Reading time with parents at school drop off - is this usual?

[Gotosleep91]

Just been on a tour ready for making applications for DD to start reception next September.

The Head said one of the 'really great' things was that from 8.40 - 9 the parents sit with their child in the classroom and spend 20 minutes reading with them. Every day in reception/year 1 and then twice a week after that.

I immediately felt sad. As both me and her Dad work outside of the home there's no way we'll be able to do this with her, and on top of that she absolutely loves reading with us! I think she'll be so sad to see us leave while other children read with their parents.

I'm sure other parents won't be able to do this either, and obviously I'm happy for the kids whose parents can stay. I guess it just feels a bit out of touch? ...or maybe I'm out of touch!?

Anyway if you have primary aged children do they do this?

Thanks for sharing all your experiences - clearly this sort of thing is more common than I realized! Although I do think every day is a bit much, clearly it works for this school so I don't have a problem with that.

She did say that TAs or other parents read with the children whose parents can't stay, but that doesn't help the mum guilt. I'm going to have to grow a thicker skin for the next...11 years?!

It does kind of say, ‘we as the teachers expect you to do our job for a whole 20 mins every morning’…

I wouldn’t be happy, given that I can read with my child at home.

Not done at our primary. Most parents are employed and couldn't possibly do this.

Yeah I got that @amigafan2003 but can't imagine the whinging and disappointment of my child if I could never make it... we are in an area where we have lots of good schools close by, so for me I'd opt for one of the others which may have more reasonable expectations

Are you sure it's an expectation of the school though and not some kind of misplaced guilt clouding your viewpoint?

It's not mandatory though.................

It's a forum for people to give an opinion. Mine are long past that stage and I made sure I attended everything, so I have no guilt. You seem very invested in people's opinions and I'm not sure that's very helpful to the OP!

@ByTealShaker to be honest it's never 20 minutes of actual reading.
You end up with a small group of your child and their friends (who's parents aren't there). You will read about 2 pages before one says they know this book. Then you hear about Joe's new goldfish. Bob had a goldfish once but now he has an rabbit. Mary doesn't have a rabbit. She likes elephants. Bob says you can't have an elephant as a pet. Mary says you can if you live in a zoo. You say "shall we look in the book corner for a book about zoos?". You find one but now the kids are talking about Disney Princesses........
Then the 20 minutes is up.

Our school always did it. I managed to negotiate a late start one morning a fortnight before COVID. I have WFH 90% so was able to do more for my youngest.

My employer allowed it under their commitment to supporting education and community. Even one morning each would be lovely if at all possible, would a delay going in adjustment as a one off be possible?

As an adult literacy volunteer, I see it as very important for children to read to an adult. Your daughter has obviously an engaged literate parents, others may not.

Also an independent adult can be a good barometer for the teacher who can't get around to them all as much as they want.

The irony of course is the teacher parents won't be doing this 😂.

Our school did facilitate teachers as a once off🤷‍♀️. I know of several schools who do, I appreciate we are in Dublin, so different jurisdiction .__I know we are lucky.

Something is going to have to adapt in school v work life. Either employers are going to be more flexible with work times or schools need to adapt to working caregivers. At the same time these conversations are happening, we’ve got employers talking about return to office : ´for the culture’. I can’t see many grandparents still doing care as we move past the generation of early retirees with defined benefit pensions. We’ve got no infrastructure to support working parents and it’s women who are pulling themselves in all directions to be able to be present for school activities and still manage to have a career/safeguard their financial futures etc

My school (at the time) refused me permission to attend my daughter's first sports day. I would have missed a single year 12 lesson.

I guess it depends on the school, but agree with this. Plenty of parents would go to stuff like this during school hours.

That's an absolutely daft idea, and a safeguarding problem too.

Parents work, they have younger babies/ toddlers. Some parents don't speak English fluently enough to read.

How does the school ensure the parents who are in the classroom every day are not sex offenders?

And the feelings of the children whose parents can't do this for one reason or another should be taken into account.

I meant to add, I've never in all my many years of sending DCs to school (in the US) seen this.

Is it a way of encouraging only parents who can do this to apply to the school, so ends up as a form of selection?

Not the norm round here. They already struggle to get volunteers for forest school, school trips etc.

The school that I worked at did this, it was an absolute nightmare getting the parents in to read at the same time as dealing with late pick ups and appointments.

Haha, yes indeed.

They are taking the piss.

Personally, if you have other decent options locally I'd be running a mile from a school with such unrealistic expectations on parents' time.

Our preschool principal is notoriously clueless about this stuff, including being surprised that a parent wasn't available for a meeting in school hours at very short notice - he's a teacher. 🙄 Luckily it's only the one year but it's a pain in the arse.

Whereas our primary is wonderful and it's very supportive of working parents - as such everything important is widely and enthusiastically attended.

I feel much more goodwill towards the primary than the preschool! (And no, I don't feel guilt for not being available for school stuff during working hours, PP can catch herself on.)

My son’s school did this on Fridays in reception. I’d actually forgotten until I saw this thread. Sometimes I could go and sometimes I couldn’t. Agree with others that generally parents who were there would read to little groups of children if they didn’t have parents there.

My son’s reception year was 2019/2020 so unfortunately it all stopped when the covid lockdowns started. I don’t know if they still do it now.

I was assuming school starts at 9, so it was just removing 20 childfree minutes from the teachers' day and so a pain in the arse for them too.

Yes, my daughter's school has "reading club" 2 days a week when parents can stay and read with them from 8:30am to 8:50am, or they can read with another child or a TA. She only makes it in in time for reading club about half the time (it's not compulsory) and we've never felt like staying, we're not morning people although our work hours are flexible. We read lots with her at home.

Many kids at our school get the bus to school. This level of parent input has never been a thing