Induction periods for reception children

[Chianna]

Did you know that schools can't enforce induction periods for reception children and that your child is entitled to a full time place (should that be the right thing for your child) from the first day of term? Check out paragraph 58 of the office of the school adjudicators annual report for 2013-14www.gov.uk/government/publications/osa-annual-report

Our school is full time from day one

Nope none of that unfortunately. They had a visit at the school then parents got invited in to order uniform etc which I took her to and then it's see you in September.
As there are only 3 not enrolled at the nursery I guess they don't see the point, it seems the nursery children have been doing reception visits whilst at nursery.

I couldn't juggle childcare and work at the time to allow me to send DD to their school nursery, I will definately find a way of doing that for my DS next September. I do feel DD is ready for school however so I just want the first few weeks done now!
(I do appreciate that some schools don't have nurseries attached and all children are brand new and that others don't go to nursery at all so I'm just talking about our particular circumstances and not trying to be PFB)

Ours was full time from day one, but they started Reception a day later than the school, with 6 kids per class and added 3 a day. This was good as all the teachers could learn the new kids more easily. Though would have been nice to know by say May that we had an extra week in September to cover - luckily I hadn't given nursery notice, but if we'd known, could have had a much cheaper holiday.

The tried and tested induction might work for some children but are a nightmare for others. My ds faffed around starting later in term, later in the day, then at normal start time, finishing before lunch then after lunch, then a full day. It was not helpful in becoming accustomed to routine as the routine kept changing. He still had to be there at 3pm to pick up his elder sister so was exhausted as instead of walking to school and home at the end of the day he was walking up and down 4 or even 6 times to drop her of and attend his own reduced hours. It was a really rubbish start to school.

Our headteacher also had smug remarks abouts how this meant no tears.It didn't. I just had to deal with it the playground and he didn't want to walk home and then come back again.

I think part time should be offered to children who need it but not compulsory.

For info schools in my area don't go back til 7 September (yes really a seven week holiday). The school is then attempting to insist on a phased start of full days (so they automatically lose the getting them used to the hours argument with half days) on either 16 23 or 28 september
This means an additional three weeks of childcare for some people in my low income relatively deprived area, a whopping 10% of the school year missed before we have even started and continuous changes in the classroom over a three week period. It seems to me that some schools have it sorted and some schools live in cloud cuckoo land

Gosh - well the reception teachers here aren't actually in school for the first week of term as they are visiting children at home. The children start full days on the Thursday a week after the rest of the school return. So they have two full days, then a weekend, then straight into a full school week.

But I'm not sure that being the only child in a class, being supervised by someone who isn't your teacher, would be very settling or helpful for a small child.

The argument that you will be the only one is cyclical though - if more parents take this up, more children will be in the classroom!

Our school does the opposite to yours whyhas.
Dc3 is starting in the first 10 as she is in the 10 youngest, they have 3 days with just 10 children, then the middle ones start and finally the oldest a few days later.

And I do feel that my friend's DC's school, which didn't start the youngest full time until the end of January, were ripping the piss rather for the parents trying to juggle childcare.

It's all very well to say that phasing is best for the children, but actually combining a short day and then going to temporary ad hoc childcare is surely harder for them than just having a whole day at school. Unless people are proposing all working parents resign their jobs that year.

We were "lucky" in that Mr K was made redundant the year DS started school so we could drop and pick up whenever needed. We still chose the full days option as didn't want him to be left out of the fun afternoons. (They did most of the classroom learning in mornings and fun stuff like PE, music and forest school in the afternoons.)

Due to a combination of home visits in the first week of term and then 3 phased intake days on a part time basis, ds's first day (pm only!!) isn't until the 22nd September
The attached pre-school finished today so I have the pleasure of finding 11 weeks of childcare...

I love the idea of a home visit, I bet it's too late to ask for one....its not been offered - can I do that?

At our school, reception starts a few days later. They have changed this specifically as it creates nightmares for families where both parents are working. Especially when you aren't allowed time off at the start of term yourself...

We just about managed when dd1 started but we would hsve really struggled this year with DD2. Of course a phased start helps settling in

Sorry posted too soon...

Of course the phased start can benefit children, but for some families it's a serious problem.

Our school changed from 3 weeks of induction (1/3 class starting each week, 1 week of half days then into full time) when DD1 was in reception to 3 days of induction when DD2 started. Parents request. There have been no ill effects on the children, the vast majority of which have been in childcare for years. Personally I think the settling in period is for the convenience of the teachers rather than the kids.

Our nursery was brilliant when DD1 started and picked the kids up after their half days so we had no childcare issues and the kids were still picked up by someone they knew well. Nurseries experience with the kids was that it was quite unsettling for the kids to keep having things change in the first few weeks at school. Once the normal routine started it was all much better.

Of course a phased start helps settling in there have been various examples above where this hasn't been the case and in contrast you might say "start as you mean to go on and having a consistent routine is key to settling well".

If there was an obvious approach for a phased start that was evidenced based, I might be more inclined to consider the disruption to families acceptable. But the different approaches and logic in different schools suggests to me that it is mostly guesswork. Some schools have smaller groups for a while, some gradually increase group size, some have the whole class at the same time; some do half days, some do whole days; some free up time for home visits, some do home visits in the summer term, some don't do home visits.

I appreciate that there may be differences in what suits some children or types of intake, but this doesn't explain the different approaches taken by schools in neighbouring villages or the vast differences between the extremes of very phased starts and those doing full days from day 1.

So PseudoBadger and others struggling like me - insist on your right to start school full time on day 1. Taking on a school is quite daunting but realistically they should know about the rule and in fact lots of them do, they just keep quiet about it and wait for you to bring it up. That is actually the policy in some areas according to my teacher sources.

After trying the nice approach I have been forced to be a bit more abrupt so take that into account but feel free to use the paragraph below as a starting point if you want to take on your school.
"Pursuant of section 2.16 of the School Admissions Code 2014 as clarified in paragraph 58 of the Office of the School Adjudicators annual report 2013-2014 my child [NAME] will be starting school full time on [DATE]"

I find phasing in bizarre, especially as my kids have been used to ft childcare from a very young age. Luckily our school agrees and just starts with full days ( apart from a few optional sessions before the summer holidays) - which means there's no headache of how to cover the first few weeks of term

What made things harder for us was that my son was counted as a preschooler until he started school full time which meant she couldn't take him due to ratios for the half days - nightmare!

Not all schools do home visits, why. Can't see the point of them myself!

For me personally I like the idea of the home visit. My boys are nervous about starting school and I think it will help them to meet teacher and TA in a familiar setting just before they start (met them at intro day a couple of weeks ago but it's a long time from then until mid Sept when they start).
Plus we have a somewhat unusual family set up which I would like to talk to teachers about and this is good opportunity without me having to go into school/make an appointment...
But I can see for some people, especially where the children were previously in the school nursery etc, there may not be much point

I think it's a big burden on the teachers to get round 30 houses vs staying in the classroom and giving out appointments on a given dau

Yes I suppose so although the teachers seem to quite look forward to it (my sister teaches infants and when teaching reception has always valued the home visits as a way to get to know the new intake)
It's a tiny village school so in my case they only have 18 houses to get round ????

We lucked out DD1 school starts full time from sept 1. It seems to be the only school that doesn't do an induction period in our area. So we really got very lucky. We will have to use annual leave to cover this.

I teach p1 & have done for a long time! The system I use now is based on the fact that I have 30+ children coming from 10+ pre schools and i like a little time to build a relationship with them.in small groups. I used to do the 10/ then next 10/ then final 10 but found that the last batch got a poor deal in terms.of my time Tec. So now I bring the children in in batches of 8 for a half day. They each get two sessions in that small group then get one session in a double group then all in. I appreciate that it's "messy" for working parents for a week or two but it really does give me and TA a chance to build a bond with these new kids and get to know a little about them/them about us. And by end of first week in Sept it's all done!