SCHOOL STARTING AT 8 AM!!NO WAY

[whymummy]

ive just heard it on the news that the goverment wants schools to start at 8 am,surely not!!well be leaving the house in the dark in winter,aargh!!

That is ridiculous, the only way that I think that would be suitable was if the children brought NO homework home whatsover, but somehow I don't think that will happen

I'm not in favour, school starts quite early enough and if the idea is to fit in with Britain's long working hours culture then it's the culture that needs changing, not school hours imo.

just think of all those poor kids who go to special school like my dd. The first kid on her bus is picked up at 7:45am. Luckily for me dd isnt picked up until 8:30am.

I think its a fantastic idea. as a teacher I think its good as you get kids at their best( and yes that was secondary) and as a mother its even better - if you work no more pre school "clubs"...

My sons starts at 8 45 and most parents rare ther at 830am

Anyway wm if you start earlier they caome back in the light and they can play out after school.

I wouldn't mind this as long as it wasn't adding extra time onto the day and they were finishing earlier. When I worked and had the option to flex my hours, I always started as early as possible so I could leave as early as possible.

It's dark when we leave the house in winter anyway - it would just be dark for more days and if they shifted the end of day time to earlier too then there might just be a possibility that they would come out of school when it's light.

Has anyone got a link to the story cos I couldn't find anything on the NNC website.

Codswallop - agree with the idea of them starting earlier however also agree with www that changes shouldn't come about because of the long working hours culture. Like the idea of them finishing earlier.

If it is because of longer working hours then it is ridiculous. Why should children suffer because of our inability to relax or live life with slightly less money?

Mornings are stressful enough without having to get up an hour earlier.

makes no difference tho - everyone else in europe does this.. the time you get up wouldnt affect the amount you have to do..

its also to do with traffic and rush hour

ill have to get up at 5.30 and walk 20 min. in the dark,itll be ideal in the winter for them to finish at 2pm if we had nice weather they could play outside but its usually raining,im against it!

My dd's school, in common with all private schools, starts at 8.30 but children are accepted from 8 onwards. It is good for us because the traffic is easier to get through at that time.

In Germany (as I recall from my school exchange) they start at 8am, then finish school lessons at 2pm - there's no big lunch break, just a kind of snack break (I think). Then there are lots of activities, such as sports, art, drama and a homework club, so that by 4-5pm, say, they can go home with no homework and having hung out with their friends doing an activity. I can see the point of this but I think my ds would be late every day because of his mother's inability to get going in the mornings! I do think that anything that stopped kids having homework would be brilliant, but as the insane gvmt seems keen on babies getting homework these days, I don't suppose that will happen.

makes no difference to me really - 8 or 9 o'clock up at 6ish anyway.

kids finishing at 2pm though, now thats a different thing, unless to school provides somekind of activity everyday ( that no doubt parents will have to pay through the nose for)it would make childcare a nighmare.

thank goodness my kids are older and they can come home by themselves as of next year anyway

where i come from in spain they start at 9am and finish at 5pm they have from 12 till 3 to eat ,play and really,really cheap activities(something like £5 a week),like story telling,arts,drama etc,they also do their home work at that time

I like the idea of an 8 am start - kids at their best, and so on. BUT the idea here seems to be to make a LONGER school day - with 'experts' coming in to do extra activities for everyone at the end of the school day - sports, languages, arts and crafts, etc.

IMO kids in UK are at school far too long far too early already. In Germany children start school when they are 6, and school starts at 8 am, but they are only there for 3 or 4 hours for the first few years. When my friend's ds started he was home at 10.30 couple of days a week and 11.30 on the others. DS2 starts school in Sep, when he will be just 4. He will be there for 6.5 hrs every day.

I would love this for my boys - I miss them so much when they are at school, when they come home they are shattered, and I see so little of them. Such long school days are just not necessary - it's just to fit in with parents who go out to work.

custardo - do you really think it would make childcare a nightmare? I actually think it would be better for most workers - at the moment most people need to find childcare for both ends of the day - not many people can drop their child off at school and get to work on time (certainly not if both these things happen at 9:00) and then childcare is required again after school. This way at least most people would be able to drop their children off at school and would only have to make arrangements for the afternoon - which in turn i feel would be better for the children, rahter than being looked after by x for 45 minutes before school and y for 2 hours afterwards, it would just be x for 3 hours afterwards - wouldn't that be less unsettling, expecially for a small child?

Absolute joke is what I think I am afraid. And the government what to attract more teachers into the job!!! Well I think I will be looking for a new job if it happens - and I am not joking, and I am not the only teacher at my school to feel the same (strongly too). What do we do with our kiddies? I'd have to be up at 5:30am, my daughter at 5:45am! I'd need to find childcare or school willing to take her at half past seven at the latest!!!

I currently start at 8:30am and that will be bad enough when DD starts school, as the one we have chosen for her starts nearer to 9am.

If it is to do with longer working hours then I would be even more annoyed as well - teacher's are not childcare options!!!

Sorry to waffle, just think it is yet another one of the government's mad ideas. One day they will realise that it is the workload and the ever changing curricula that cause more than half the problems in education, not term dates, working hours, etc.

I would love it IF it meant they would then get home earlier - in Germany they start early then finish at 1pm. I'd love to have the afternoon with them to do other stuff.

However, I am dead against it if it means this is a way towards "work hours", ie finishing later.

Our school starts at 8.35am, gates open at 8.10am, we usually leave home about 8.15am - and I'm up at 6.30am getting the 3 of them ready anyway, so being there a bit earlier wouldn't bother me much.

Message withdrawn

School starts at 7.55am for my dd in Jakarta. Other international schools start at 7.30 and local schools at 6am!!! It's ok to make an early start when the weather is warm and sunny but even so, I'm a night owl and the early mornings have just about finished me off, at times. DD's last school in Scotland didn't start until 9.40 for P1 and 2. V civilised!

Maybe I need to think about asking for the flexible working hours if it comes online - wonder what the chances will be?

Claire, I think it's mandatory if you have a child under 6 ?

I can't see the sense in this at all, if it is really on the cards. As I've said before, people who work full-time have already got problems with the insanely early finish times of most schools. The 2 offices I've worked in most recently, the preferred working pattern of the majority is 8 am - 4 pm, so it won't help them either.

I read something recently (& can't remember where) that studies had proved teenagers were physically incapable of working at full capacity until mid- late morning, and that for older teens a more productive school day would start at 11 am and finish at 5pm, or possibly even later. Making them start at 8 am would be a completely backward step. (Don't they do this in the US?)

It would be a logistics nightmare though to have your 10 year old doing 8 - 2pm and your 13 year old on 12- 6pm!! It's probably safest to leave things as they are.

How about school that operates from 8am to 6pm with a massively expanded sports and homework session, with no homework at all so that parents and children can be together in the evenings? It's work well for alot of working parents.
Teacher'd hate it though! Mind you, if they could have afternoon sessions where the kids do homework while they mark, not alot would change, but teachers'd have their evenings free.

Ah but Tom - what about our children? Who picks them up and drops them off? And we would still have much longer working hours - will we be paid more for giving up more of our time to school? At least when I bring work home I can spend time with my child and then work when she is in bed.

Also, when do parents get to see and spend time with their own children in all this. Mornings would be a mad rush so no family breakfasts likely. And, if school finished late then evenings would be rushed too. And as school was starting earlier children would have to go to bed earlier, so less time their. This would especially hit full time workerrs and those who work longer hours anyway. My DH would not get to see his daughter hardly during the week and their would certainly be no nice family meal. And my Dh isn't even in that late.

If school finishes earlier than now then surely more childcare will be needed.

Still think this is a half baked idea of the government again. Probably hasn't even thought past the initial idea and certainly not at any consequences of such changes.