Part time reception

[amazighman]

Hi all.

My daughter has just strated her reception year , currently doing full time , I think its in her best interest to go part time , maybe 4 days a week .

Can school refuse request even though its not compulsory education? Afaik that during reception year the child isnt obliged to attend

Thanks in advance

My child has birthday in May. We were told he could attend just mornings, till half term October, along with other children with birthdays from Easter onwards. We thought we would do this and we did, but when he went full time in October he missed out in forming friendships at lunchtime. He did make friends, but not with the popular ones, but with a couple of boys who were autistic and didn’t have many friends. If I could repeat this time, I would send him in full time along with others his age,

Give it a few weeks and see. My year 2 has been exhausted and acting up last night and today. She did 4 days a week for part of nursery due to covid policies and it was a good amount for her. But she coped with full time Reception.

@Libertyqueen you're right it is up to the parent to choose. But if your child is missing 20% of the curriculum who is going to be expected to teach them what they're missing? Is it the parent? Or is it what is most likely what will happen, the school will be expected to do it?
If a child is not ready for full time school they would have been better off deferring, at least they wouldn't be missing anything.

So why did you enrol your child before it was legally required then?

@SeekingBalance every school child will be tired at the moment, they've gone from 7 weeks of not doing anything to 6 hours of education every day. It will settle.
So you expect the teacher/school to teach the child what they've missed?
The number of threads I've read on here about teachers being overworked and budgets being cut (a thread on here a week ago was about a teacher having to clean her own classroom as the HT had said budget cuts meant they couldn't afford a cleaner) yet on this thread there seems to be unlimited funds? If the child has a medical need it's different but by the sounds of it this child doesn't.

@WoolyMammoth55 @LilacPoppy they can attend part time, if in agreement with the school, as I stated! If you and the school agree that a part time timetable is best for the child, fine, but you can’t just randomly attend as and when you want, there has to be an agreed pattern. A kid’s place can be withdrawn if there is not regular attendance, without agreement from the school - and rightly so. My school has a waiting list, parents doing school runs at two different schools because we can’t fit their reception child in - why would we hold a space for a child who isn’t attending regularly with no arrangement in place?

MakeWayMoana Parents don’t need the school to agree to their DC attending part time. 2.17 of the admissions code states “where the parents wish, children may attend part-time until later in the school year but not beyond the point at which they reach compulsory school age.”

There’s an absence code specifically for below CSA pupils attending school part time.

There are strict rules about deleting pupils from the admissions register. Under the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006, even outside the below CSA pupil situation in order to be able to delete a pupil they would have to be continuously absent for 20 school days without it being authorised, there would need to be reasonable grounds not to believe the absences are due to sickness or other unavoidable cause and reasonable enquiries would have to have been made, including by the LA.

She has only been in a week or so, I'd leave it a bit for her to get used to it

Teachers are stretched and over worked, your absolutely right. However, speaking from my own experience, the teachers I have worked with would much rather children in their class are ready and show signs of coping. Teachers will be spending more time supporting those not ready, guiding support staff with interventions etc
In reception, again in my personal experience, it is not a case of Teachers having to play catch up if a child isn't in full attendance. Its still eyfs, it's still alot of learning through play. Granted, this will differ depending on the school, as I state this is from my personal experience and thankfully my sons teacher is fully supportive of part time until ready.

You're within your rights to withdraw her from school and wait until she's of compulsory age.
If you just never take her in on a Friday say, not sure what they can actually do - would you risk losing her place? Even if they don't, you need to think about what impact it'll have on her learning. At ours she'd be missing music every week or Forest School etc, which isn't great