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

ilovelamp2 schools do care for the children, that does not make it childcare in the way that many parents seem to expect it ot be, eg dictating the timing of the school day to fir their own purpose.

Yes occasional times - not just because it is the end of term. If 'their own purpose' is to work then yes I think it's reasonable to expect that school will finish at the same time everyday.

They have to arrange 6 weeks childcare, i fail to see how a couple of extra hours to going to make any difference.

Same finish time for my kids schools. I don't get why they have to go in for 2 and a half days in that week anyway - they will only be watching DVDs!

Just seems unnecessary to have half day at end of term.
For whose benefit is it?
Unless you work school hours, arranging childcare for working parents bloody hard sometimes especially for 6 weeks. So, unnecessary afternoon taken off by school unreasonable extra.

OP I see your point of view. Stuff like this makes it so hard for women to go to work. I think it's a feminist issue and also an economic issue if we decide to have an education system that makes it hard for half the population to participate in the workforce.

Yes it's only a half day off work but if they do it each term that's 1.5 days leave plus the five inset days which it is impossible to cover with after school clubs or holiday clubs. Add to that sports days and nativity days and sick days and the fact that employers don't always let you take leave whenever you want and it gets really hard.

With no family support for me it's impossible to juggle so I've hired a nanny. That's not an option for most women because it's so expensive at least
partly because of way it is taxed.

What is wrong with. School will finish at 1315. Those who would like to can pick their children up otherwise we will be organizing some fun games in the hall.

Are people determined to miss the fact that it is up to schools to set their own start and finish times, within reason.

Within reason....
Doesn't seem reasonable to me.

"What is wrong with. School will finish at 1315. Those who would like to can pick their children up otherwise we will be organizing some fun games in the hall."

Because if school finishes at 1.15, then anything provided after that is CHILDCARE. And that is the parents' job.

"Stuff like this makes it so hard for women to go to work. I think it's a feminist issue and also an economic issue if we decide to have an education system that makes it hard for half the population to participate in the workforce."

What's stopping dads from collecting their children? I see plenty of men outside my classroom every day of the week, morning and afternoon, on the school run.

Can't wait .

"Doesn't seem reasonable to me."

Well, it would appear that there are many who disagree. And actually, it's not for parents to decide anyway. I wouldn't have dreamt of trying to dictate to my kids' schools when their start and finish times should be. If I was working at the term's end which, being a teacher, I always was, I considered it my role (or my husband's, come to that) to sort it out, as part of the "being a parent" package.

Why do the schools do it though?
It is a school day.

Chemise - I think the school is obliged to keep your child until the end of the published school day if you cannot pick him/her up early. Check with the LA. But bear in mind that your child could just be sitting with the H/T until you get there.

Not done at my DS's school or any around here as far as I know

And why do they do it? Both children and teachers are exhausted, over-revved and not in a frame of mind to learn. There are people leaving so to have protracted and emotional farewells and transition anticipation is not constructive. The teachers need time to tidy up and get home.

^"What is wrong with. School will finish at 1315. Those who would like to can pick their children up otherwise we will be organizing some fun games in the hall."

Because if school finishes at 1.15, then anything provided after that is CHILDCARE. And that is the parents' job.^

Exactly. Which is why that exact proposal - that school ends at 2 pm but children can join organised play-based childcare until the end of the school day and beyond - is run by the after school club [childcare] at DD's school. And it is charged for at a rate that pays for the playworkers who lead it.

I am glad our primary does not do it.
I would be able to pick up my children but see it as unnecessary of a school to do.
6 weeks for children to wind down and 6 weeks for teachers to recover from having to 'tidy up'.

At our school, if parents don't pick their child up within a given timeframe (20 mins after the end of the day), they are invoiced for the child to be taken to the After School Club. This was brought in as, most days, there were anything up to half a dozen children hanging around the office area, mucking about waiting for parents who might turn up as much as half an hour-45 minutes late. Interestingly, far fewer people are late for pick-up since.

Sapphire, in your place of work, does everyone work at the same breakneck pace, all the way to 6.30 pm, on 23rd or 24th December (whenever it is you close for Christmas)? Or is there a little winding down / leaving early / going for a special lunch on that last day?

Schools are a bit like that at the very end of term - everything that is going to get done that term is done. The pace is a little slower for the last day or so. Everyone has lots of additional jobs to do - the equivalent of 'have to pop out and get a present for my wife / go late night shopping / go to aunty's Christmas party'. But for a school, there has to be some decision on 'we all go at this point' - there can't be that 'gradually emptying office' thing.

We don't break up early. Some local schools, like DD's, do. All publish this months often years, in advance.

As I said in an earlier post, I understand that its difficult if its all done at short notice and maybe the first year your child is at school if you havent appreciated the holidays / finish dates but after that why is it 'so difficult for half the population to work'?

At the start of the school year, you know how many days you need to cover including school holidays
You know how much leave you have as a family, when you can make use of holiday clubs etc and then plan accordingly. You book your leave in advance. Obviously you get unexpected busy periods at work etc, unexpected sick days but its surely a question of being organised. If you know finish times and inset days in advance I cant see why its a problem.

If a school wants to shut early then no I don't see why it providing CHILDCARE for a couple of hours to working parents would so dreadfully shocking. Schools don't exist in a vacuum. If people didn't go to work and pay taxes there would be no money for schools in the first place.

I certainly don't take the viewpoint that education is the school's job while childcare is mine. I spend lots of time happily educating my kids whilst also caring for them.

I would like to see the facilitation of working parents added to the list of criteria by which schools are judged.

Whilst we don't "watch DVDs all day" at our school (not allowed, apart from maybe one at some point in the last week as a special treat), there is certainly a change of pace in learning at this time of year. For a start, there are still, yes still, a number of kids away on holiday, those that are in are knackered and have had enough, and trying to get any quality learning done at the back end of July is a tall order. We have to plan different activities to keep them going/motivated, as well as running all the usual plays/sports days/trips/transition meetings and so forth that clearly piss parents off too, at having to attend.

Jellybean of course you also educate your children, you are their parent. A school however is not a parent so is not responsible for childcare, do you see the difference? At some point parents do have to take the responsibility, they cannot have everything handed to them on a plate which is what they seem to expect.

They are not mutually exclusive, no, jellybeans and schools are 'in loco parentis' during the normal run of events. But that doesn't extend to providing cheap childcare, sorry. As has been said several times on this thread, and people are still choosing to ignore, the number of hours/minutes/days on school premises is pretty uniform; it's just that there are variations in how exactly that operates. So it might be that schools that close an hour early 3 times a year (is that really such a big deal?) do longer days the rest of the year, by way of shorter playtimes/earlier morning start of 5 minutes later finish.

The schools in the two counties I have lived in all finish after lunch on last days of term. However children who need to stay because they would alone at home can stay until the normal end if day BUT school buses all at special time (staggered as usual as they all do lower middle and upper schools in turn, upper first then middle etc )