Does your primary school have a STAGGERED START TIME for juniors and infants??

[drosophila]

Just wondering. Our school has the same start time for kids in Infants and Juniors so if you have a kid in yr 3 you have to leave them unsupervised in a playground while you stay with the younger one. It doesn't affect me but a friend will have a child in yr3 and yr1 and she is reluctant to leave her yr3 child alone. Practically I will keep an eye on her I'm sure but she raised a suggestion with the head that the start times should be staggered by 5 mins and he didn't seem keen.

Kids from our school have been known to leave and go to corner shop before school so her worry is not totally unjustified.

Anyone care to share how their school does it?

reception is 10 to 9 and yr1/2Doors next to each other ) is 5 to , think juniors is 8.45.

home time is 3.10 reception, 3.15 yr1/2, 3.20 nursery, 3.30 juniors (across the rd)

Ours is just a junior school, but we do have
and arrangement with the infant school which is about 100 yards away to stagger start & finish.
I can foresee problems next year though becuase several people with older ones at our school have not got their little ones into reception at the infant school - they don't count as siblings because it's not the same school - whereas if your local school in the same borough is a primary, you're ok - very unfair imo. Unless a lot of people win their appeals we're going to have quite a bunch of children who will have to wait for mum to get back from picking up the little one at a school a mile away.

SO you think her request is perfectly reasonable? I thought so too but some people were painting her as a over protective Mum. I can be one of those but I thought she was being sensible.

No, ours has same time for all. Only exception is Reception class, whose parents are allowed to take them in 5-10 mins before everyone else goes in.

For all other years, the whistle goes at 8.40 and everyone lines up in their classes, for teachers to escort them into classrooms.

It has never been a problem, despite infants and juniors being in different playgrounds. Nearly all parents leave the older one as soon as the whistle goes, and take infants into the next playground - at Yr 3 and older, children should be able to deal with this. In fact, it's a sort of stage in growing independence, some parents say goodbye to older children 5-10 minutes before the whistle goes, then go into the next playground. Our caretaker or a teacher stands at the gate and makes sure no child can leave the premises.

A few parents wait until their junior child has lined up before going into the infant playground, usually they are still in time for the infant to line up with their class.

Tbh I am not entirely sure because Dd1 who is in yr 4 has to go in an entrance right at the back of the school, and so she just goes off as soon as we get into the playground whilst I wait with Ds and Dd2. I think the juniors possibly go in 5 min earlier.

Dd2 goes in at 8:50 I think and is in yr2, but from sept i will have to leave for a minute or 2 to take Ds round the the reception class.

At our school both the Infants & Juniors start at 8.45am, but the Infants come out at 3.05pm and the Juniors 5 mins later at 3.10 giving you time to walk round to their playground to meet them.

SHe would have been happy for someone to stand at the main gate and stop people leaving but the teachers are not willing and it would fall the parents to do something. Understandably she thinks it is unlikely to happen.

The thing is if the school know that kids are darting out and crossing roads at age 7 unsupervised shouldn't they do something inline with H&S regs?

I mean stop kids leaving.

Yes, forgot to say we have 2 teachers on duty from 8.30 - one in infant playground, one in junior playground.

We have separate schools, next door to each other, but they come under the same banner and consult with each other on things like this.

Start times are not staggered, but parents of junior school children are not allowed past the school gate anyway - you drop your children off at the gate and they go straight in. The doors of the juniors open at 8.45, and the infants open at 8.50. Both doors close at 9am so there's plenty of time to get from one to the other.

End of school is staggered, to make pick-up easier - nursery and reception 3.25, year 1 and 2 3.30, junior school 3.40.

I don't think they have staggared start times but they do have staggared finish times, this was a condition of expansion to do with parking etc.

The playground is supervised from 8.30am anyway and if you arrive before that you take them to the hall where they wait until 8.30 when they all troop out to the playground.

As far as I know the playground is not supervised at anytime until the teachers come and collect the kids at about 08.55. If a parent is not prepared to leave her/his kid unsupervised for 5 or 10 mins in a playground with a gate that leads out to the main road regardless of whether you think she is overprotective (and I know people do) I think she should be able to ask the school to do something.

Once when her dd was in reception her Dad dropped her off in the classroom and left the school. SHe then got upset about something and left the classroom without being noticed ran out of the school and crossed a main road before catching up with her Dad. I suspect this is why she is anxious. It seems a simple thing to me to resolve and I am surprised the school were not more receptive.

Never heard of a staggered start time in my neck of the woods.

I don't really see why an 8 year old can't be relied on to stay in the playground with mates for 5 mins.

No supervision in playgrounds pre-bell either.

No staggered start, and no supervision in playgrounds pre-bell for us.

There are loads of parents in the KS1 playground, but very few in the KS2 playground. Most KS2 children arrive sans parents in the mornings, and some yr2s as well. Any adults around keep an eye on them, and anyone causing problems would be in serious strife with the HT.

Children are not supposed to be on site before 8.40 and the bell goes at 8.50.

when we set up our fab shcool 4 years ago we allowe for a PAID TA to e int he playgorudn frm 8 30am - thus helping out workign parents

our parents dont knwo thery are born tbh

also they take msgs from parents tot he class teacher

adn no lining up at ours either
they all slink in gradualyl whne the parents realise its 8 45
THUS n no mad runnign andpushing
kid srift in and get on wiht work
VEY VEYR GOOD
woudl recommend

No mad running and pushing in our school
Each class lines up in the appropriate place in the playground. KS1 teachers come out and lead the line in to school, KS2 teachers signal from the door or window, and the first child leads the line in.

Juniors start at 8.40, infants and reception at 8.50 at ours. Seems to work.

We use seperate infants and junior school and they stagger their times to accomodate parents. one 10 mins after the other. The schools are only a 2 minute walk from each other.