Reception staggered starts are overkill?!

[SMLSML]

My little one starts school in September, we had our first meeting at the school tonight 😊 question... How on earth are you meant to cope with the staggered starts if you both work full time?! She won't officially start until 17th September, all other days before then are half days 🫠 she's been going to childcare since she's 1, she'll be so confused not going more than two hours a day for two weeks 😅 not to mention I have no idea how you make it work with childcare, chuck on top of that I'm meant to be away with work the first two weeks of Sept 🙃 how on earth are parents meant to work around it?! Just seems crazy to me she's not even properly in for half a month. I get all children are different but surely it should be optional?! All suggestions welcome 😅

@Snoodleysimilar here, not 120. They have the option to go in 20 minutes later on day 1 and 2 so they’re not overwhelmed by the whole school but then it’s full time. People choose our school because they don’t do staggered start, it’s ridiculous. Sorry I can’t help OP.

As I said on the other thread mentioned above as a reception teacher I really dislike staggered starts and find them worse for settling the children in.

Small children thrive on routine. Ad-hoc childcare, different length days, sometimes staying for lunch and then not, going back to nursery and all the other disruption staggered starts cause is not in the child's best interests.

You are as others have said entitled to start your child from day 1 full-time and in my opinion that's the best way to help settle most children. If a child needs more support then the school should work with their parents. However, the default should be full time for the majority not part time because some might struggle or as is so often the case just because that's how the school has always done it.

Gosh OP this is giving me flashbacks to my DS starting a few years ago. Two weeks; first week mornings (with late start) second week afternoons (with early finish), both weeks were only four days and I started a new job the day he started school!
We enlisted grandparents; we don’t normally have grandparent childcare but couldn’t see any other way - DS’ nursery couldn’t do wraparound as his school was too far, and his new wraparound setting wouldn’t take them until they’d finished school settling (!!!). Luckily my parents are ‘commutable’ from us so offered to do afternoons in week one, and MIL was kind enough to be live in childcare for week two (she lives hours away). Week one plan then collapsed because DM was unwell, which was a bit stressful (though just one of those things, and she got better!) but we muddled through. Credit where it’s due, DH took on a lot of it because I was trying to manage the new job and also (more unfortunate timing) have some fairly significant dental surgery. Looking back, you couldn’t have made it up!!

Keep strong OP, it’s a total nightmare but you’ll get through it (also recommend lowering your expectations of yourself around cooking / cleaning / hobbies / life in general to get through!).

We had this with reception. It’s ridiculous and to be honest dine to suit the school I think. A few half days would be fine but ours went in for weeks. I nearly had to leave work, saved only by friends and neighbours in similar situations.

We’re doing a stay and play in July then a 3 hour session where we drop them off at end of July for a taster then it’s full time from the first day. They did a survey the last few years and the result was overwhelming that most kids are used to doing long days at nursery so makes sense to just start full time. Plus I can’t imagine having to wait until the afternoon to send them in for their half day session. All that sitting around all morning must make the build up more anxious for them

Thanks all. It's a little village school with 17 children going into reception so it's not been done for over crowding reasons and I think that's perfectly acceptable numbers for the teachers to get to know the kids 😅 I'm emailing them today to see if they'll budge as I just find it madness. As someone said on here there's not many children these days that haven't been to some form of childcare before school and for the ones who have the option is there

i was on the other thread as well and I think it’s ridiculous. In her first week of school, my youngest was in for less than 3 hours. It was ridiculous and didn’t help her settle at all. I suspect if school who do this did a proper survey of what was happening to the 4 year olds every day when not in school, they’d be quickly changing the approach. Having a mismatch of care is much more disruptive and in some situations potentially unsafe than actually being in school.

Thankfully, my youngest dd school stopped this.

She stated reception last September and it was straight in to 9-3.

They had 5 stay and play mornings/afternoon in the previous July across 3 weeks. You could go to as many or as few as you could make, which made it easier for working parents to attend one. although a lot of children were already at the school nursery so they could go to them all of a parent couldn’t make it.

My middle child school was a nightmare, it was staggered start over 2 weeks. I was working in a school so couldn’t take any time off, dh ended up taking 2 weeks holiday to facilitate it, it would have been impossible otherwise.

Ours was like this last year, three weeks of either nothing (!), couple of hours here and there, or half days. A group of us complained and to be fair the head has listened and has made it much before for this year.

What is bad is schools presenting a staggered start as the only option. Hopefully more parents will become aware that they can send their children full time from day day - better for their children and parents.

It doesn’t help kids either. When son started they had some staggered starts but I really think it confused a lot of children. By the time my other child started there a couple of years later they’d done away with them, except for a few DC they thought needed it. It was so much better and easier to get them used to the new routine much faster.

Agree it’s ridiculous. My daughters school did a week of half days (first 2 days an hour and a half with only half the class in at a time, then 2 days until lunchtime, the one day til after lunch) then full time the next week.

Conversely, the year before, she started pre school at the school I worked in. She didn’t go to breakfast club the first morning and that happened to be my half day so she went home after lunch. The following day she went to breakfast club, whole day at school then after school club. She was 3.5 and she coped fine.

The OPTION for half days should be there for those who need it, but most don’t and it’s hugely disruptive. I was a teacher myself - how are my class supposed to settle if I’m leaving early to go and collect my own child? Our existing childcare was a term time only preschool 15 miles away so couldn’t just carry on sending her there as there was no transport between. In the end I had to negotiate some early finishes, grandparents helped for a day and I think maybe we used an old childminder for a couple. Oh, and my daughter had to go for her first ever play date without me with another child who she’d met only a few times as the parent did me a favour. Can’t help but feel that just going to school would have been more settled than what we ended up doing!!

As for teachers needing the time to get to know the children, PLEASE. Most teachers get a brand new set of 30 kids in front of them in September each year, and if you start a new school you won’t know any of them. I’m sure it’s lovely for reception teachers to have an easier start to the year but the other teachers would equally like and benefit from this so that argument just doesn’t hold.

There’s plenty of time to arrange childcare or parental leave surely ? The teachers need to assess children and plan and it’s not done just for fun it’s actually a better approach to settle them gradually over 1-2 weeks.

When my youngest started reception the head teacher announced at the parent info session that they had stopped this and all children would be full time from the start. There was actual cheering in response. It's absolutely ridiculous. Fine to present it as an option as in "school is full time from day 1 but if you think your child would benefit from a staggered start then please speak to Teacher".

Surely you thoroughly researched before having children, so you could plan accordingly?

Two weeks of half starts is overkill. Our school did 3 half days then straight into full days after that. Two reception classes and it was fine. I wouldn’t be able to do 2 weeks of it. Could you manage 1 week and then say you’ll send them in full time the second week? As an aside, unless you’d lose your job over it, could you get out of the work trip? Starting school is a huge deal for kids, and the first couple of weeks they’ll be meeting new friends, the parents will be talking, there’s likely to be school meetings or talking to the teachers. I wouldn’t have wanted to miss that and my DD would’ve been upset.

my dc are in their mid twenties now and they had to do this right up until the October half term it was a bloody nightmare.

I remember this well. Get ready for several years of feeling like parents don't actually work at a work place and have loads of free time to be able to respond to loads of last minute things like dress up days or craft things or drop in sessions without notice - or maybe that was just our school 😅

We had 6 weeks of it with dd1. It was mad and very unsettling. Interestingly dtd2&3 started a few years later, same time as the deputy head’s daughter, and suddenly they did a well part time then in full. I think she realised how mad it was for working parents.

I always managed quite capably to assess all 30 of the children in my class without the need for staggered days. Some staff may think it's better for the children but in my profession opinion most of those who do don't work in early years.

As I said consistent routines are so important to young children and knowing the expectations from day one is much more beneficial than weeks of uncertainty.

ETA - if it was proven to be beneficial then there would be set policies around it and all schools would adopt the same approach.

Unfortunately not, no grandparents around to help, preschool won't have her after the holidays as she'll be too old and no childminder spots available locally🙃

School is for education, not childcare... Maybe trust the professionals? Just a thought!

Hilarious 😅🤣

Honestly some parents moaning about schools I wonder why they want them to go. Some of these starting reception maybe only just 4 and we keep hearing stories about kids not being able to hold a pencil or go to the toilet, yet apparently they are all perfectly “ ready” to cope in a new situation with more kids and fewer adults. It’s only for a couple of weeks! Schools main job isn’t childcare. BTW I was a teacher and had 4 kids who didn’t start school till after they were 5 and they had half days for a fortnight, no wraparound care and yes we coped.

It is ridiculous given funded childcare hours now means that nearly all children are moving from a full time child care setting. However complaining is probably hard work - primary schools ime tend to see themselves as education and not childcare, so parents expecting them to be childcare settings rubs them up the wrong way - when of course to working parents they will always be both…