Reception staggered starts are overkill?! UPDATE

[SMLSML]

I posted recently about how people manage staggered starts for reception... A lot of people said legally that schools have to take them full time if asked. For context my little one starts in September and will do 3 weeks of 2 hour sessions...

She currently goes to preschool full time and after-school club until 5pm. Childcare aside I honestly do think she will find it very disruptive and think we'll spend more time taking her to and from school. 4 other parents agree with me, however this is the response I've had from the headteacher... Is it even worth challenging? I totally get the gradual approach but 3 weeks feels overkill...

Just unsure of what to do and no idea how I'll manage 😩 I honestly don't believe it'll be beneficial for my little one either. Any advice appreciated!

Go on holiday for 2 of those weeks!

What a shame the you are being forced into all this campaigning (and you are quite right to do so) before your child even gets there. It's stressful enough when a kid starts school and this is making it even more so.
We didn't have this with DS, he was in from day 1. We would have had to use both grannies to help us if not, but not everyone has that option!

Writing this on phone so format not excellent!

Dear [Chair of Governors],

I am writing to you to complain about the arrangements for admission to the Reception Year at [School Name]. I am parent/guardian of [Child Name] who has a place in the Reception class at [School Name] starting in September 2025.

Communications from the school have indicated that the Reception Year intake in September 2025 are being offered only a part-time place at the start of the term, described by the school as a ‘staggered start’. I have sought clarification from [Name of Headteacher] about the arrangements and [he/she] has confirmed that Reception Year children are not offered a full-time place at [Name of School] from the beginning of the September term. This is in contravention of the School Admissions Code.

I would like to draw your attention to the Office of the Schools Adjudicator Annual Report for 2013 - 2014, published in December 2014. Paragraphs 57 and 58 address complaints to the Schools Adjudicator in that year relating to staggered starts, and clarifies the responsibilities of schools set out in the Admissions Code. Schools must make full-time provision available from the beginning of the autumn term of the school year in which the child reaches compulsory school age, the September following the child’s fourth birthday.

The report of the Schools Adjudicator specifically references schools providing an induction period where schools dictate when a child can and cannot attend school and makes it clear that this contravenes the parents rights under the Admissions Code,
to request a full-time education from
the start of the autumn term, so in this respect [School Name] would be knowingly failing to follow statutory guidance should it continue to insist on a staggered start for the Reception Year.

I would like [Child’s Name] to exercise [his/her] right to a full-time education from
the start of the autumn term in 2025. In addition, I would like [School Name] to make it clear to the parents and guardians of the Reception Year children starting in September that the ‘staggered start’ is a recommendation from the school, and that they have the option to send their child to school full-time from the start of term. I make this second request as I observe that it is the children of parents working zero hours or inflexible contracts who will be put at most disadvantage through the loss of family income or unpredictable childcare routine during any part-time
attendance period.

I look forward to your speedy response to enable Reception Year parents and teachers to plan for the start of term in September.

(hope that’s okay. I can link the School
Admissions Code - para 2.17 is the one if you need to quote it, and if you google the Adjudicators Report from 2014 you’ll be able to find it. I am a former school governor
and furious on behalf of children and parents of reception children that schools are still
not adhering to the statutory guidance over a decade since it was clarified. And as a working parent I sent a letter like this in 2015. Dd attended full time from the start. The teachers put her in with Y1 when the others went home and she had a blast, but within days the other kids had heard she was full time and joined her.)

https://dera.ioe.ac.uk/id/eprint/21835/1/OSA_Annual_Report_2014.pdf

just in case you couldn’t find it!

Then idea that Reception class teachers need additional time to do new class admin is neither here nor there. They know the intake before the summer holidays so can prepare everything at the end of the summer term or during the holidays just like every other class teacher has to do for their class.

Three weeks of 2 hours is a bit strange. Ours is 6 children start each day, they stay all day including lunch. It starts with the oldest children on Day 1. Obviously if your child is the youngest they start later. It normally takes 2 weeks for everyone to be in.

It's bollocks.

Our primary told us they found all that unsettled the kids and didn't help.

Their strategy was to have a third of the class in for one day to settle them. Then on the fourth day all the kids were in full time. No messing about.

And yeah kids were fine.

I honestly think these policies of daft settling in part time are all about the parents not the kids and reassuring the grown ups.

I'm glad our school just got the fuck on with it.

How ridiculous trying to find childcare for a half day - how many decide to send their child full time from day one and mess up the six a day?

But they’re not compulsory school age until the term after they turn 5. So that doesn’t help for the start of reception.

While I completely understand the frustration in this and the difficulty when you work, I would refrain from hedging your bets about how your child will cope with reception, despite being in full time childcare. My twins were in full time childcare from 9 months old, born early in the academic year and were judged by everyone to be very ‘school ready’. Well, they both fell completely apart upon starting reception (which btw, was at a beautiful and brilliant school). Our school’s approach to starting was building the class up slowly, with having different children start on different days, but no short days - once they’d started, they started.

Their reaction to reception start surprised me, as all the signs beforehand led us to believe they would cope well. They were teary, emotional and beyond exhausted each day. Their sleep and temperament went up the spout for a long time and took at good while to settle. In hindsight, they would have benefited from shorter days for a while.

Again, I understand the struggle, but you really don’t know how children will react once they start, so claiming that you know otherwise is shortsighted.

That poster is correct, but said compulsory school age when she meant entitlement to school age, which is the September after they turn 4. The age a child becomes entitled to a school place isn’t the same as when they are required to be in school.

My son was similar to yours op! He started in 2020 the year of Covid and we ended up having to isolate so he missed his first week with the staggered starts so went straight into full days and they remarked it was like he’d always been there! He’d been doing nursery 7am-6pm 5 days a week whilst I did my nursing degree so if anything the school days were shorter for him

I got basically the same email 8 years ago. Like you my daughter had been in full time nursery. She was so bored and confused. It's a joke.

It’s so crazy. My eldest did two half days then full time and thought that was good. The youngest they didn’t start them at all until two weeks later (because covid, was 2020) then took them all full time (35 of them!). No consistency.

Id be really annoyed in your situation!

Fwiw, our home visits are the first full week of term.

Week 2, children are given a start date and they're in full time from that day onwards.

We do get some sleeping in the book corner for the first two terms, but most are used to full (and longer) days in nursery.

The idea of breaking children into school dates back to the time when most preschool children were at home with their mum full time while dad went out to work.

Keep us updated with how you get on.

Three weeks is taking the mickey!

My ds joined a class of 28, had one day when he just went in alone for 30 mins to meet TA and teacher, and then a week of half days. That was plenty of settling in.

I am not sure I would argue. You are going to be there 7 years maybe longer if more children. I don't think they will change their policy so I would suck it up.

A school policy is irrelevant when it’s breaching legislation so of course a school will have to change.

OP this is incredibly simple. You do have a legal right to a full time place from day 1. Write in and cite this and tell them she will be full time. Who cares what they think of you. Let them think what they like.

That is fantastic @Zippp! Mumsnet should republish that every year as a public service.

I work in a primary school where Reception children are in full time from day 1.
I can assure you no one is "crying all day", the atmosphere is lovely and calm and the children generally settle in and become used to the rhythm and routine of school very quickly.
Home visits and Nursery visits are done in the summer term before they start with us, they also have 'stay and play' settling in sessions before the summer break and the children come in for a Teddy Bears picnic in the summer holidays. Then in September they have a consistent, predictable routine from day 1. Yes, they are tired but Teachers plan quiet periods of downtime into their day so that they don't get overstimulated or overtired.
We used to do staggered starts and found that it was not helpful for the children or parents, they actually settle in much quicker since we moved to FT from day 1. Some schools are simply resistant to change and insist on sticking rigidly to the way they've always done things.

I worked full time when my two started school and we had phased starts. It really helped my daughter who had already been in nursery full time and it was planned for my son too. Unfortunately 3 mothers started to legally challenge the system and threated to go to the papers so the head caved in and let children start full time straight away. A friend of mine who is a primary teacher but was not working during that period told me she'd never seen so many crying children lining up in the morning to go into reception. We both stuck to the phased start but it was an absolute shambles. The mothers who felt they 'spoke' for the class in my opinion caused real damage to the settling process. The head privately told me he just didn't have the time to fight the request and chose to get on running the school. My son took a lot longer to settle despite being used to full time care. Settling periods are there for a reason the school isn't just being awkward. We planned the wrap around child care and sucked it up. No nearby relatives to help just friends and childminders.

Perhaps I'm bitter and hold grudges too long but I have never forgiven those 3 women for what they did. They acted without consulting other parents and railroaded things purely for their benefit. It had quite an impact on the class and perhaps it would help to remember that schools are there to educate your children and not provide child care. There is quite a lot of evidence supporting the phased start approach. It hasn't simply been plucked out of the air.

Same here.

Unfortunately, posts like the one you quoted do give credence to the idea that these extended settling in periods are more for the benefit of school staff than children. There's no point schools throwing their hands up and saying "it can't be done" when there are many schools successfully welcoming Reception children full time from the start of term.

But you stuck to the phased start. So it sounds like your school gave you the option, so what’s the problem? There must frequently be parents who can’t make it work (my friends who are both secondary school teachers can’t take leave for example), and so have to insist on full time from the start. But you got the option which you felt worked best for you & your child.

I agree that it’s a long time. if there are 4 other sets of parents in your position, could you all create a childcare scheme between you? Split the 3 weeks into 4 or 5 equal slots, then each of you take holiday for your slot and look after all the kids. So each of you would take 4 or 5 days off instead of 3 weeks. Would that work?