Is this a really long school day for a 5 year old ?

[mummyloveslucy]

Hi, my daughter will be in year 1in september. She'll be starting at 8am and finishing at 4pm every day.
These seem like such long days to me. She used to start at 9am and finish at 3pm. I'm not sure how she'll cope with these long days? I did want her to do some after school activities, but I think I'll wait until she gets used to the long school days.
Is this the normal length of a school day in year 1?

No, it is unusually long. I'm assuming that at least part of the day is in the form of "activities" rather than formal learning.

It seems like a long day for a school. I thought school hours were 9-3 especially at primary school. Saying that my dd is used to going to nursery school from 8.30 til 4.30 as we use it for childcare. Private nurseries are open from 8 til 6 which seems like a very long day. My dd copes fine although not sure she'd be in a good state/ mood to cope with after-nursery activities. Why don't you see how it goes for a few weeks and then see how she is doing?

Is it an independent school? Is it in the UK? It's a very long day.

I thought so. They do activities such as gym, tennis, ballet, music etc. They get play times, but I'm not sure how much of the day is formal learning. Possibly quite a bit knowing the school.

I think it is too long for year 1 but you have to know your dd. How is she when you pick her up at 3pm, is she still quite fresh? What happens at your new school in the afternoon? If there is a fair bit of unstructured playtime or quietish time in smaller groups, it might be ok. My dd would have defintiely struggled.

I think she'll need half a year to adjust to the earlier start and the longer day. Maybe ypu can do something on Saturday - sport/music or whatever you have in mind and when you think she is managing the school day, try to fit in a bit more sport mid-week to give her an energy boost to get through the rest of the week.

Yes it's an independent school in the UK. She's been there since she was 2, so it's kind of like a home from home to her.

no it's NOT normal. Normal is 9 until 3.15

oh sorry crossed posts. Well if they do quite a bit of sport, that might be ok then. It is heavy on a 5 year old though definitely.

She always seems very lively at 3pm when I pick her up. She never wants to leave, she runs off to the play equiptment. She does tend to crash when she gets home though.

It is long but presumably you knew the hours when you chose the school?

My children are all are primary school and the hours are the same whatever year they are in.

No we didn't actually, It just never came up. I know older girls at the school and I know they finnish later but I assumed it was because of after school activities etc. I knew it was an 8:30 start but I thought they could still leave at 3pm if they wanted. I only found out the other day that they had to stay until 4pm.

Surely the school gives you a timetable or some idea as to what the school day looks like?

My ds starts reception in September and is doing 8.30 till 3.30pm which I think is a long day. It is the same in year 1.

Maybe they stay and do prep till 4pm.

MLL, I thought you were going to Home Ed anyway? The school day sounds unnecessarily long for 5 year olds.

It sounds far to long to me-why are you choosing it? Are there advantages?

We haven't had a time table yet for year 1.

I'm still not sure about HE as I've found the summer holidays really hard with her. She can be very demanding and hasn't been interested in anything for more than 5 minutes. I'm going to see how she gets on in year 1, then go from there. I'm not rueling it out at all.

Yes it has advantages, there are 8 in her class as opposed to 30. It is also a lovely friendly school where she feels secure and happy.

I've just re-read my post. It's 8:30 she starts, not 8am.

We are 8.30am to 4pm from KS1. DD actually did 8.05am to 4.45pm in year 1 as she travelled on the school bus each way. They are tired at the end of the day by they relish all the different activities.

That's not really very long then, my DD goes to a state school and they start at 8:45 and finish at 3:30 from reception til Y6.

So your DD is only doing 45 minutes more each day, where she might be doing sports?

Yes, they do have lots of different activities. They do ballet, jazz, music, tennis, gym, environmental club, swimming and from september she can do sailing and skiing. Thankfully though she dosn't want to do either.

Ds did 8.50 to 3.20 in year 1. In reality he was at school from 7.30 to 6.15 pretty much everyday and wasn't tired when he came home (I wish he was!). After school activities start in yr 2 at ds's school and they are only allowed to do a maximum of 2 to start with.

MLL,

You should be able to get a copy of the school timetable/structure of the day from the school, perhaps even from the school website. Perhaps that will put your mind at ease.

8am is a very early start and I suspect it has something to do with fitting in with working parents.

If you want your daughter to do extra-curricular activities, then do them at school. It will save you being a taxi mom.

It would have been too long for my DD at that age but she has dyspraxia and used to get more tired than usual at that age as a result as everything used to take a lt more effort for her than a NT child. It would also have been too long for my DS but he has always needed a lot of sleep and chill out time, where as a fair few of his friends would probably be fine. I guess it would be fine for most child. It really comes down to you knowing your DD and whether you think she will cope.

If there are only 8 in the class I expect they can structure it in such a way that the long day doesn't matter.