Primary School Starting Dates - R they joking? How to change?

[Crouchendmumoftwo]

Hello,
Hello!
Im self employed and so is my husband and we have to work for our clients etc to pay the bills. I wrote to the school to ask if my son could be in the first wave of kids going in as we are working and we just have one granny who works.
Gobsmacked to see on the letter today his starting date is 17th September and then that is just till 12! He doesn't go full time till October the 4th!!
HA HA HA - knocks head against wall.

Blooming marvelous.
My husband says my letter probably annoyed them and that is why he is starting so late. My daughter starts in nursery too there - who knows when she starts - November - doing one hour a morning? They both attend full time nursery. My son will be nearly 5 (November) when he joins so not the youngest in the class.

Just wanted to find out if anyone is in a similar situation and is it worth going to the school to have an informal chat to see if they got the letter and if there was anychance of getting him in on the first wave! Probably not!

It all seems very odd - such a late start yet we have to work and earn money - what do people do?

Thanks!

What did you do before? Hate to say this but someone inevitably will if I don't...school's raison d'être isn't childcare.

They always seem to start the oldest first, in my son's day (8 years ago ) it was because the teacher had less time to get to know the youngest because they were only doing half days until easter, so it was easier with a smaller initial class.

Maybe it's done now so the less mature get used to the class with a small number of children, the older ones should be able to cope with a class size of 30? I have no idea really why they do this.

People leave their DC in nursery until they start full time school, and often take a weeks holiday during that time.

The school will probably have selected children based on birthday surname initial.

Schools do this so children can have a gentle introduction to school. Sadly it doesn't suit working parents.

they are in nursery - all year round.
we have to work we dont have the luxury of taking over a month off. We have the final couple weeks in August with no childcare, but now this - wow!

It might be the first wave- sometimes the first two weeks of term are for home visits. Worth ringing and finding out, but go v v politely.

the year ds started school we kept him in nursery until start date, then used mine and dh's annual leave to cover the 3 weeks of 1/2 days.

knew it was coming so kept annual leave days free for it

This is why you need a back up network of family/friends/childminder to help you. Working full time is really tough other wise. Have you thought what you are going to do about school holidays and inset days?

Can you get your children into a childminder for such a short period?

I'm sorry, but you do come across as a bit entitled. How on earth are you going to mange the school holidays?

OOh good advice regarding the nursery, I will find out if they can. They probably can't as they are also inflexible! Worth asking though. Yes will be very polite, they are lovely there. Maybe its oldest last. The head said to me they like to put kids who don't attend nursery at the school first so I was suprised as he doesn't go to nursery there. We don't have annual leave as we are self employed, that would be easier. I don't really fancy dumping them in front of the TV all the time (never really works) so I can try and work. Hmmm. Thanks for great answers so far. Very interesting.

Round here people keep their nursery places until their DC go full time. Is that an option for you? (you still have the problem of getting DC from school to nursery or vice versa but hopefully this is where being self employed means you can take some time out to do this).

Sorry if I come across a bit entitled, it's just that I wrote a very soft letter, very politely about it. I don't mean to sound entitled and Im sure there are other parents in the same situation and with worse issues. Sadly I just have a mum who is 71 and has to work. I dont have any other family nor does my husband, we would love other grandparents and family but sadly we dont have that and Im an only child. Im hoping they can go to clubs in the holidays and will see if my younger one can go to a childminder, Im trying to sort a childminder for her afternoons as her nursery wont be doing afternoons. Great to hear ideas thanks very much appreciated.

It's ridiculous. And the only area I know of where fee paying schools prioritise the needs of the parents rather than the pupils. No school dependent on fees would dare inconvenience their customers so much.

dh is self employed so know you dont have annual leave, but do you have the flexibility not to work (knwo this means you dont get get paid, but needs must) or work part/flexible hours?

the year ds started school we didnt plan a family holiday so we had enough days to cover him starting school. I also took time off so I could pick him up after school and he wasnt in afterschool club until a few weeks in as it was very tiring for him at first.

Wanted to introduce him to full days at school then afterschool gently as a bad start could have led to him hating school and difficult to recover from.

I had no idea about this soft-start malarkey until I called DD's new school about something else and they dropped it into conversation.

Luckily I'm a SAHM but it has still screwed up quite a few plans for us as I am doing some voluntary work around that time. I was very to find out they don't start full time from 5th September as DD has been going to nursery since 6mo and I naively thought it would be a case of finishing nursery on the Friday and starting school the next Monday.

I'd almost rather she was half-days until January, at least I'd know where I was then!

Nothing to add in reponse to the staggered start in addition to what has been said but if you reallydo need to work every day all year round and are relying on clubs etc for holiday childcare, it's worth getting really organised and researching them well in advance.

In particular, you might need to think carefully about the days around the beginning and end of each school holiday. For example, local schools often vary start dates by a day or two - or even more. A holiday club might run only for the full weeks of a holiday, and not for any 'part weeks' - for example if a term end on a Thursday or starts on a Wednesday, then those extra days will cause a problem. Equally, INSET days vary from school to school, so you need to plan to cover those - sometimes these will be at the beginning or end of half term so you might find your child going back on a Tuesday or finishing on a Thursday while evry other local school is in school.

In addition, there may be weeks that your holiday clubs traditionally 'don't do' - e.g. Easter week or a week or two in August - and many have minimum ages. Definitely worth researching!

Personally I would find a CM who could do afternoons with DD, and holidays/occasional days with DS.

Could you defer his start until after Christmas then he could start full time and could stay at nursery until then? If you have to find a child minder for dd could she have him too? We are lucky as they start full dats from day 1 here.

Thanks very intersting. Will have to do a lot of research going forward for clubs thanks teacherwith2kids. Not sure about deferring as he is so excited about going to school and all his chums will have left nursery. We moved house and the nursery is quite far away so its been a real pain getting them to and from it. He will be 5 in November too so not sure if we can have him in nursery when he is five? Im wondering if the school made a mistake they have so much admin, the did say children who don't attend nursery at the school go in first. I will double check and we shall see. I must say I hadnt thought about half of the things on here so thank you. I can be a bit flexible but I do work for clients and I cant put them on hold - I have meetings etc and a lot of work and like a lot of self employed people I work evenings. Im sure we will manage to sort something out. Poor school must have lots of people asking this kind of thing.

Agree that you need to get your drawing board out and make some plans.

We also have no local family to help and all our friends work. I work part time and am already meticulously researching how I am going to make things work for DS when he starts in education- he is only 21mo but I have already chosen a pre-school out of all the local options that worked logistically and registered him at a school chosen on the basis of the education on offer- but also how the logistics work out.

His school has longer holidays than DH or my schools do. I already have the dates we will need to childcare for the first year (2014) and have floated the idea to my childminder of her covering them.

TBH I think you have to treat it with the same level of organisation as you do your business.

I am in the same boat. My DS1 will finish his preschool on July 20th, then attend a holiday club until 17th of August, then holiday with family until 27th of August, and from 28th of August until [whatever primary start date in September] we are stuffed. DH and I are both FT working parents with not much of annual leave left due to other reasons. We are thinking either to put DS1 into DS2 nursery until he starts going to school, and to take annual leave afterwards. I am also researching an option to take a temporary nanny or a temporary childminder but there are none interested so far as this is only for a a temporary-probably around 1 month - period. The last thing on my mind is 2 weeks of unpaid parental leave, but I will have to BEG my boss to grant it and still not sure if he will.

They don't start kids according the the work or other needs of parents, so your letter will have made no difference at all.

When DS started they started the youngest first so that they had a chance to settle in with the fewest classmates, and the oldest last.

DS had also been at f/t nursery, and eas happy and confident at school, so after 2 days (when he was upset and indignant that he would not be doing some Elmer related activity after lunch) I asked that the half day thing be abandoned for him, they agreed and he went f/t from then on. I think the half days are an opportunity for the less settled, rather than compulsory.

Ours have the children who have never been to pre-school first then the youngest children (born after April) and then lastly the oldest children (born September-March). They all start by mid september full time. Another local school does part-time up until Christmas it seems to differ from school to school. You can only ask them to accommodate you but definitely try to have a back-up plan if they say no.

Dreading this with my youngest. It was such a faff with my oldest. He had been in full-time nursery 8-5 since birth, yet required weeks of this palaver of 9-11 for a week, the 9-12 for two weeks, then pick up before lunch for weeks, then go until 2pm. Bollocks. He was fine on day two .

No, school isnt about childcare, but it also shouldnt be about pissing working parents around.

p.s. Ok from birth' is an exageration

From 8mths old

Blu - our school let one Mum send her DS 4 days a week, when all the others started on 2 days (1/2 class Mon/Weds and 1/2 class Tues/Thurs) so some will help accommodate requests.

However i agree with others who say you need to seriously start planning for cover for school holidays/inset days/1/2 days and sick days as these can be numerous.

Ours don't start at all until about the 3rd week in Sept as the first week back is home visits.

Hope you get something sorted.