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!

Be thankful, one school near us, it's almost 4 weeks before the youngest are in full time!
My daughters school, all children dud half days (morning or afternoon) for first week. Then younger half (any child born March onwards) did another week of half days, oldest half were full time.
I can see the point of the first week - gave them in in 2 halves to get to know them as a smaller group, show then the routines etc. But the 2nd week was disruptive for my May born DD. She was used to attending the attached pre school Monday to Friday 9-3, so to go back to half days was a backwards step for her. She had lots of friends already and most of them hapenned to be older in the year, so they all stayed whilst she left.
Luckily the attached pre school agreed it wasn't helpful, and took DD for the afternoons for those 2 weeks for a nominal fee of a pound an hour, but bringing her home at lunchtime for 2 weeks would have been the opposite of helpful, it would have given her idea thst school finishes at lunchtime, which isn't the reality.

So for those saying 'it's for the children' - thats not always true.

Legally, the school cannot force the part days, your child is entitled to full time education from the first day of school. But I didn't want to annoy the school by being pushy so we let it go. I do think it should be optional though, parents know their children best.

I wouldn’t panic about it, OP. Quite a few of DD1’s pals missed some of the transition activities because they were on holiday (making the most of last year before being stuck with school holiday dates!), and afaik it hasn’t caused any massive issues.

The big gap of summer means that I don’t think they’re massively impactful anyway, DD1 felt a bit annoyed that they did all this stuff and then it was about 8 weeks in the end till she actually started, which is a long time when you’re 4 or 5! The stuff they did in nursery I think was more beneficial, teaching them about playtime, how to get their lunch, etc. as that carried on all summer.

I’m pretty sure you can insist on full days from the start.

Hey. Teacher and SLT here. You're entitled to parental leave as much as any other job. We give people afternoons/mornings off for this sort of thing all the time. I absolutely remember the feeling when my son started (2 weeks transition) and had to call in all sorts of childcare/pick up favours. I would ask your line managers if you can have the time off/maybe swap favours/cover with another teacher. I would also actively build your network of other parents to support pick ups and playdates. They will love you in the school holidays if you have their children for one day, and repayment in a few pick ups works. Teaching isn't the most childcare friendly job but it is workable.

I think a lot of people assumed you were talking about the first few days of term in September when staggered starts are quite usual. I’d have thought doing actual days in the school in the summer before they actually join was quite unusual. Personally, I wouldn’t worry too much about making them all. I’m sure some kids will have forgotten everything before Sept plus there are going to be people who miss them because they’ve already booked holiday or whatever.

It's meant to help them get settled in without it being too overwhelming at first. Is there anyone else who can help with pickups? Perhaps another mum and they can do a playdate after, if necessary?

We are abroad. DC2 is about to start nursery. She's got a month of 9.30am to 12.30, then we'll slowly increase to incorporate lunch and increasingly longer times. She's got a full-time spot - 7.30 am to 5pm, although I'll most likely get her at 2pm most days. It's normal here, and I've been told to expect settling in to the last 6 to 8 weeks.

There was a thread the other day about ‘worst advice given on here’ and while I wouldn’t say that the ‘unpaid parental leave’ one quite falls into that category, it is one of the most misunderstood. You have the right to ask; they don’t have to grant. It also means you’re a few hundred down which isn’t much fun.

Or using afterschool childcare clubs like a huge number of working parents.

Maybe it’s regional, it seems fairly standard around here.

Your OP wasn't clear. Most people will assume you meant September and you've only just now said it's July. So don't get annoyed at posters

You’re getting a tough time here for absolutely no reason. They are absolute bullshit and cause more chaos for working parents than they help the kids. If a kid has working parents, they will be used to going away. If they don’t then they probably would be going with friends as there will be mum groups so it also wouldn’t be an issue. You just take the afternoon off if you’re not a teacher but as a teacher the school should understand and have a workaround.

I think that if these days are in the summer term I wouldn’t bother if it can’t be done. It’ll be 6+ weeks before your child starts again either way a staggered start in September. And yes I do think that that school is child care in this case. This isn’t in the academic year you child turns 5 it’s before.

You don’t have to do a staggered start. They are legally entitled to start full time from day one. We did this - a staggered start was impractical and also not benefit to DC’s.

It is you that "can't:" do them I understand you are working, but you are going to need to organise things around school for the next 12ish years this is your first hurdle.

I think, to be honest, you'll have to do what the rest of the working parent population does and either arrange childcare or use annual leave. There's usually plenty of notice of the planned days for your child, so booking annual leave now is the name of the game. Welcome to working with a primary age child, it can be a logistical juggle but planning ahead is key. School is designed to manage what's best to teach a child, and I wouldn't expect my children's school to do anything different. It's fun for people with twins in different reception classes!

I have been perfectly polite. I have corrected some misinformation and I have explained (repeatedly, patiently) that in September I will have childcare in place which isn’t available to me now. There is nothing ‘annoyed’ in that response, unless you really don’t like being corrected.

How do people manage that with work?

A lot of people in bad moods at 8am on a Sunday it seems!

This is a very cruelly worded post and done so deliberately. Annual leave isn’t an option in my job. My child is the opposite of an inconvenience to me, hence why I work part time, but unfortunately we may have hit a wall here.

No its not childcare but finding childcare to work around these adhoc things is very difficult. Parents are allowed to complain about it. Given the increasing pressure for women to work and in more intense jobs , childcare needs to improve to facilitate it.

So these are days the child can attend in June/july as a prep for September? And you can take dc to one and dh to a second., then if there’s no grandparents or anyone who can help on the other days just do the two. Are you worried you look bad? Or that your child is having a disadvantage by not attending them all? It really won’t make much difference in the long run

I think the OP is referring to the transition days during the summer term rather than the staggered starts many schools have for new reception starters.

This is just the start of it, OP, soon there will be inset days you haven't planned for, pressure to attend mid school day events, early closing on random days before term ends. Having to use annual leave that you want to save for the actual school holidays. The guilt and stress of not having the flexibility other people seem to have is exhausting.
Teachers and other school staff don't have the flexibility to leave their jobs in the middle of the day to do these things, and yet schools still seem to work on the expectation that there is a SAHP (or very flexible jobs) in every household.

Yes she is, the transitional days at our school were in the summer term before the holidays too (the ones nursery took the kids too). Our school was full time from the start thank goodness!