Are the new school times causing you problems?

[Happyinmyownworld]

I used to drop my child off at 8.40 and collect at 3.25. now it's changed to 8.55 and collect at 3.00pm. Which has buggered up my plan to do nursery 9-3 with my other child as it's the other direction. It isn't a huge deal as I'll just wait until things improve. But Its got me wondering if others are struggling with getting where they need to be.

Is the new queuing system going to be really slow too I wonder. It says one parent to the gate and a child will be called out.

We've also got to walk right around and down a lane to the back gate which adds an extra ten minutes onto the walk. Which is ok but it's already 25 minutes and I already have to manage my toddlers pushchair rage can't wait lol.

Any issues for anyone else? I'm well aware it's a pandemic and I only mean this as a curious question 😁

Our times haven't changed at all. Our school (primary, not small) aren't doing staggered drop offs. Every class has its own door to the outside, KS2 are encouraged to be left at gates and parents not come in. KS1 if possible waved off from a distance (on the grounds). Masks have to be worn by parents/carers etc outside the school gates and on the school grounds inside and out.

What with roadworks and one DD starting earlier, I'm going to have to leave about 30mims earlier in the morning.

Yes I work in school and have 4 children. We all start and finish in a time range of an hour and fifteen minutes morning and evening. Its going to be a nightmare, not actually sure yet how I'm going to do it 😱

Wont cause me problems but DS1 will no longer be able to have lifts when it rains! the primary and secondary school used to have a 20 minute difference in start times which gave me enough time to drop/ collect primary DS1 then drive to drop/ collect high school DS2 if it was raining. It's a 40 min walk for him which he's happy to do in nice weather!

Now their allotted start/ finish times are the same so I can only drop/ collect one child and that will have to be the little one.

☔️ for big DS!

Yes! Little one starting at 8.30 and oldest at 9. Little one comes out at 3 and oldest at 3.30. 5 hours a week stood on the yard in winter with a baby in her pram... Can't wait! The school is terrible for parkkng so you end up parking miles away or just walking so there will be hoards of parents hanging around on the yard for ages everyday which defeats the point. I know it isn't a big deal in the grand scheme of things but it just adds to the general misery and like everything atm is a right faff. No idea how we will manage it once I go back to work from maternity

Luckily my DS has just moved to secondary now and is getting school bus there and back. I've decided to trust him with a house key and see how it goes.
Youngest DS is still little so praying that things go to relative normal before he goes to nursery or school

We've both had to change our hours due to no before/after school club.
So DH is going to work 10 -6 and I'm going to do 8 -2:30. It's going to work but I would prefer to do all day at work. Hopefully will only be this academic year though.

I wonder if it will be until next year all this.

Yes I know what you mean. In the grand scheme of things it's not an issue. But it is a pain in the bum isn't it. I would not be bothered but my son's just stuck in the terrible twos now and he doesn't have the patience to be in his pushchair for an extra twenty minutes and letting him walk is just not always possible with time limits. Kind of regretting not choosing the closer school but it would be so unfair to change her now.

It's really hard for working parents too. What a nightmare

Yes, it’s not a big deal and a lot better than dealing with closures, but it is a bit awkward. We have 20 mins between drop off for my two, and pick up. They’ve asked us not to hang around school, so either we will walk home partway?! or I’ll take one, DH the other - until he’s back in the office.

Yes it has. Dh drives them to school as we live outside of the area. One is at secondary school and the other is at primary. Previously both schools started at the same time but the primary school is having staggered starts and ds will start 35 minutes later at 9.05. Before you could drop and run but that's no longer allowed and dh usually has daily conference calls at 9.00 am so I don't know how he will square this with work.

The reason for insisting that parents drop off is for parents to ensure that kids aren't mixing outside of their bubble. However lots of children have been mixing at each other's houses over the summer and on the days when ds goes to the childminders he will be mixing with children outside his bubble. Childminder has already said that she won't be practising social distancing as she doesn't have the space.

Yes. Before, it was 8.45 drop off, 3.10 pickup. Now it's 3 seperate drop off times, 2 being the same time but at two different schools. Last drop of at 8.55. Three separate pick ups between 2.50pm and 3.10. If I'm late for the oldest, the school have said we have to wait for the ENTIRE school to go through their bubbles first and left children must come last.

As it is, I can now no longer make start times for work. Work is not happy. They're trying to reassign me completely different work, but so far for August I'll get no pay ,(I'm zero hours contract) . Funtimes :(

Yep. I’ve got one child on school transport as he attends a specialist school who will be finishing earlier than he used to. Other primary aged child has a later pick up at the end of the day. I will be hoping for bad traffic for him so my DS and I can beat his taxi home.

Mine are just in secondary so isn't a problem but I think it's crazy. A few minutes outside for the children is not so high risk as to cause such disruption and also means parents will gather and have to wait. It will also add parking problems and congestion..

I give it about a month...

I can't believe how many schools are making parents hang around between staggered times for siblings. Our school has done staggered times by surname rather than by year group, to avoid exactly that issue - the head has primary aged kids herself so made sure it was as convenient as possible for parents.

It's really silly. I can't understand why they cant allow parents to just all take the kids into the playground as normal. It's outside and I'm sure parents are capable of standing a couple of foot away from eachother. I understand all schools are different but the government has not considered any of the problems this causes parents with jobs and children of different ages. Lots of parents drive to my DD school but plenty of us walk a mile from the estate further away. We are going to be doing this is in all weathers. It won't kill children to walk further, but DD is only 5 and will be exhausted as it is. But I guess we will just have to muddle through.

I think they should have sent a questionnaire to all parents and asked which gate they use. Then opened one gate at 8.40 and the other at 8.50. then all children can start at 8.55. hopefully allowing working parents 10-20 minutes to get to work for 9am. Then in the afternoon 3.15 and 3.25.

It makes me laugh that they think children won't want to walk with friends too. My DD best friend and her mum usually walk with us and the school are saying not too. But how do you tell children it's safe to go to school and in the next breath say it's not safe to walk with a friend.

I'm really sorry to the people on this post loosing money due to this. It's disgusting and hard to believe the gov has not considered how this master plan won't work for many.

@Pixel7777
I hope it's not until January or April.

@DebbieFiderer
That's great. I think the government should have been clearer with this as schools are creating more complications than parents have time for. It's important for our kids to be at school but there's only so much time parents can be waiting about isn't there. I am lucky to be currently not working. But my son's missed out on socialising all year and now his life will be on hold until he can go to nursery around his sister's schooling. Some of its my fault. I can't drive and choose a school further away. But I still feel this staggered stuff won't change much at all. X

Yes. My DC's primary are doing staggered start and finish times which is (IMO) unnecessary as they will all be entering and leaving through different doors. They've asked that parents do not wait around or congregate, but have made it so that most of the parents will have to do exactly that. It's a tiny village school with nowhere to stand as there's no frontage to the school and they're not opening the playground. It's going to be chaos I think.

Yes, used to start at 8.40 and finish at 3.20, I would drop at 8.40 and get to work for 9 and leave work at 3 the latest.
Now its staggered, one child starts at 8.40 and the other at 9, finishing at 3 and 3.20.
I already negotiated these work hours so I wouldn't need childcare I can't see it going down well at work - no I haven't mentioned it yet and they start on Wednesday 😬

Ours are staggered but if you have siblings you drop off and pick up both at the earlier option if that makes sense. I'm surprised because I can see that being a lot of extra work for the school having to fetch the children who are outside of their normal class leaving time but it's their decision , I too have wondered about how long it will take , I want to get back to work as I have had to come out due to childcare over the summer and its going to be a challenge if it takes an hour to do both ends of the day

I've had to change my work hours slightly and will have to hang around for 20 minutes in between 2 different pick up times at the end of the day.
I'm just fortunate I could change my hours and that the breakfast club is still running.

No, they’ve changed the times (cut down playtime a bit and made the day 20 minutes shorter) and staggered timings but sensibly siblings can be dropped off or collected together, at whichever child is earliest in/latest out. One child has been and will continue to be finishing at lunchtime anyway so I’m used to multiple school runs. I will wait and see how it works with spacing at the gates but I’m not anticipating a big problem, it’s a relatively small school, there’s a big pavement and multiple gates will be open. Husband is working at home, we live super close and I don’t work so we will be fine, but I dread to think how we’d manage if we both worked out of the house.

Yes. Due to staggered starts my primary aged daughter's school bus is no longer allowed to run. It used to pass by the school I work at and fit with my start and finish times so I could put her on / get her off . Now she finishes at 2.45 but my school finishes at 3.35. Having to use a mixture of breakfast club, after school club, friends . I can't drive . Today we did a practice walk home in case she has to do that in an emergency on her own. Will take her 45 minutes ( age 10). I've had many sleepless nights. The walking to collect her will hopefully get me fit again.

Ours start back on Monday 7th and we haven't had a single email, so I've no idea whether we have staggered starts, finish at lunch time, have a day off for a deep clean etc. Not a word has been communicated