starting reception - six week settling in period

[ilovemountains]

Hello everyone,

I've seen on a few threads that all schools now need to offer children starting reception in September a full time place, in accordance with the Rose report.

However most of the primary schools we have applied to (so September 2012 intake) have a six week settling in period, with a variety of times and time periods which change on at least weekly basis set by the schools. Some of the school sessions are only one hour long! Several of these schools do not start full time days until after the October half term.

I've asked the council about this, and their response is that there is nothing in the admissions code to exclude a phased start to school.

I was just wondering if anyone knew of any official links that would state conclusively that all children had to be a full time place from the beginning of September?

Thanks for any help.

no, the council is right. Schools have to offer a full-time start to all pupils but during the settling-in period, full-time will be the part days offered by the school. We went round this buoy last year. It's a bit crap, fitting it round your job and I'm not sure what good it does the kids, but it's only six weeks.

I asked about this last year as my daughter was due to start half days for half a term (which I didn't want).

The consensus was that you have the right to request a full time place but there is no legal requirement for them to allow full time (at least before the child is 5 anyway).

We appealed to the Head and he did allow a full time place in our case but it was at his dscretion.

Of course things may have changed in the last 12 months.

I meant "from day 1" in the above post when referring to full time

I wouldn't mind so much if it was half days or something sensible, but it is random hours which change on an almost daily basis.
So why do some councils now offer full time places and others don't?

Thanks for your responses by the way!

I don't think its a council thing, I think its an individual school thing.

I say this because my daughter's Surrey School did part time for all Spring and Summer borns unless parent begged to the Head for special permission to start full time, however my friend's Surrey School just let the parents of all children choose their preference of starting full time or part time before they started.

Same Council, different approach.

dd1 is in reception, she also had a random six weeks settling in period. It was a total nightmare. My husband and I are both teachers with no family here, so my mum had to come from Spain to help us. With dd2 I'll wait and start her full time after half term, no way are we going through that nigtmare of random induction again.

Definitely a school thing. The school where DD started finished at lunch time up until half term and then the prarents had the choice of whether they wanted their children to go full or part time up until Christmas, after Christmas they had to go full time The school where she is at now and where DS will go in September is straight into full days.

Not sure where you live, but my DS2 started school Sept 2011 and it was an logistical nightmare. We had mornings where you had to go in with them, mornings where you went in for an hour and then left them, some days split morning or afternoon dependant on if you were A-K or L-Z and then the reverse the next day....
My advice would be gather friends now who are in the same boat and see if a few of you can cover it together. I couldn't have done it without my boss being sympathatic and letting me work extra on my normal days off to make up for it and my school mum friends all helping each other out.

Good luck at least you have 6 months to work it out.

I'm so pleased our school is full days from day one, no arguments! I can't believe they expect parents to disrupt nearly 15% of their working year to accomodate school starts, it's ridiculous.

The reason I believed it was a council thing was pages such as this:

www.wiltshire.gov.uk/schoolseducationandlearning/schoolsandcolleges/schooladmissions/whenwillmychildstartschool.htm

and similar for other councils, a number of which then quote the Rose report!

I think your council are wrong... The entitlement is full time for 38 weeks of the year ie. 2 week settling in period, then ft. At least that is what my council tell me (primary Headteacher ). Can't find link though to prove it, sorry. At my school we do half days for a week then ft: all parents take up the ft option straightaway .

Thanks christinecagney, it seems that some councils have blanket full time policies (that parents can then decide whether they want to take the place full or part time), and other councils just let the schools decide. How confusing.

I remember this being talked about a great deal last year with these long and somewhat random settling in periods.

I am very glad that our school starts them off full time from the word go, I feel they settle faster and got used to the routine of the school day. My dd who is now in Y2 was in the first cohort of full time from the start and I was so relieved, as a late May birthday in previous years she would not have been able to go to school full time until the summer term. She would have hated that, she is the youngest girl in her year, out of the 24 in her class 20 would have been in full time by Christmas leaving dd and one other girl and 2 boys part time until Easter. dd would have been heart broken to have had to come home at lunch time while her best friends stayed on, especially as all but 2 of the class had gone to the village pre-school and done at least one full day since they were 3.

School isn't there as childcare so I know the're looking at what they see as best for the children coming into the school environment and they are not being purposefully difficult for working parents but I really do see the frustration, getting temporary childcare for those 6 weeks must be hard to impossible. I am lucky in that I work for myself in a very flexible way and if really pushed can take the children with me to work but if I worked in a different type of job I would have to call in favours from everybody I knew to get me through!

Having said all that though it is I believe something that schools are entitled to do, the Rose report states a fill time place must be available but induction/settling in periods fall outside of this and is down to individual schools and in community schools it is often a blanket policy from the council.

If I was in the situation I would see if I could make arrangements with other parents in the class to get through the disrupted time, look at the positive, it could help you make friends for you and your child with other class parents!

Do bear in mind that they get tired, and yes I realise that they are probably in full time nursery, but people I know who have had them in full time nursery comment on how exhausted they are despite the shorter days. There is no rest time and they are stimulated all the time. Dd2 could have coped (in retrospect) as she didn't tire, but dd1 was really tired - not the direction I would have expected either. We just have 2 weeks but even that is annoying when you have an older one to collect 2hr later.

Maybe see if you can delay start to half term or Christmas to avoid staggered start but it does seem to depend on determination of the head.

DD's school did 4 weeks of staggered intake and the school changed the pick-up times a couple of times as well to see how the children got along.

Friends had a fixed 4-week-pickup before lunch approach while others did half days until Christmas.

This is something I still feel cross about, and my boy is on Y6 now!
Our school let all DCs born before Christmas go full-time, all others mornings only until half-term.

Plus,the older ones started on the first day of school, while the others joined in age order, a day at a time, until the littlest ones joined a full class. I have always argued it should be the other way round; let the littlies settle in with a smaller group first.
As it happened in our year there were only 6 children staying in the afternoons!!!
I pointed out that the older ones were getting an extra advantage and was told they just play in the afternoons so it doesn't matter..but if it is just play, why couln't they could all stay and play?

I had never heard of this, in wilts too and nothing was mentioned when we were visiting schools. thank you for the link. I assume we will find out induction processes once we have a place?

I'm dreading this kerfuffle with ds in sept, when he joins dd ar school. dd did 2 weeks settling in but then changed to her current school in about November of her reception year, she settled fine.

Ds will do weird sessions until nearly half term, and I know he will find its stressful, he is much better at settling if there is a clear routine. It's quite funny the bit of school he is most looking forward to Is the (wraparound childcare) after school bit anyway!

I realise they get tired dd was going to bed at 6.30 when she started reception, but poor ds will probably find it more tiring traipsing back and forth to school 4 times per day instead if twice.

Oh, this drove me mad! The DDs primary did this, and mine are both winter born. I deferred DD1's entry until January when she could go full time - it worked, she settled in and made friends quickly.

With DD2 we did the half days thing (could get childcare with a midday pickup then) and she hated it - she was so ready for full time, not being allowed to stay for school dinners etc. made her very angry. It affected her behaviour in school and at home (though not her academic progress).

At least it wasn't random and bonkers - though IME especially primary schools still don't seem to realise that a lot of households have two full-time working parents...

DD's school is now an Academy and allows full time start from day one, as long as class teachers have met the child and agree they are ready for it.

As for the impact of long days - I didn't find that either of mine were any more tired than they were after a day at nursery, they are all different.

DD's school did a phased introduction, but it wasn't long and drawn out - The first three days were 8:40am-12pm, full week one was 8:40am-1pm (taking in lunch) and week 2 was full time 8:40am-3:30pm. My friend's DD had a half term of mornings and afternoons (alternating each week) and it wasn't until November that she actually started full time! Madness and an absolute nightmare when it came to childcare, my friend and her husband ended up using much of their annual leave to cover this.

I understand the frustration. A local school here does 2 weeks of afternoons, 2 weeks of mornings then 2 weeks of morning or afternoon with lunch before the children go full time.

My class come in full time and they are fine. We have extra staffing for lunchtimes for the first 2-3 weeks. A few of the children get tired, and have a kip in the book corner, but generally not an issue. We are very flexible if parents are concerned and would allow half days, but nobody has ever taken us up on the offer!

Just how many insane settling-in methods are there?

Hi ilovemountains:

One of the joys of primary school seems to be that their entire system presupposes that Mum (usually) doesn't actually work. So there will be reading mornings, workshops, maths afternoons, etc.... Oh and don't forget congratulations assemblies when they ring you on the morning to tell you that your dear little DC is winning a prize and would be crushed if you weren't there to see her get it.

It can make you crazy trying to do everything.

In terms of settling in periods - if they are switching around days and that is presenting a problem with work, try and mention that this is a logistical problem to both your employer and the school as soon as possible. Usually your school will have a few visits in June/ July time for your DC to start the 'going to school' process and to get to know the children before they join the school. At some point there will probably be a meeting with next year's teacher, so this is a good time to raise your issues with the schedule.

However, I have found that most workplaces understand and are supportive during this transition. You can also investigate whether the nursery can continue to have your DC on days they are not at school, which was the option we went for - however our settling in phase was only 2-3 weeks.

HTH