school half day at end of term

[mumzy]

My dcs state primary always closes at 1pm at the end of each term after they have taken the afternoon register. Its a pain as I work and either have to take a half day or arrange childcare. Having spoken to a teacher friend it seems the school is giving the impression they are providing a full days education. Does anyone elses dc do this and is it legal?

fortunately in state education children are expected to access 195 full days education Jabed

Clearly your school Ronaldo is happy for attendance to be low in last week of school term; ours certainly is not....

So long as plenty of notice then I guess people just need to work around it, like they do holidays, INSET, assemblies, etc.

However I have never known a state primary to finish early tbh.

However, I can safely say that this week we are doing much less work than we normally do due to watching other classes plays, Christmas parties, visit from Father Christmas, etc. We will be doing very little real work on Friday - it is dedicated to having fun :) The children are having a whole school assembly in the afternoon, it's also toy day and a reward for meeting their end of term target too.

I see no problem with the odd fun day at school. DD goes to an independent prep school and they had big changes to their timetable in the final two weeks before the finished on Friday. Lots of fun activities - some still educational and some simply for fun, such as the whole school trip to the cinema to watch a Christmas film. They sill get very high results, so ime there is also a place for fun days too, esp when they are still little.

fortunately in state education children are expected to access 195 full days education Jabed
Unfortunately mrz , they appear to need to , possibly because despite all that extra classroom time there is less actually achieved in class because of the other issues?

Sunflower,I workl in an independent . Attendence isnt such a big issue. Pupils have to leave to catch flights.

Well much more has been achieved than for the children you write off before lunch jabed

dd's state primary always finishes early on last day of term before a main holiday. Not before half terms though.

Well much more has been achieved than for the children you write off before lunch jabed

I disagree.I think the school achieved a great deal very quickly . We established that the young man was not going to have his needs met in our strict environment ( despite his and his parents desirtes). We did notwastethe families money "trying" when we knew it would not work. Hopefully he was able to move to another school more suited to him and where his needs could be met.

All in all a good result achieved quickly, efficiently and effectively.

Not for the boy who was "removed"

Not for the boy who was "removed"

Why not? he was enabled to go to another school quickly and with minimum disruption to his education.I think thats a result.

"I find it nasty and dispicable that some parents ( working or not) consider school no more than a free baby sitting service at their command."

I've yet to meet a parent that expects a school to take their children for the evening while they go out for a pizza, or at weekends while they go off child-free to a festival. But is it too much to expect that on a school day your children are in school? And yes, it is fine and normal for parents to have a life (work, even) that doesn't revolve around being available during school hours.

So you know there was a happy outcome for the boy jabed, or did you just gloat as you washed your hands of him before lunch

But I suppose NotGood, its OK forteacherslike myself to have to be on call 24/7/365 ( and 366 in a leap year)?.

I am on holiday. , its four in the afternoon and I am here answering e mails from my students who are all sending me work or asking for notes or help with their studies. This despite the fact holidays started last week. They are home and I am home. But school has not stopped . I have not stopped.

I bet if your DC was one of those writing to me now and I answered ( I am on holiday" you would have another complaint about my lack of committment.

We may finish school, many of us do not stop teaching.

actually mrz, I didnt teach him at all so I wish you would stop addressing this personally. However, I do think it was a good result for him, not us.

Btw notgood, Iwork in an independent and many parents do expect us to take careof their offspring whilst they have a life and go for apizza ( its called flexi boarding).

I think schools need to be careful that they are not practising double standards. It is frowned upon to take dcs out of school for 1/2 day for quick getaway at half term but ok for staff to have 1/2 day at the end of term.

DS1 finishes at 1.30 on thurs, DS2 finishes at 2.30 on Fri. Its how its always been. Thinking back to my schooldays and I remember always finishing early at the end of term too. Loved it when i was at school, it's annoying now!!

I think schools need to be careful that they are not practising double standards. It is frowned upon to take dcs out of school for 1/2 day for quick getaway at half term but ok for staff to have 1/2 day at the end of term

I think you have a point mumzy but as my school does notfrown on parents taking their DC out atany time , I cant see how we can be criticised for closing the gates early on last day.

Dd1 has been to 3 different primary schools. Only one of them has ever closed early for Christmas. They closed at 2pm, I booked after school club for that day, same as normal, only to be told the week before the day that after school club didn't start until normal 3:15pm, and there was no childcare to be found by then. I can't take time off as a teacher at a school that never closes early, so ended up begging a friend and getting into an argument with after school club about making sure that they flag up a problem with school closing time and their opening time (given that it was on the same site as school and in communication daily with them), parents who are relying on childcare can't really sort out an hour in the middle of the day very easily.

Thank goodness dd1 is now at secondary and she will be fine going Christmas shopping on Thursday afternoon.

"But I suppose NotGood, its OK forteacherslike myself to have to be on call 24/7/365 ( and 366 in a leap year)?."

What on earth makes you think this is my opinion?

DC's primary school was always 2.15 and secondary school is lunchtime. I think they have all had enough by Friday 21st.

I agree it must be tough if you need childcare.

Well, as long as none of you who think those of us who find that half day lark at the end of summer and Xmas a child-care pain, who evidently believe we regard our child's education as being no more than free babysitting- don't complain that their CT or MRI scan is then postponed as there are simple too few staff left, who haven't had to take the afternoon off to meet their DC, to provide the service.

It cuts both ways.

Ours always finish after lunch at primary at the end of Summer and at Christmas - though in practise the kids all seem to have a "home" lunch that day so effectively clear out at 12.30 - sometime leaving my boys as the only ones in school. I usually finish at 3pm anyway so have either managed to negotiate an early finish, persuaded a neighbour to have them or taken time off. This is the firts year we've had High School and they are finishing at 1 and there is no transport my son can use so I'll have to go and collect him as well as get home for my youngest.

I think our school who make a huge deal about attendance [because they need to] would not entertain doing half day off at end of term.
It would be a bad example.