What are the settling in arrangements for your reception class children?

[emkana]

Talking to friends I am amazed at the differences in the settling in period. Dd1 will go 9 to 12 for the first two weeks, 9 to 1.15 for the next two weeks, and then full time. But she is one of the younger ones, and only the younger ones start next Tuesday, the older ones start a week to 10 days later.
So what's it like at your school? And what do you think of the arrangements? Good idea or not?

at my dd`s school the younger ones can go all day if you think they will cope with it. this is a great help for me with living 40 minutes drive away from the school. but if she gets too tired she can have wednesday off.

Two intakes - DD1 just gets in under the net, as she was born in Feb, after Feb they go next January. Full-time from the off.

In our LEA all children are mornings only until January - even the nearly 5 year olds. This suits me very well as DS2 turned 4 3 days ago. They stagger the start dates, too. All reception children in the DSs' school are starting 2 weeks after the rest of the school. Then within the classes they start in 3 groups - group 1 on Monday for 2 hours, then all morning for the rest of the week; group 2 on Wednesday for 2 hours, then all morning etc; and group 3 on Friday for 2 hours, but all 3 groups all morning from the second week.
Luckily (I think) DS2 is in Group 1 so will have a couple of days of getting to know other children in a smaller group.

QofQ - I actually totally disagree with your point about working Mums. My DS stayed at day nursery rather than go to the nursery attached to school because of:
a) the inconvenience of the hours being 2.5 per day when I work 3 days a week and he can have his 5 sessions in those 3 days.
b) better for him to be with his little sister at the day nursery
c) I wanted him at home all day Monday and Friday with me and DD rather than off at nursery for 2.5 hours.

About half a dozen children out of 30 did not go to the school nursery. No surprise that they all had working mothers. So for DS he has to settle in at a childminders as well as at school. He is used to being at nursery 8 until 5.30 and so 2.5 hours at school seems like nothing to him.

Fortunately for me he started yesterday so I have Friday and Monday for settling him, and then his last short day is Tuesday and I have taken half a days leave and because DH is away Tuesday evening he is able to start late and take DS to school and I can collect him. Then he can start with the childminder from Wednesday.

Agree that the staggered start can be more of a pain than the previous routine. I'm still struggling to get my head around working with one at school and one not yet. Up until this point either a day nursery or nanny has worked, and whilst the nanny would still work it is effectively more expensive for the one child. But even if you go for a c/m, I imagine that they're going to be hampered by different drop-off/pick-up times, especially if they have to cover more than one school.

Ds1 starts on Wednesday - children with surnames earlier in the alphabet go in the morning, and the rest go in the afternoon until Friday. From Monday 12th they're all full time.

In our school there are two intakes, sept and jan. It means that they start the term they turn 5 ( or on term earlier) which means they are slightly older than some. My dd will staart in Jan, birthday in march and will start full time from the off. There is no 'official' school nursery, but a village pre-school that feeds into the school. Unfortuneately some of dd's friends are starting in sept, so she will miss them.

9-1pm for the first week for all children.
Autumn born children - full time second week
Spring born children - full time after half term
Summer born children - full time after christmas or earlier if teachers happy.

To be honest it is all a bit of a nightmare as DS1 is summer born and I work 9-3pm three days a week and DP is in Singapore till the end of September. Luckily understanding boss, grandparents helping out and me will try and get him earlier full time as he already does three full days at nursery.

Lets hope he settles in quickly then Kaz

I've kept DD at her day nursery and DS is going to a cm who lives about half way between here and nursery which is only 1/2 mile anyway. So our first day of double drop is Wednesday and DH is away Tuesday night so its down to me.

Ds1 starts Wednesday, half days (no lunch) till christmas, this is one of the main reasons I have just become a stay at home mum, until this year he would have had half days until easter but they have changed. Anyone who thinks being a teacher fits in with having kids it just ain't so! There is no way my boss would have let me work round this and the cost of child care for the half days and for my other 2 just wasn't worth it.

Two full days last friday and tomorrow, but home for lucnh. Full time for that. Thank goodness- DS1 went for a term at what appeared to be complete random. Mornings here, afternoons here, different kids at different times- Childcare Hell!

DS2's class is staggered with different kids joining every few days. Not sure why he's in first batch of five, thought it was age but older (just) girl satrting next thursday (his girlfriend). Might be becaude he hears badly, and they want to get to know him in a quieter environment.

DS has 3 weeks of 'half days' - well not even half days 9.10 - 11.25 1st week, then 9.10 - 12.30 2nd week (stays for dinner), then back to 9.10 - 11.25. Totally ridiculous IMO. Me & DH both work full time so with no holiday / after school clubs to help - its a nightmare. He was actually at school for longer when he went for a series of play sessions before school broke up !

DS1 did more hours at Nursery, 9 - 1 than his first term at school. Why can't schools get a consistent and sensible policy?

It's amazing how varied it is. In our borough all of the schools do Sept/Jan intakes, but they all start differently. Presumably it doesn't make very much difference to how they settle. I can see why a very gentle start would be a good idea for children who have never been in a classroom environment before, but I have yet to meet a family that didn't use some pre-school education, whether a nursery or a playgroup. There also seems to be a random pattern as to which schools do after school/breakfast clubs (not ours unfortunately) and sorting out childcare around school is a nightmare. I currently have an unemployed husband so it's not an issue right now, but I dread dh getting a job (well to be truthful I'd love him to be working, just dread setting up childcare arrangements again).

dd starts on the 12th - that week is 8.55 till 12

second week is 8.55 till 1.30

third week is 8.55 till 3.30 (all day)

no account of age they all have the same.

I don't feel as badly done to now I've seen this. dd goes 9.00-11.45 for 2 weeks then full time. I thought it was a daft idea 'cos almost all the children have been going to the nursery for a year or so and are well used to being away from mum etc already. The children who have been going to morning nursery sessions are going to morning reception class and afternoon ones go afternoon so they won't all meet each other until the third week. To me, it just delays me getting a job for another 2 weeks.

My dd did afternoons only until Christmas and then went full-time. We were given the choice of mornings or afternoons and since we were running a pub and I was breast-feeding baby ds I opted to preserve my lie-ins for as long as poss!
I think full-time straight away would have been too much for dd even though she went to playgroup because she did get very tired at first.

When ds started he was at a special school and they wanted him full-time straight away. This soon changed when he fell asleep every afternoon and he wasn't full-time again until the summer term. I suppose with the small classes they were able to be more flexible with individual children.

Dd started reception last year after being at nursery for over three years full time - 8-6pm most days - and did not understand why she went home before lunch on the first day. Second day she went at 8am to the before school club and stayed unti 3.30pm. The following week at the grand old age of 4 and nearly 3 weeks, full time with clubs meant 8am - 5.15pm. Some days she was shattered and fell asleep at the after school club, but they all get used to it and the school let them doze on the sofas or go to pre-reception to sleep if they needed to instead of playing outside etc.