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.

"How does visiting nursery tell you what they doing or not doing at home" because you have conversations with parents and the nursery staff will have had many conversations with parents so can pass on useful knowledge about a child they've know for many months.

"We established on another thread that nit all counties do full time straightaway" it seems many of those reporting staggered entry seem to be in London. I wonder how much it is a regional issue.

South coast here I think all schools stagger on our area. One up til Xmas!!

My ds's school simply asked us how we want them to call our child, in the form before starting school, so they can make tags for them in their usual names they are being called. My ds is being called by shortened name at school, but all the official forms are filled in with his proper name. I thought that was normal.

You haven't read my post properly.

That's exactly what we did. There was a space on the form for the parents to fill out an alternative to their "official name". The parents did not fill that out. I have no idea why.

It may be that they wanted their DD to be called the English name from then on. It may be that the form was poorly worded and/or their English wsn't good enough to understand what was being asked of them.

Surely the problem with that example is poor parenting not the lack of home visits.

South coast not London.

All our local reception classes have spaces for a child to have a nap. Also short phased entry, not a long drawn out one. Children can start full time straight away if it's in their best interest.

"That's exactly what we did. There was a space on the form for the parents to fill out an alternative to their "official name". " perhaps they didn't understand what you mean by an alternative to their official name .

So we've narrowed it to London and the south of the country east or west anyone?

We are NW and schools vary from ours (two half days, stay and play is in the summer term, no home visits) through to no full days till half term (and nothing in the first couple of weeks as that's all home visits).
These two schools are half a mile apart by the way.
Our school also does a full week of the next year up at the end of summer term - the year 6 go on a trip or to high school. So DS has already done a week of year 1 so is very relaxed about it.

Did I mention we love our school??!

We're in London - first full day of reception for our DD is 28 Sept!

My great nephews in the midlands will be doing phased in September. Their parents are happy with that.

South East London. 3 form entry - home visits and play date at end of summer. Full time from day 1 but they only start 10 children at a time, so my daughter will start on the third day to a class of thirty. She's more than ready for it.
Friends at a different local school, have a hopscotch of arrangements until half term. This is despite the child being five early September and more importantly, being at the school nursery 9-3 three days a week for a year (it's the next room(. Mum doing her nut and was told by school 'in child's best interest ' which is rubbish

Reception can be unexpectedly tiring for some at first though, even if they have been to nursery.
Dare I say on here that back in the 80's my August born was fortunate to start at Easter as that was the current schedule. He was at nursery every morning until then. It was good for him and didnt do him any harm at all. ( degree and good career)

The vast majority of children do not need staggered starts. If individual children do, then that can be arranged.

I think a lot of schools are just used to doing staggered starts, it's what they've always done and it works for them so why change it?

What they don't appreciate is the impact on the child and family of lots of stress and difficulty, ever changing routines and childcare, at such a sensitive time for children.

In the past, when fewer children attended nursery and were often at home with mum or granny, a gentle introduction was maybe more necessary and easier to accommodate. However now something like 99% of children attend nursery or playschool by 4 - and with 30 hours funding more will attend full time - more families having to have two working parents to get by, and living further from extended family, its just not necessary or feasible.

OP, I would explain to the school that unfortunately you are not able to accommodate their request and your DS will be starting full time in week 2. Tell other parents that this is an option to!

I've never heard of a school doing home visits where I live. Generally the children visit the school for a day around the end of June and that's it really.

Week 1 home visits, week 2-3 half days, week 4 start (Huntingdon)
To accommodate I've booked more holiday clubs for the 6 week holidays & am hammering the annual leave for the start of term.

Annoyed because won't be spending much time with the 10yr old this summer.
The 4yr old has been in nursery since 1yr and is more than capable of longer days 3 full days would be better than the 5 half days.
Most annual leave will be used which will mean buying holiday clubs for the other holidays. It's going to be £££

We have been given a schedule, which involves two half days the first week, 8.55-12 in week two, 8.55-1.15 in week three, then full time. It was also made very clear to us at the 'meet the teacher' session that we had a right to full time education from the first day of term, if we wanted it, or that (December-born) DS could continue part-time until Christmas. Luckily, there are no home visits here. Instead, DS, DH and I were invited to a 45 minute meet-up with his teacher at the end of last term.

I think we need to remember that school and childcare are two separate things.

Nobody is saying that they want schools to "act as childcare." They want schools to operate in a way that actually fits in with the childcare arrangements that parents are perfectly happy to make and pay for themselves.

We all know we have to provide childcare for our kids and pay for it. But it is very difficult to arrange childcare for a few random hours for a few random weeks in one particular year. It's not like the supply of childminders increases for a temporary period in early September each year--there isn't the capacity.

MaryTheCanary - I completely agree. We use the after school club which, unsurprisingly, isn't open for random half days in school term time.

For DD1 we had a week and a half of half days. I know that isn't the worst going, but it wasn't the right thing for DD1, so if we're talking about child centred, it certainly wasn't. DD1 had her 5th birthday while on half days, I was on maternity leave so we had a lovely afternoon out with lunch at her favourite restaurant. But DD1 was very ready for FT school. Far from being tired, she was bouncing off the walls for the other half days. She was used to spending all day at nursery and had been 'school-ready' for ages.

So we've narrowed it to London and the south of the country east or west anyone?

East Anglia - 3 form entry, all children expected to start full-time from Day 1. DS was fine, though maybe parents with children who weren't fine did have 'sick days' or similar.

Thanks again everyone, brilliant response, I'll reply properly shortly but for the mo, if anyone's in SW London, this is the post that started it off. Feel free to share your thoughts there too www.nappyvalleynet.com/mums/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=89793

OP, you must live near me because you've posted the exact same thing on NVN..!

And I agree with the majority of the answers you've had there - what have you been doing for childcare up til now, and surely you can utilise for a few more half days?