Excessive settling in times in reception year! Who'd like full time earlier?

[Guy1973]

I am somewhat despairing at the schedule for the start of the reception year at our primary. We have three settling in days where the youngest ten in each class go first, the next ten and then the oldest, which bring us to the 8th September. I can see how that's sensible, beds in the youngest children first in smaller groups etc, that's fine. They are then offering only half days for a further fortnight, so the first full day of school is not until the 25th, ridiculous!

They justify this by saying the teachers need to do home visits but the maths on doing that, versus time saved with half days doesn’t even begin to add up and besides, quite a few of the parents don’t want this home visit, as we went in and met the teachers a few weeks back.
It seems lots of schools go straight into full days and others manage to offer parents a choice, which I think is by far the best solution. Younger, more timid children can settle in gently but those who have been in full time nursery 8am-6pm from the age of 6 months (like mine) simply don’t need this.
I’ve put this on a couple of local forums and many people agree with me but the school doesn’t seem keen to listen to the working parents for whom this is a massive pain. Interestingly there was a court case that ruled in favour of a working mum and told the school they were obliged to offer FT. I’m not sure to what extent this might set a precedent…?

www.theguardian.com/education/2015/jun/29/infant-schools-settling-in-period-parents-work

What annoys me most about this policy is that makes life difficult for the modestly or low paid. If you earn squillions and/or have a full time nanny, as many in my neighbourhood do, it’s not really any skin off your nose. For those with two working parents on modest incomes, it might cause financial hardship and mean their kids have to forgo things they enjoy, which doesn’t seem very fair to me.
I’d be interested to hear from those whose schools do offer a choice of FT or PT for the first few weeks, or anyone in local authority administration who can shed light on the legal obligation side of things. Has anyone succeeded in lobbying or pressurising their school to offer FT earlier? I think it’s about time this system was changed to stop penalising the least well off and offer a better solution for everyone.

I really hope schools aren't doing home visits to "red flag" issues in the home! no wonder some parents object to these is that's what teachers think they are doing.

oldtrees, the teachers aren't lying. They are just following school policy, either they agree or not. Their individual thinking may be different though.

I'm over the moon my daughter doesn't go full time straight away.

Far too much for a 4 year old in a new setting.

Would much rather it was a build up and she was comfortable and I was put out for a few weeks than she be thrown in at the deep end just so it fitted my schedule better.

School isn't free childcare.

As for sleepy children, I have seen videos of children fallen asleep on the quiet/book corner, surrounded by the noisy environment on class assemblies, so, it's definitely possible.

This is what DS's reception class with long settling in period was like:

The teacher and TA visited us at home. They were wonderful with DS and made him feel very comfortable. They explained how it's valuable for the DC to meet the teachers in their own home first as it makes them more comfortable with them, they seem more a normal part of their life and less scary. They asked DS what he was interested in took time to really listen to him. They took away the list of his interests that we'd already prepared.

Then when school started, gradually, with time for them to get to know the DC, they set up activities in class that were related specifically to the DC's own interests that they'd learnt about on their home visits.

The classroom was focussed on play-based learning a lot of the time (in line with EYFS guidance) with educational activities set up both indoors and also in their outside learning area. The kids were free to choose to learn inside or outside, and there was a big emphasis on getting to know each child and bringing learning to them by matching it to their individual interests and natural curiosity, not sitting them at tables and getting them all to do the same sheet (like the other school we looked at).

I've worked in reception class as a TA and I recognise excellence in practice when I see it.

The school I worked in was nothing like this sadly. It tookus ages to get to know the DC in that level. I would have loved to have visited them in their home and to get to know them a few at a time, not all 30 at once, it would certainly have improved our provision of education and supported their well-being better.

Two years running, we had children that were introduced to us by the wrong name, and we didn't find out for about half a term. How scary must that be at age 4?! That kind of thing will happen less with a phased introduction and home visits.

irvineoneohone the teachers we spoke to, both when looking around the school and over the years since come across as passionate about the school's child centred approach.

If they've got other opinions secretely they're certainly putting on a good act!!

Not knowing a child's name is inexcusable but nothing to do with having a phased start or not and starting full time from day one doesn't mean that the teacher can't do home visits. We did home visits in the summer term, some after school depending on parents wishes and also visit the child in nursery.

I completely agree, in our area they filter in the same way as you - youngest first, which means my November born DD doesn't start till 13th September, and that's half days. She is chomping at the bit to start school and to be honest, are there many children who haven't been in some kind of pre-school or child care setting these days? is this amount of settling really necessary in this day and age?
There was a time when many children hadn't been away from parents before starting school but it's not really the case any more.

mrz perhaps you have allowed cyncism to set in?

I've seen long settling in periods work well.

The school my DCs go to have a big emphasis on getting to know the children as individuals and this helps their practice.

Maybe you have different teaching methods and this isn't of value to you in your practice. But to dismiss it entirely is a bit broad brush don't you think?

I find it hard to believe that teachers who have worked there for years and seem so genuinely passionate about what they do and their child-centred ethos, are misleading me or simply following policy. Quite patronising to assume that, don't you think?

The gradual start and home visits were just the introduction to a school that has really created something special IMO - hence DD following DC to that school.

I've worked in a number of schools as a TA so I do have a bit of an insight into how schools are run! and how cynical some teachers can be

What isn't child centred about a child attending an EYFS reception class full time ?

Nightmare for parents who are teachers by the way!

I'm in Scotland and they're doing
1st week-long 3 1.5hr visits each (4 separate groups at separate times)
2nd and 3rd week - half day until lunch
4th week - half day until after lunch
5th week - full time

mrz one child had a name from her own culture, that she'd been called every day since she was born. She also had an English name but she'd never been called it.

The parents used the English name on her forms, and didn't mention any other name. We had no idea that it wasn't her really name. If we'd seen her at home, we might had heard her being called her actual name. It must have een very disorienting for her to start school and suddenly be called this other name.

I'm not sure what the reason was for the other child as I left not long after we discovered her name was wrong. Again her parents had entered a name on her form that was nothing like her actual name, but they were both from her own culture. I'm not sure what happened there.

That school wasn't a very good school, they'd had acting heads for YEARS so a lot of stuff was not as you would want.

It was years ago now, hopefully they've improved.

I contacted the school and advised them that DT's would be attending full time from the start of term. We didn't have a home visit as we were at work and didn't consider it essential. DT's had been at nursery full time and didn't have any difficulties settling into school life.

We didn't have enough holidays from work to take the first three weeks of September off work (or employers who would agree to this).

No home visits either but that's probably because they have a nearly 100 child intake

YerAWizardHarry DS's year was a buldge year with 5 x classes of 30. They did home visits.

"mrz one child had a name from her own culture, that she'd been called every day since she was born. " so that's what you call her ... I don't see your problem it isn't unusual. You can have home visits and still start full time on the first day of term they aren't mutually exclusive you can do both. But I'd like to reassure parents that (most) teachers aren't visiting in order to red flag issues.

Of course that's not the reason for home visits but they wouldn't be doing their job correctly if they didn't act on any 'red flag' issues, would they?

mrz you are missing my point.

Once we found out that was her name, of course we called her the one she wanted to be called. But we didn't know.

Her parents put her English name on her form. No one made us aware of her other name. We called her by the name we had been told to.

I am sure there are several best-practise ways to make sure you find out what your classes real names are! And this school, hould really have been better at this sort of thing, being in an area of high-immigration, where having a cultural name and an english name isn't uncommon.

One way to be better at this sort of thing is to make sure the school takes the time to get to know the children. One way to do that is a phased entry and home visits.

You seem very ... ummm .... quick to judge.

Or, quick to jump to conclusions I should say,

It's not a matter of doing their job everyone has the responsibility if they suspect a child at risk not just teachers conducting home visits.

No oldtrees I'm pointing out you don't have a point.
Home visits and knowing a child's "given" name is a totally different issue to starting full time on day one which is the subject of thus thread.

I really don't think children need long settling in times, they are more resilient than we think ...and for working parents it can be a nightmare. It isn't about school being childcare or not - it is about how difficult flexible childcare is - arranging childcare for such a short period of time.
DD1 had been in FT nursery for years when she started school, the first month was half days. I had given the Nursery a finish date before I found this out. Luckily they could still just fit her in for afternoons for 4 weeks. They warned me that if someone wanted to start full time they would take them and DD wouldn't have a place (in the circumstances fair enough). If I hadn't handed my notice in with them I would have been due to pay for full days for those 4 weeks anyway - and as she would no longer be funded it would have been a lot - as it was the afternoons without funding cost almost the same as the full days had with funding.
I had arranged a childminder for after school 3 days a week (other 2 days I had arranged to finish in time for pick up) but they didn't have space for the first 2 weeks.
For the first week of school I had arranged to work from home in case of any emergencies and for those 2 weeks to finish at 3. (My employer was pretty fair).
The half days completely messed that up and were a nightmare.

The school is near home and the nursery was near my work. So the first week I would drop her at school, go home to work, go back in my lunch break to pick her up and drive her to Nursery and stay at work -finish at normal time. But the following weeks I would have to drive home in my lunch break to pick her up and take her to the nursery (12 mile round trip). And when my CM space started it wasn't worth me using it - so I was paying for that on top of the nursery. I probably could have done some deal with my employer on one or two of the CM days as I was finishing later on the two days I was supposed to finish at 3 -but I didn't want to mess them or the nursery around any more.
DD2, by then I was a SAHM so she was not used to FT nursery and easy for me to pick up at lunch, I found that the new HT had reduced it to 2 weeks of half days. I can honestly say DD2 had no problem with doing full time after 2 weeks ..arguably she would have been fine from the start -and she was the youngest (4.5 - we are in Scotland).
Instead of being pleased I was annoyed!!!!

oldtrees should have said home visits aren't a "thing" I don't know anyone who's ever had a home visit from a teacher