To think primary transition days aren’t much help if you work?

[Transitiondays]

Arghh. Three primary transition days, two with pick ups at midday and one full day but obviously finishing around three. I’m guessing this is standard but very difficult to manage!

Yes, whole class. It is only a small school so wouldn’t make sense to split it.

Please don’t feel badly - the children will often barely remember it by the time school starts and you can only do what you can do. This is just the start of the juggling so please try to be kind to yourself - there will be other things you miss every year too but you can’t do everything.

I'm surprised that people are saying transition days are normal in reception; at my school the children come in for a couple of visits, but only for an hour or two (not exactly sure because I work in year 6). What do they do with the current reception children during those days?

Not the point of the thread but I do feel awfully sorry for teachers, they have long hours, a huge responsibility of caring for and educating our children and yes while I appreciate it’s best for them to be consistently in the classroom it’s awful they can’t be there for their own kids (school plays, mum lunches, sports days etc) and many they should get something like 5 days annual leave to use for these events and work 5 days of the school hols in their classrooms?

OP you're lucky it's just 3 days in your school, it was spread over 2 weeks in my DSs school. The kids were doing shorter days than at the school nursery lots of them had gone to.

As so many schools have different 'settling in' periods, I don't think it's based on any evidence of what's best for the kids. It's a nice soft start to the year for the teachers though.

The Admissions Code 2021 makes it clear that you are entitled to full-time education from day one. The school can't force part-time transition days. They probably don't realise the Code has changed. It's enshrined in law.

Appreciate it is difficult to manage but I do think it is useful for many children who may be apprehensive over starting. Seeing the classroom and meeting the teacher will be very helpful.

It is difficult for parents if they cant get time off though, I think you are unlucky both you and dh cant take any time off. I am sure you can give plenty of support to your child and if they have to miss the visits it won't impact them too much.

Depends how long it lasts. If it’s 2-3 days YABU if longer YANBU

Unless some of the kids meet up in the holidays, none of them will particularly remember each other from the 3 sessions they did in June. So I wouldn’t worry about that. If you can get your child to one of the sessions, he’ll be familiar enough with the set up.

Moving forwards - and I’m sure as a teacher you’re aware of this - you need to work hard to make contacts with other parents. Obviously this is nice from a social perspective, but it is also essential for working parents to make their lives manageable. I had a good network of primary school parent friends, and we all helped each other out with child care at times. You need someone you can call on if you’re stuck in traffic at pick up time, or to take photos for you at the sports day you can’t get to, or to collect your poorly child while you try and get out of work.

As a teacher there are pros and cons. You won’t have any of the holiday child care nightmares that the rest of us have, but it’ll be the term time stuff that is much harder, when us non teachers can book annual leave.

If it’s a small school, can you find out some names and do some summer play dates? I invited about 5 kids and parents I could find beforehand and everyone was delighted to meet which might help your child have some familiar faces?

I agree. I’m in NI and it’s an absolute nightmare here. Our local school doesn’t have P1s in for the full day until the week before Halloween! It’s ridiculous and so hard to manage as a working parent. We don’t all have capable grandparents on hand to fill in, we are just expected to keep paying a local nursery for wraparound care which is so expensive! A full day is still only 9-2 in NI.

@RareGoalsVerge and @Attictroll not everyone has the luxury of 4 grandparents willing or able to help out.

It’s funny how living in a village like @doodleschnoodle actually makes things like this easier.
My area only does one visit in the summer term but the schools do short days all of September and some even into October. It’s really difficult for parents because whatever the previous childcare arrangements were (if a nursery or childminder) they want people signed up for the full year. I’ve got unpaid leave for the whole of September which is not possible for everyone.

Missed that in the updates. So don't do it. I don't get the handwringing going in.

Wasn't in the OP but update. So don't do the transition days. The handwringing on here is getting ridiculous.

Some years ago now, but we had a month of half days when starting primary!

So do you think they should make the transition days like 8.30-6 for working parents, or not have them at all?

My daughters are now finishing uni, but their previous primary school no longer does transition weeks.

DD24 had 4 weeks of crap...
Week 1 - Tue, Wed and Fri mornings til 12.
Week 2 Mon, Tue, Wed til 2 so they get used to lunch.
Week 3 Mon Wed, Thu all day, Fri til 12.
Week 4 Mon all day, Tue til 2, Wed all day, Thu til 2... ready to start on Monday.
Absolutely bat shit crazy for working parents.

DD22... 1 week ... Mon, Tue, Wed til 12. Thu, Fri til 1.30 (after lunch.)

Nowadays they just go straight in, full days.

It is entirely unsurprising reading these types of threads that the birth rate is tanking.

We had three weeks! First week mornings (two days with parent/carer), second week afternoons (two days with parent/carer) third week one morning with lunch, one afternoon starting at lunch (with parent/carer) three full days, but starting at 9am and finishing at 3pm.

Was it a nightmare to sort out with work, yes, but schools don't arrange it to be awkward to parents, they do what they think is best for the child. Once I had sorted childcare it was actually quite a nice transition for us, and had some lovely days at the school we got to know the staff. My son settled very well

We sent DT’s full time from day one as a staggered start wasn’t in their best interests or mine and DH’s.

This is what annual leave is for. Prioritise your child. It’s an important time.

We prioritised annual leave for the school holidays which then reduced the amount of time they were in holidays clubs ( which admittedly they loved).

A staggered start wasn’t a priority for us so we sent them full time from day one

Its easy enough to do "see all" for the OPs posts if you're going to comment on something many pages in.

You realise that most teachers already spend far more than 5 days of our holidays in our classrooms or doing other prep. Unpaid of course.

But yes, I think having 5 flexible days teachers could book a year would massively help with the current recruitment and retention crisis. Assuming we weren't expected to plan and resource the work or mark the work for these days. (Like most of us are forced to do when we are off work unwell!)

Seriously though, I missed every single assembly, school play and sports day, plus my kids didn't get to attend their transition days, at all, because I was a teacher. Even the option of unpaid leave would have appealed to me back then.

Teachers don't get annual leave they can book.