What does your child do between 8:45 and 9am at school?

[Newbie887]

Just had a parent consultation where we were told off for being “late” every day. Apparently my daughter is unable to complete the work they are mean to be doing between 8:45am and 9am, and is often upset because of this. She is 6 years old and in Y1.

The school day starts at 9am (or so I had assumed). Doors open at 8:45am for drop off and shut at 9am. They school has requested that children be dropped off at 8:45am in order to be ready to learn by 9am. I had assumed this meant coming in, sorting out bags and coats, and generally transitioning into the classroom.

My problem is I can’t get my daughter there any earlier than 8:50-9:00 due to having to drop my son off at his school. A lot of the other parents who have older children who have moved on from this infant school to their nearest primary have the same problem due to it being a rural area.

Is it unreasonable to expect learning to start at 9am rather than 8:45am? What do other peoples kids drop off / starting school schedules look like?

If you're in England there should be a bus/transport for your son assuming that your 15 minute rural drive is further than 2 or 3 miles depending on his age (changes at 8yr). If the road isn't safe to walk you can get transport for shorter distances too.

At ours gates open 8.45, classrooms open at 8.55 and doors close at 9am. So one set time really (8.55) for being on time, not a window

This is what we have. My DC is year 1 - they line up in the playground and go in at 8.55 when the bell rings. If we get there earlier, I have to stay with DC until they go in at 8.55. If I get there later, the class have gone in and technically DC is late. Definitely no window!

I would ask the class teacher / head how they expect you to manage the conflicting dropoffs - you can't be the only one with this issue and at least one of the schools needs to be flexible about it.

Our gates open at 8.50. Kids expected to be in by 9. They have a soft start to the morning until 9.15 including sorting coats and bags etc, eating toast and colouring. Learning starts at 9.15.

Crazy thinking that you'd need to consider paid for care for your son in junior school. That's just not on. Seeing there are many in your situation the school need to either:

a) provide free breakfast club for the kids they see as 'late'.
b) Allow you & the others in this situation to drop by 9am.

Seek clarification about official start time & stick to that. Individual teachers can't be telling you off for being late if you're not late; even if you are late an individual teacher still shouldn't be telling you off. Ridiculous.

Here every primary school has breakfast club from 8am (free if you get school meals, otherwise £2, so subsidised by the council) & school starts at 9am. Sensible.

If you didn't choose this infant/junior school set-up, then I would bat this back to the school and say "sorry, I can't be in two places at once so it is what it is. If you'd like to coordinate with the junior school (you know, where all your Y1s go after this school, not some random unrelated school) to stagger drop-offs or provide me with a teleportation device, that would be great thanks."

Then I'd just chalk it up as one of those things. Paying for breakfast club to drop two primary kids at different schools when there's not even any option for them to attend the same school seems crazy.

I’m a teacher. Our gates open at 8.30 and closes at 8.45. From 8.30-9 we cram a lot in. Early morning work, readers, interventions and going over work from previous day if children were unsure. This half an hour is really busy and we get so much done!

Our gates open at 8.45 and drop-off is meant to be done by 8.55, lessons begin at 9. But in reality the campus is tiny and has bottlenecks at key places, plus the queue at the gate is adhered to by only 80% of parents with 20% doing a last-minute ram raid when the gates are opened late at 8.50, causing pile-ups, so it’s still chaos by the time I’ve escaped back out the gate at 9. The only kids I’ve seen inside and ready at 8.55 are those brought in via breakfast club.

Classroom opens at 8:45, have to be in by 9. Having said that, nobody is officially late until 9:05. No member of staff will ever admit this openly, but only after 9:05 do the gates close and you have to do the Walk of Shame to the school office to hand your child over. No idea what the kids get up to in that time though!

Could parents take one child each? What was your husbands response when he was told? How does he plan to rectify it?

Both mine (teacher) and my kids school, doors open at 8:50, school day starts properly at 9. The first 10 mins is for bags etc away and getting settled. Register at 9am.
DC school has 'morning work', not sure what it involves exactly, Ds in y1 isn't very forthcoming with info!
Our school has 'morning work' including handwriting practice, adults listening to dc read and book changing, times tables practice, spelling practice. That sort of thing. No 'new' learning but still a useful time.

If it’s a problem for a number of parents could you organise a drop swap where one parent takes the two younger kids to the infant school and the other to the junior school?

Its crazy that the timings don’t coordinate - the junior and infant school here pair up so the infant school starts and finishes 15 minutes out from the other school.

What's the earliest you can drop little one and the latest you can drop big one?
Saying to the school "the only way I can drop her on time is to drop her at 8.30" might consolidate it one way or the other

My son went to a school like this and the desks had some morning work set up on it. It was a worksheet or continuation of what they did the day before but the kids seemed to know what to do which is the important bit.
Reception is free play so easier to just have the kids play until 9am.
As it's a common problem at your school I would just remind the school that you are at the juniors so can't drop off on time.

I’d take it to the head at the infants. If the vast majority of leavers go on to this juniors then it’s got to be a common problem and one the schools should figure out because you shouldn’t have to pay for a breakfast club you wouldn’t otherwise need.

Is there a breakfast club at either school, or a childminder that could take one of the children to school? Our primary used to start at 9am but with key stage 1 you were expected to bring them for 8:45am and settle them into the classroom and read with them until 9am. But since COVID it's 8:30 start and on two out of 5 days it's an 8:15 start with a classroom activity parents are asked to attend. Breakfast club starts at 7:30am although my kids usually go from 8am.

8:45 is registration and lessons (or assembly) begin at 8:50.

They can arrive any time between 8:15 and 8:45 but they have to be in the classroom seated and ready to begin the day by 8:45.

Our school just has a start time, not a window of arrival.

P1-3 start at 9.05
P4-5 start at 8.55

If you arrive after that you are late.

My kids used to go to breakfast club and now get the bus.

You need to find out clearly from the school what time school actually officially starts. Gate times don't mean anything, it is what time the school actually starts. So our school the gate opens at 8.40am and registration is 8.50am. So anything after 8.50am and she is late. But 8.49am, absolutely fine.

DDs school opens at 8:45 but the day doesn't start until 9. I'd be very annoyed at the expectation on my 6 year old to be doing work for those minutes when school isn't even open yet. Giving the kids that have arrived early something to do is very different than pressuring young kids into doing something 15 minutes before school actually starts.

You need to check with the school time what their official start time is for her particular year. Many primary schools have a different official start time for each year group and it seems no one told you it had changed. Check their website or ask the school.

Our school is private but in case of interest: drop-off is between 8-8.15, they go to the playground for outdoors freeplay. At 8.15 they’re allowed into the building and go to their form classroom for maths quizzes / crosswords. There’s no expectation that these be finished. Register is at 8.25 which is the final cut off before being marked late. Then they go to assembly then start their first formal lesson after that, I think at 8.45.

DS is Reception and starts at 8.40. On arrival he starts practising writing his name on a whiteboard on the carpet. He says latecomers sometimes do this later. DD is year 3 and has a 'soft start' from 8.25 to 8.40 but has morning maths to complete, so if arriving near the end they don't get that done.

I personally think 15mins to 'settle down' is a waste of time. However I think schools should work with each other where lots of families are at both schools. Thankfully our infant and junior are a few minutes walk apart so plenty of time to manage both drop offs. Your situation sounds tricky. Could you buddy up with someone and take it in turns to drive the younger ones to school whilst the other one waits for the junior gates to open?

Teacher sounds unreasonable to me.

Should we not trust that the OP and her OH have already considered/decided which parent is dropping off and who has availability to do so?

Your initial question isn't odd but the OP doesn't scream of delegated 'wife work' and your response seems unnecessarily goady

Ask what time their official registration closes. In my school the gates open at 8:40 and close at 8:50. Registers are supposed to have been completed by 8:55. Anyone after that would be marked as late and the system keeps a record of that.
Her teacher sounds a little over zealous! Is it perhaps more that your DD is getting upset at the start of the school day as she is never at school in time to do the before registration activity? Some kids can get very anxious about this. Work is usually recap and consolidation activities.

Wow, I don't have anything useful to add but I didn't realise how lucky we were with our school's flexibility. For reception anyway ours is:

• Gates open at 8.40.
• Gates close at 9am. If gates are closed entrance is through school office.
• However, child is still not marked late unless they've still not arrived by 9.10!
• Gates open for pickup at 3.10pm.
• Collection time is officially 3.15pm.