Part time in reception class - any experience?

[Orchid12]

My DD has just been for her settling in morning at school. She is just about to turn 4. I have been granted permission for her to go 3 days a week initially, and will review regularly to make a decision on increasing her days. The school are supportive of this, and one child each year for the past four years I know has has done something similar.

I have a good background in education/psychology so am/was convinced this is the right thing for her. She currently does 3 full days of preschool and is very tired after them. I am not worried about her social or academic development, just the tiredness aspect.

The HT has just made me question myself, however. As I went to collect her, the HT found me to tell me how well she had coped and how he thinks she could easily go full time from the outset. Deep down I think the PT route is the best one for the moment, but I would like to hear from anyone else that has done this. I know it is common for children with additional support needs to go PT, but she doesn't fit this group. I think views on the issue are likely to be polarised but I would like to hear them nonetheless.

Mostly still the same, sparkling. The majority of the schools I know have the literacy/numeracy input and focus groups in the morning and topic based ones in the afternoon. It does vary though so if the school are suggesting 3 full days rather than 5 half, it might be that it fits in better with the way they run their timetable.

I know a couple of schools that do maths teaching in the afternoon. Children doing 5 half days there won't get any maths teaching at all. Just what they can pick up in continuous provision or additional 1:1 work because they are falling behind.

My eldest had to start mornings only for the autumn term as that was the policy for the younger children then. He hated it, cried every day when I collected him at lunch time and lost alot of confidence as he thought (we discovered later) that he wasn't allowed to stay for the afternoon because he wasn't clever enough. He caught up academically and he has just taken 6 AS levels, but his self confidence remains an issue.

Our school does a phased start to reception. First two weeks are mornings only and then they go f/t.
At the moment we have nursery attendance two full days (9-6) but I'm anticipating tiredness in the afternoons.
From what the school say, it's academic stuff in the mornings and more fun stuff in the afternoons.

When you say that half days are not an option, do you mean because of your own circumstances, or because that's what the headteacher has said.

If it's because of the headteacher, then they are are wrong.

It is up to you to decide what pattern of attendance your dd will do until statutory school age. The school can, however, make recommendations.

As an Early Years professional, I would always suggest attendance every day in Reception, whether that is part or full time.

You know your child better than anyone. Stick to your guns.

I am in a similar dilemma with my august born either doing mornings or full days.

You know what is best but I do think 5 mornings would be better as the morning is when they learn, I would worry that the two mornings she is not in she would miss a lot.

When they do mornings do you take them home before or after lunch?

My ds started reception last year he's,August born and I too was worried about tiredness. He did three full days and half days in weds and Fri.

Even though he loved school every morning he started asking if he had a,half day as he 'loved half days'. I think socially he was missing out aswell.

He went full time from January

dd is late July and loved her YR year. Being in big school and wearing a uniform and staying all day. She did have some early nights but never needed an afternoon/day off.

I agree with what people have said - YR is all about getting stuck in and having a go and only be there for 3 days really would impact on her settling in IMO.

DS, presumably, missed phonics and number sessions as he missed two days every week. Not only that, but he missed several months worth as he didn't start until after Easter last year. They really do catch up. He continued at nursery before he started school, so he did numbers and phonics there. I read with him at home, too.
As I said before, the school were very supportive. They never asked me if I wanted to start sending him full time. They didn't see his attendance pattern as a problem. As for making friends, that wasn't an issue either. He just slotted in. His friends were told a new little boy was going to be joining them.

I sent ds three days a week until he reached Compulsory School Age. There was no problem integrating. I have friends whose dd flexischooled three days a week throughout infants and did very well academically and socially. I plan to do a three day week throughout Reception if my dd2 goes to school (she may be home educated).

I've not read all of the replies but have glanced at a few and find it funny how some people think they don't do much more than play in reception. By the end of the year the teacher will have a class who can read and write (at differing levels), share and take turns independently, use simple mathematics in various ways etc. Those reception kids work bloody hard!!

OP, I'm in the same boat. Child is starting school in Sept and the school start them full time. They have said I can start part time if I want. Mine has just turned 4 days ago and while academically bright is young in terms of tiredness. I'm also not sure what to do. My opinion is that part time would be best, I'd do 5 mornings to include lunch, but my child will notice that others don't leave and will question it and would probably choose to stay all day. I'm torn between mum knows best and what child would want. I'm considering asking my child what they would rather.

Our plan initially was to defer DDs start till April, however after discussion with the preschool and school we opted for her to go part time from Sept

The whole intake did part time for the first few weeks, and we just carried on that pattern. To be honest at first I don't think she really noticed that the other children were there all day. By the time she was noticing things like art projects on display which she hadn't done it was after Christmas and we gradually did a couple of afternoons a week till she was full time.

For her it seemed to work well, she'd come home after lunch and it wasn't uncommon for her to have a nap for half an hour or so before she was ready to do anything.

Her teacher was very good at letting me know if they had something special on in the afternoon (class party, visitor or whatever) so she didn't miss out on the "big" things. But of course there were activities she didn't get to do, and I did feel responsible for doing a bit more phonics and number stuff at home to make sure she didn't fall behind.

Of of the bigger issues was communication with the school, the teachers tended to be available at the end of the day to discuss any little incidents. Letters were handed out and reading books tended to be changed at the end of the day too. So we did have to make an extra effort to keep in the loop. I suspect this might not be such an issue now as most things seem to be emailed home.

My dd did mornings only all Reception year. Her birthday is 30 August.

The Head moaned a bit but I didn't take any notice - I just doggedly turned up at 12 every day and took her home.

Didn't do her a bit of harm.

School shouldn't be an endurance event. If you think your DD would be better off starting part time then do that. You can see how it goes and then increase the days when she's ready. Children are all different - some will do well going full time, some would do better part time, and there's really no way of knowing what's best until you try. I would rather start my child part time and then build up their days if they're ready, so they are excited and actually want to be in school, then put them in full time then see if they end up exhausted/in meltdown and then reduce their hours if they can't cope.

Dd now 12 went very part time to nursery(two mornings a week) then three mornings a week for first term of reception, rising to five mornings a week and only going for full days after Easter (she is a February birthday)
Dd has autism and had a statement of SEN from her first days in nursery. The school wanted her full time, I refused and LEA backed me (probably because it saved them money tbf but it meant the school had to suck it up)
Dd followed a home based early intervention programme outside of school. She left EYFS with a very high EYFS score and was probably the most able in her class.
It definitely wasn't detrimental to dd, she was learning more outside of school anyway and we also took advantage of her days off to get out and about. I probably wasn't popular with the HT most likely because dd's statement was fully funded and part time attendance meant part time funding but I knew I was doing best by dd.
We moved to a different school for year one so the poor relationship with HT wasn't a problem anyway.

My August born DS only did mornings in Reception until the week before Christmas. He'd come home and have a 2 hour nap most days after lunch.

We really enjoyed spending time together with his sisters and I can't tell that it made any difference to the friendships that he made as he is part of a little gang of lovely boys. Academically, he is comfortably middle of his class, which is much better than I thought things were going to be.

I'd definitely recommend mornings only.