School NOT offering induction for Sept reception children

[slotnicki]

We have been offered places at 3 schools for Sept reception. Of these, 2 offer some sort of induction - ie a morning or two for the child to visit the school and meet their teacher. My dd went to one of the schools today and it provided a really good introduction to school.

I received an invitation to a parents' evening at the third school today and was amazed (after I phoned to enquire) that they do not offer any form of induction. All they offered was the opportunity for my 4 year old daughter to meet her teacher at the meeting which begins at 7.30pm. As I do have some reservations about this particular school, it would have been really helpful to have been able to use the induction to make an informed decision. As I don't want to read too much into this, I am wondering whether some schools simply don't bother with inductions - has anyone else come across this? It is a state school by the way!

At the school my dd will begoing to they held a meeting on Monday this week for parents and children and then we had a flying visit to the reception class. We do not know who the teachers are yet either. However as my dd attends the Nursery there I was not concerned about this.

my ds had a morning in his new class before he started

Ds1's school had an induction morning in the summer before he started in Reception. As he has SN he was also given a second morning in the school, this time with me there to keep an eye on him.

At my dd's school the children starting in September have two 1 hour sessions and two half-hour story-times over the last four weeks of the summer term before. In September, they have a staggered start, i.e. they won't all start on the same day. I think most schools around here do something similar.

Not heard of that myself. All the schools have some sort of induction round here but they do vary. Friends of mine, accounting for 2 different state schools (well, church schools, voluntary aided) had just one afternoon session of 1.5 hrs.

My ds is starting in Sept and he has 3 afternoon sessions of 1.75 hrs. He had his first last Friday, he has another this Friday and one next Tue (where parents go to a meeting at the same time).

No staggered intake as far as I'm aware though. It's in at the deep end!

ours has a 3 week induction programme, phasing the kids in in small manageable groups so the teacher can get to know them individually, introducing them to having lunch at school then by week 3 they're in full time

makes total sense to me (we had an intro meeting today with the teacher, deputy head and head as well as PTA)

Ours just had one hour-long session last week - in groups of 10 on 3 separate afternoons. They then stagger the start dates, with them starting in the same groups of 10. DS1 started school in a new country, and they didn't have induction days - but all the children were in the same situation and seemed to cope fine.

It does sound off, but Maybe they find it diffcult to staff. What do they do with the currect reception children - how do they ensure they are still receiving a good education that day?