Is it OK for DS school to finish at 1:15pm on last day of term & require me to pick him up?!

[ChemiseBleu]

I am so pissed off with DS's school. I thought that this year they would stop their nonsense of finishing just after lunch on the last day of each term and registering them in for the afternoon but requiring you to pick them up early.

In previous years they did this on the last day of every term and I assumed that the new "tightening" up of rules re taking DC out of school would mean they wouldn't dare do it this year...

They mention earlier in the year on the calendar a picnic at 12 noon that parents are welcome too and then start gradually drip feeding into the newsletters that you are welcome to take them home after the picnic and then BOOM today - dates for July:

Wednesday 23rd Picnic 12 noon BREAK UP 1:15pm

This means extra time off work for me.

--This from the school who wrote to me before the end of the first half term with a calculation of DS's attendance after he had had 3 days off with a bug (M-W) and then been sent home at lunch time on a F after being sick in his lunch. Considering the attendance was matched against 2 half weeks and about 4 full weeks then yes it did come out at

I get that the 'fining absence' thing is petty & creating bad feeling

but

DD1 & friends have been invited by their new senior school to come to their summer fair which starts at 2 p.m. and the primary school have told the children they are not allowed to go - and if they do their parents will be fined.

I think the senior school thought Oh dear, she's got the wrong end of the stick when they gave my DD1 an invite at a meeting and I said - I'm really sorry but our school have refused to allow children to leave for this. Then when more parents from our school said the same there was some muttering.

My hope is they'll ring the school and embarrass them into reconsidering.

But somehow I doubt it.

So hang on, OP, you're saying though that your work is actually flexible enough to allow you to do this? So you personally are not having to book a half day of leave? I get that you'll need to do work at other times to keep on top of things, but isn't that one of the benefits of freelance/flexible work, that you can take that option?

I get that the school's calculation of your DS's absence early in the year was petty. Then again, two wrongs don't make a right. Incidentally, is there no chance that DS's dad could pick him up that day?

Our school always does it at the end of every term. Lots of primary schools here do. I am freelance and quite like it as it gives you a chance to get away early if you are going away, or a chance to hang out with friends if not. I know it doesn't work for everyone though.

I am a teacher, my school finishes at 1.30pm at the end of each term it is made clear at the beginning of the year and then repeated on newsletters etc. I think that there is lots of bad feeling from parents about the fines being given due to holidays. However, please keep in mind this is a government initiative and not a school based one. As schools/teachers we have to follow the law/rules. In my personal opinion I feel that the old system of allowing 10 days was more preferable.

Btw my daughters school also finishes early and I have to arrange childcare as I am still in work. So I speak as a parent as well as a teacher.

Ours finish at 1.30 too. They are going for play dates as it's a work day for me. I'm returning the favour.

It's another assumption (and DS's school makes loads of those) that there is a parent at home who has no other commitments and is able to pick up at a fairly random time

It doesn't happen at the DCs school but does in some of the others in our town (also Hampshire). Luckily my DCs haven't realised!

While yes, it would be a pain if you work, the DCs would absolutely love it. Two places I worked at for 10 years each always allowed work to stop at 1 on Christmas Eve which was massively appreciated by all us adults, even those who didn't have DCs, weren't hosting for Christmas, it was just a great treat.

For me the point isn't so much the finishing early but the fact that they are having a 15 minute pm registration......I wonder if in central statistics this will be recorded as a full session.....if so then it's disingenuous

I find it strange that they do this every year and for some reason you thought they'd suddenly stop it.

This was normal when I was at school 30 years ago.

Have you counted the sessions? Maybe they have done 380 without the afternoon? It is absolutely standard practice for all of the schools near me.

There are some really grumpy, petty attitudes here!

As a previous poster has said, the new system with fining absences is not the school's decision, it's a government initiative. So don't play tit-for-tat with the school on that! If teachers do support it, it will be because some parents (obvs none on MN!) repeatedly took their children out of school which had an impact on their education and a knock-on effect on the rest of the class (while attention was diverted to help the absentees catch up) and ultimately on the progress of the absentees which affects the school's performance etc etc. Clearly the government's solution has had an impact on everyone, not just the problem families. I'm sure we'd all welcome a better policy if you've got some good ideas up your sleeve...

Secondly, schools have to monitor absence from the beginning of the year, so that potential concerns can be flagged up and addressed. Clearly your son's illness was genuine and you are not the kind of family to repeatedly claim that your son is too ill to attend school. But surely, as an intelligent MNer, you understand that that letter might have warned a family who are less committed to education that the school is aware of a possible issue already? Surely you just discounted it as 'oh yes, an illness meant he missed a few days of school. Never mind, he's unlikely to catch many more bugs this year' and chucked it in the bin? Or did you get needlessly irritated that the school system didn't make an exception for you since you're obviously not one of those families?!

Also, a half day is a treat for children. The attendance figures are indeed manipulated so the school are not penalised for allowing the children to start their holiday a few hours earlier. Obviously it's not necessary but don't you remember the excitement and fun of the last day / start of the holidays? As a previous poster said, adults also appreciate occasional half days off work if they're offered (eg on Christmas Eve). Why begrudge that? The teachers will be tidying up or having drinks together to celebrate the end of the year, or (in larger schools) sitting through interminable leaving speeches. They could start that later, but hey, it's a treat for them too. But some of you seem to want to deny everyone a treat because you can't see the point if it. How sad. You know, some parents (obviously not those of us at work) also enjoy the extra time with their children. Why stop that just because it doesn't suit you?

Other posters have pointed out that in the overall scheme of things, a half day at the end of term is not the biggest childcare headache ever. Childminders / Grandmas etc will pick up early. Kids will play with a friend for a few hours. You will rearrange work, if you can. These things happen (and are usually celebrated a year in advance). It's not something you need to get 'so pissed off' about.

Finally (apologies for the essay!) a poster referred to charging the taxpayer for the half day! That's not how it works - pupils are funded for an academic year and teachers essentially paid also for the year. The 'taxpayer' is not invoiced per session. Hth.

DD's first primary did not finish early. Her second one did. Secondary finishes early, but they arrange an extra bus. They do loads of extra hours during the rest of the term, so in sure they're not under their allocated hours.

Doh. These things are usually CALENDARED in advance - not celebrated! Sorry.

I don't get why OP is so surprised. It has clearly happened in that school in the past, so is the norm.
As a working parent, if in any doubt about start/end times or dates, I ring the school office well in advance to check. There are then months to sort something out. Half days are not spring upon people.
This has clearly annoyed OP in the past, so why didn't she confirm it was a full day, rather than wait until the last couple of weeks, when making alternative arrangements is more difficult.

Childcare when being a working parent is all about planning ahead. I really don't see this as a problem with the school, but the OP being annoyed she has been caught on the hop.

If it has happened every term and they have been dripfeeding it into newsletters it was a bit silly to assume it would suddenly stop this term. There's still three weeks to make arrangements. Which is far more than you get if a child is ill and people cope with that all the time.

Where I am NONE of the schools do that.

I would be fuming at the dishonesty of it all plus the fact it's leaving little time to get organised.

I completely agree re the attendance and how sneer my it is. Let's register the children so it looks ok and the leave . IMO that should be accounted as a half day CPD/PDA.

plus the fact it's leaving little time to get organised.

How? It has always been the case.

I think schools are really cheeky registering them so that it shows them as in school for the afternoon and then sending them home. What would happen if I took DC on holiday at lunchtime that day - would it be classed as unauthorised absence?

This thread has just made me realise I have no idea what time DD finishes school at the end of term! All it says in the newsletters is that there is a 'service at the church' starting at 9am. No clue on finish time at all.

No early finishes on they last day of terms up here either. In fact at DS1's junior school they tend to finish 15-30minutes later than normal because they always have a special (& highly emotional) leavers assembly. Both infant & junior schools that my DSs attend will allow a sneaky early hometime after nativity/sports day/summer fair but never more than about 20mins max.

Of course they can do this, school is for your childs education, it is not childcare altho most working parents wrongly assume that it is. Another PP was complaining about the amount of trips/concerts/swimming etc, that is for the benefit of the children in school, they cannot pamper to every parents whim.

I come from a huge family and between me and mum we have children at 5 different schools, all 5 are breaking up at 1pm the last day of term, however the last day of term has been on the school calendars since September and they finish early every term so everyone booked the day off or arranged people to pick their kids up weeks ago, it really is a little late to be getting wound up about it.

Hi, old teacher here. It is all to do with hours not sessions. For example lots of schools do, say, 5 minutes longer each day than the legal minimum for a particular age group. So they can legally finish earlier at the end of term as they have accrued "spare minutes" over the course of a term or a year.

Wow really. If only the real world worked like this. I would work a little bit extra each day to get to leave early once in a while.

Having said that it's common practice in a lot of schools. My friend's school does it all the time. So my friend assumed one term and booked flights for that evening. School decided 2 weeks before end of term that this time they would do a full day and my friend for a 'warning' letter from the council.