help staggered start for a 5 year old

[3asAbird]

My daughter has finally been offered school place after half term in 3rd preference school.

She was 5 in September.

For last year she's done home ed ans 3 mornings at nursery school.

am I within my rights and reasonable ask for staggered start as it's huge leap in time to to 5 full days despite her being older.
All local schools here are staggered until Oct half term.

I have 4weeks max accept and start her or she loses the offer.

She will be year 1 in sept.

seems so pointless 4weeks in school before summer hols.

I'm. Appealing preference 1 older siblings school in hope panel see me doing 3schools as youngest in preschool 5 miles away and both schools mile apart.

trying arrange wrap around care for 4weeks she will be there proving expensive ans awquard as spaces filled at this late point in school year.breckfast club is whopping 5.50 a day compared to 2quid at eldest school.

You can ask but if there are only 4 weeks to the summer holidays (are you in Scotland?) why I'm not sure why you would want to? Better to give her maximum time to get to know her new classmates, do the "moving up to the next year group" stuff they do.

Childminders might be better in terms of vacancies (and can provide holiday cover if you need it).

You can try if you feel it's necessary, but she will be absolutely fine if she goes full time. And - she has so much to catch up on - the routines, friendships, etc. With everyone else doing full time she will be an odd one out.

Around Here most schools don't do any staggering - maybe a short day on the first day. So kids, much younger than yours is now, start full time after the summer holidays.

Both of my DDs started aged just 4 and 4.5 and had no problems. Were a bit tired at first, so we did a slightly earlier bed time.

Good luck!

I agree, with only 4 weeks to go I think it would be best if she goes f-t, unless you don't expect to leave her in this school for long, in which case I'd stick with HE until the place you want comes up.

They'll be doing end of term and moving up activities now anyway. It would be a shame for her to miss them and if she does find it tiring she gets a break in 4 weeks anyway.

I don't understand why there are four weeks to the summer? Doesn't sound like Scotland because you wouldn't be talking about next year as year 1.

Depends if you want her to go to school. If so just start her FT. That way she'll make friends before Y1 and get to understand school life. She is old for the year. Drop eldest at breakfast club then take her surely? The youngest child has no influence on an appeal.

She will be fine. There will be kids who have just turned 4 in her class. Your dd will probably be much better able to cope than the younger ones.

I think the OP means she has to accept and start her dd within 4 weeks not that there's only 4 weeks till the summer holiday. That's actually quite a generous timescale (even if you include half term) round here it tends to be accept and start pretty much straight away if it's a waiting list place.

I don't think many schools would be happy with that. You probably could ask for a couple of settling in days one week then full time the next, but they won't necessarily do that.
Plus I think she'll find her classmates will accept her quicker if she's there full time. My experience is that at that age it is very much out of sight out of mind. I think also she'll get used to it quickly, much more quickly if she's there full time than if she goes in a bit at a time.

I don't think so DeeWee. She talks about '4 weeks in school before summer hols' and arranging 4 weeks of wrap around care. I have, however, just twigged that she seems to be assuming that she will delay accepting the offer for as long as possible. There's something like 8 weeks to the summer, so that makes sense.

3as - you do know that, if your appeal for school 1 is ICS, awful travel is not at all relevant (it's not really relevant anyway, but especially so with ICS). I think you need to start accepting the school you have and get your daughter in straight after half term, not string it out until the end of the 4 weeks.

A whole half term of part days is considered really old fashioned by our school. They do all the settling in with a fortnight and say there is no evidence that it helps the children as a whole to take longer (though individual children can stretch it out if they are struggling). The school is likely to be more amenable to settling in if it's for a much shorter period. I think you're going to make things harder for her if it goes on too long.