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!

I'm a secondary school teacher and I managed. No leave taken by me at all. The reason it didn't work is during the settling period they then had to do away with the smaller groups as some children were just 'boom' they're in. It's hard to explain succinctly but instead of my son getting to know 9 other children there were a lot more in and some were in all day and a lot of the activities had to change. It was chaos and as I said above there were many many tears from lots of the children. In terms of the cohesion of the class it had a detrimental effect. But that's my opinion.

I would be very interested to see up to date evidence that children who are on extended part time timetables for the first few weeks of Reception benefit emotionally and academically in comparison to children who start Full time from day one.

It sounds as though, in your case, it was poorly organised and chaotic due to the school having to change their plans at short notice. Any transition, whether its staggered or not, will be a "shambles" if not properly planned and thought through.

I work in a school that starts Reception children full time and I certainly don't recognise the distress or chaos you describe, but that's because we plan for this meticulously, the children have settling in sessions before and during the summer and the first week is really calm and all about getting used to the new routines at a gentle pace.

If a staggered start was so beneficial, why isn’t it compulsory?
Some children may benefit from a staggered start, others don’t. We sent DT’s full time from day one as did many others. No problems - just excited children more than ready for full time school. DT’s started breakfast and after school clubs at the same time. We didn’t want school to provide childcare but education inline with the legal requirements.
The head of your school wasn’t caving in - she was abiding by her legal obligations.

The school would have been aware of how many children were starting full time from day one and should have organised the days better. No reason for a shambles when other schools manage successfully.

Not everyone has spare holidays to take especially when you know you have the rest of the school year to cover. Wasting holidays would have meant additional days in holiday clubs later throughout the school year.

Our school does two weeks. First week of just before lunch collection. Second week after their lunch and then full time the third week. I think ours also on the first week had half the class in the morning and the other half the afternoon, then all in the second week.

Part of the problem there is that parents wind their children up and set expectations and it's about how the parents think it's going to go.

So if the parents wanted staggered starts in and then we're told they couldn't have that. And the schools attitude was 'well it wasn't our choices', those parents are going to be overly anxious and the kids feed on it. The parents effectively set their kids up for that.

Whereas if the school say, 'we find that actually a full time start to get it over and done with, with the fewest number of distractions is the way to go', they set the parents expectations and reassure the parents. So the parents are less anxious and the kids have less to feed off.

Thus the issue is one over psychologically preparing the parents and not really the children at all. Children who are secure with their parents will trust their parents and look for their reaction. The kid whose parent is dramatic over leaving them is the kid that's most insecure.

Genuinely there were not many children at all who found it difficult for my son's year. My son was fine despite a lot of the others going to nursery for much longer days and longer weeks. DS was at a disadvantage because of this.

And of course it helps if the kids know at least one other kid going and you sell it as playing with little Johnny all day.

You don't have conversations about how you aren't sure if little Emily is ready for school in front of little Emily or her friends though.

That's also why the phased start will show up well in research but it's not necessarily the phased start that's doing it, because other schools genuinely find the in unphased start works too. Because it's all about setting the parents expectations and reassuring the parents so the kids have theirs set well because it's about psychology rather than the actual method you use.

That's why you got so upset about it and the head saying what she did privately only has fueled your anxiety between the changing system and set you up to resent those three parents. The head has a lot to answer for here - she should have reassured you rather than blaming others. Your anger at the change really won't have helped the vibes your son was getting when he started school will it?

It didn't work as the school handled it badly.

It works in other schools because they are happy to make it work.

My DDs "settling in" was 3 days, with the whole class in at a time, just shorter days (8.30-11.30 day 1, 8.30-1pm for two days, then full time) and they considered having them in for the full day on day 3 as they were all happy.

Thankfully dd school didn’t do this. Think we had first week starting wed so 3 days till lunch.

next week stay for lunch mon and Tue and wed full week

3w of short hours is hell

bur I’ve known Longer as a nanny and sone schools staffed for 6w till half term in oct 🙀🙀🙀

Totally agree. My DD went full time after just one half day, and there were no hysterics or weeping children at the gate.

Two weeks - what a nightmare for children and their parents

I find it interesting that most nurseries will suggest only a couple of settling in sessions then will push quick handovers because they reckon prolonging it will make things harder. And that’s with much younger children who probably haven’t been left before and depending on age may not even fully understand where they are and why.
Yet some schools seem to think 4YOs can’t cope even though nearly all of them will have been to nursery before because everyone gets the 15 hours of preschool and most people are eligible for 30.

@neverbeenskiing Sessions during the summer is it private? If so that's not surprising.

My children's school literally had to offer the full time start (for Reception in September) in the last week of the summer term via email. So @Parker231 they didn't have all the information needed well in advance. Hence the lack of time to plan. It's interesting that many of you view it the head's fault. It really wasn't and it was a very popular oversubscribed school with lots of sudden church attendance to secure a place at the school but when it made things tricky seemed to forget about how much they liked the school. The head was enormously experienced and worked with OFSTED and county leadership - he wasn't perfect but he knew his stuff.

@RedToothBrush I wasn't over dramatic in any sense. I was never at drop off anyway as I would be 20 miles away in my own classroom. There are a lot of cod psychologists telling me what I did wrong. Impressive as you weren't there. I can only go on my friend's observations (she is a Reception teacher at another school and had a daughter in my son's class) and my husband's.

I can see I'm not going to persuade many of you about the benefits of phased starts and smaller groups in the first few weeks of school but it's always good to see differing points of view.

Also not sure where the label 'hysterics' is coming from either for me or the upset children but hey let's dismiss people with different experiences. Whatever happens OP I hope the start goes well for all concerned.

It's interesting that many of you view it the head's fault. It really wasn't

I'm curious to know why you think it wasn't the headteacher's fault. They have to offer a full time place, the admissions criteria is very clear about that. The fact they dragged their feet until the very last week before the children were due to start, is a decision they chose to make.

YANBU

They have staggered starts for reception but it is for three days and the next week is full-time at my son’s school. He had been in nursery a few days a week for a few years and all but 3 children in his nursery class were going to be in reception with him (the nursery is across the street from the school). I asked the teacher about if it was possible to send him in for the full day instead and they were absolutely fine with it and many other parents were asking the same. It was a class of 30, 60 in total and most of them had either been in the 2 nurseries across the street from the school or the school’s preschool. It was a small percentage of children that hadn’t been in a nursery/pre-school at all.

Why three weeks for only 17 children?

Yes and I think if a parent posted on here suggesting that for 3 weeks they sent their child to nursery just 2 hours a day, and for the rest of the time managed to piece together ad hoc childcare (parents, grandparents, childminder, babysitter, a friend), they’d be told they are a bit mad to think that that’s less disruptive than a couple of settling sessions and then straight into the regular routine.

Phased starts don’t show up in research well. There is very little research available on how well phased starts work in reception and none that I’m aware of of a high quality

DD started primary school last September and they started full time straight away. Her head teacher said they found it made no difference if they did phased start or started full days straight away so they might as well start knowing what to expect rather than getting used to half days then changing it to full days and unsettling them again.

Surely the 2 hours per child are spread through the day, so that only a third of the children are in at any one time, so the DC will not be on their own, simply with different bunches of kids.

Edited to add: And the other 5 children who also want full days.

YES!! If someone starts a thread saying that their baby/toddler is PT at nursery and isn’t settling well the responses are nearly always along the lines of ‘can you up their hours’.

This is the wrong way too. The oldest get settled in with a small number, while the youngest have to join a full class, most of whom are already settled.

I would absolutely love this slow transition to school for my daughter and it would really work for her, but that’s because I’m lucky enough to be a stay at home mum!

I know my daughter is in the minority needing extra time adjusting to long days away from home though. There’s just no way this would suit the majority of families where both parents work.

I don’t blame you for feeling frustrated with this, their response seems like the school doesn’t intend to provide another option for children of working parents.

There is a way to suit working parents - follow the legislation and provide full time education from the first day.
Why do you think a staggered start v full time would be better for your DD - for most it’s not a huge transition from nursery days?

3 weeks of that is ridiculous!

Mine (and they are all late mid teens now) did 2 mornings and 2 afternoon (so half class in at a time) and then a full day on the friday.

1 week is much easier to manage, helps transition the children but without parents needing to take most of their annual leave!