

Hi OP, I work in a school and I think you have some valid points here. I'm sorry things have been sub optimal for you but you sound awesome. You have sorted so much stuff so quickly. I think your kids are lucky to have you, you may tell them that from me when they are old enough!
In terms of the council communicating with schools don't worry about this as it's out of your hands. Our council just tell us stuff by email over the summer and we pick up the pieces in September. It's not a great way to communicate but we will be in several days before the kids return. You have an extremely flexible mindset and you are very resilient, I have my fingers crossed for you that things go smoothly in the next couple of weeks but I think in the long run you and your kids are going to be very successful.

@Lmnop22 I’m sorry that your husband has been such a prat!

Try to find a FB page for parents. Based on experience, here’s what I can tell you which (may) be issues with wraparound care:

• no spaces open on the days you need
• inconvenient start/finish times which make you late to work, or require you to leave work early
• not run by the school itself (the office may not have any idea on capacity and availability, and may refer you to the person who runs the care)
• you may need a childminder to fill in these gaps

Fellow parents on FB may be able to answer some of these questions for you (obviously not which days are already at capacity). They should also be able to tell you how reception starts—one of our local schools starts from day 1, and the other local school spends week 1 doing home visits where the reception teacher/TA visit the homes of all of the children, then week 2 the children do either am or pm hours (so only half of them are in the classroom and nobody has lunchtime at the school), and it’s only on week 3 when the children are in full time. So parents at that school need 2 extra weeks of childcare provisions over the summer.

Look on the school website- all the uniform details, term dates, etc. will be on there.

Most primary schools only have one person in the school office who works term time only. They can't pay someone to be in to check messages eery day as they are on very tight budgets as it is. The school will most likely have a training day the day before school starts where the staff will be in preparing for the start of term. Ring them then.

Ignore people being horrid, no idea why people think its OK.
At the school I work at office staff are in for a few days over the holidays. So you maybe lucky and someone comes in next week. However reception is usually staggered but we cut that back to one week as found it was making it very difficult for parents and a lot the children found it confusing.
Check the uniform on the website and start buying that so that's one job done.
The breakfast and aftershock club at my school is provided by an outside company so they would have got back to you in holidays but if its in house unfortunately you'll have to wait. Frustrating for you as you can't finish those parts of getting organised.
Hope it all ends up ok for you. Sounds like you've been through a lot and need to have time to rest and reset.

You can't expect them to pay someone to sit around in an empty building all summer just in case someone phones!

There'll be someone there a day or two before the kids start back I would think.
Give them a call then.

You've been told you have your place so should all be fine.

I wouldn't stress about uniforms for starting reception, they'll know your situation. The uniform will be on the school website- just buy a couple of jumpers and cheap joggers for now.

Is breakfast and after school club run by the school or external provider? It's likely they're open for holiday club so you could try calling them or going over there to talk to them.

Honestly, whilst it's frustrating, you are being a tad unreasonable.

As you have said yourself, you don't expect staff to be available, unpaid, and wait for the odd last minute starter request. This not a 5 minute job and will involve liaising with the reception team/Head Teacher - who may not be available - re class placement, possible home visit etc.

You have to accept that you are doing something 'out of the norm' to the vast majority of other parents with a child starting in reception this year and need to be flexible/patient.

And, when you do reach someone at the school to start the admission process with them, please bear in mind that this will be the first they have heard of you.

As frustrated as you may be, please don't start the conversation with 'I haven't been able to speak to anyone/you don't answer your phone/I thought that someone would be dealing with urgent enquiries' etc. This is sadly very common. Please don't start by being 'that' parent :)

Good luck.

Sorry you're being given a hard time. Just ignore the people who like to pick on anyone who isn't completely and utterly perfect in their life planning and executing. It makes them feel better about themselves.

Not all schools do a staggered start, my dd went straight into full days, and wrap around care was offered to all age groups.

If you're a single mum now, you might be entitled to free school lunches. even though it's free anyway for KS1, if you apply, you get vouchers during the holidays to help out with food costs and holiday club provision also. So it's worth seeing through your council, if you're entitled.

Someone will be able to tell you on a local Facebook group, if the first week is a staggered start.

I would print out a copy of the acceptance letter from the council and take it on the first morning. Get there early because receptionist will be surrounded by parents wanting to sort out first day niggles.

I would also be prepared that they might not take your child on the first day, if he's not been put onto their roll yet. So take him (sorry, I can't remember if you wrote he or she) down there in some casual clothes and trainers and say you're just going to find out about school. If they don't let him start on day one then at least he hasn't been all dressed up and geared up to go. I'd also phone up the few days before term starts, or even go down there if it's an inset day, as staff will be around. The website will tell you all inset days and first day dates, as well as what the school uniform colours are. ASDA do cheap school uniform basics, like shorts, trousers, dresses, shirts etc, and then you only need the jumper, which it'll be too warm for on the first day anyway.

‘The breakfast and aftershock club at my school is provided by an outside company’

Why does the idea of an aftershock club sound so appealing 😆

Thank you, I definitely needed to hear that!

It’s so hard being the only adult making all the decisions sometimes and wondering if you’re doing the right thing!

I am going to delay going back to work for a few weeks and give myself time to organise things, navigate the new normal and come up with a plan!

Def agree with asking on the local FB groups and similar. As well as information on staggered starts and ASC, you may be able to find out if there are any other providers of wraparound care who have spaces.