what induction arrangements does your shocol have ofr reception kids ?

[FluffyMummy123]

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staggered entry in Sept, Jan and Easter - officially OK to defer but tbh very few people do (I am one of three afaik who has deferred).
yes home visits.
also as I understand it it is accepted in reception to ring up and say X is too tired to come today. don't know how true that is but makes sense for four year olds imo

god I know Cod have you been following my tedious saga I can't face the thought of trailing round the schools again though.

charmkin

school is not childcare, no. but mum and dad are at work to pay the bills. most bosses aren't flexible enough to cope with staggered day lengths.

"kids who have just turned 4 are not the same as kids who are already 5." - really?
in what way? what magical thing happens when they're 5?

icod
who do i pay to have them? i have never used a childminder as i've never met one that I feel right about. my daughters have always gone to a small, friendly nursery, which I'm involved in helping to run. I trust them.

bundle
as an experienced teacher I can tell you that the autumn born children are much more ready for school than summer born kids.

There is a year's difference which is a fifth of their lives.

When the autumn born kids were walking, eating, talking etc the summer babies were new borns! Massive gap and it takes ages to catch up. The statistic is that summer born boys are less likely to get a 1st at university. So why force kids that are not ready into a system that they are goign to be in for years?

oH yes

cos their parents work.

( and before you start I worked and I got childcare)

cod does this mean that ds3 is starting reception then? Are you going through Chip et al for the 3rd time soon?

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But your ds is only on half days for 2 weeks - it would be a total PITA is that went on for several months as well as fairly expensive (one of the schools locally seem to chnage round the hours every couple of week so you would have to pay a childmider for a full day space).

here teracher visits local preschool couple of times

children go into class twice for a couple of hours

[parents go to info evening

then BANG start fulltime sept unless you make a fuss then you defer until christmas

nightmare for sensitive young dd - still only four.

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We had a new head of infants this time round so we could tell that she had cribbed the previous person's notes but congratulated her on getting through her spiel in half the time. She hates the public speaking bit but is great with the kids and parents 1 to 1.

I'm hoping that ds2 will get to grips with reading really quickly as I hate those one line per apge books that you have to go through. We didn't do ORT but had Jip the Cat and Meg the hen. Nothing as interesting as spotting pairs of glasses for us.

well because my ds as I previously said was August and they started 5 children a week starting with the eldest.

a) the youngest children were then being thrown into a fully fledged class some who had been there for 6 weeks.

b) The last structured thing that ds had gone to was the middle of july ie Pre school and had had the whole of the summer holidays at home, which is fine, but then the whole of september at home, not so fine, then half of october at home and by this time we were both chomping on the bit, then poor thing went straight into full school days = madness.

For children who were at the attached nursery there was a programme of visits into reception class during the summer term. They went into the school assembly every Monday morning and and had a couple of Friday visits. For the last few weeks they had lunch there.

Non nursery children were invited in for a morning.

There was a new parents evening in the June and a meet your teacher afternoon after school.

Then on the first day of time reception class went in a day earlier than the rest of the school.

OPtional half days fot the first week but no-one took that option.

my 4.5 year old is ready for school and her big sister was too (though hers was a january start, it was full time). they've both been at nursery for 3 full days since they were 7 months. you cannot seriously compare the difference between children as newborns/6 month-olds and the 4.5-5 yr old. some of the boys in dd1's class behave like reception children (they're in yr 2) but it doesn't mean they have to stay at home for half the day.

one friend had her daughter start at school for half days for 8 weeks, then do whole days..then it was christmas..so after the holidays she had to "start" again f/t. talk about confusing them, i honestly think a full day is best from the start.

We've got a parents evening next week, then she goes for an hour and a half on a day in July. The teacher visits the pre-schools in July too.

Then in Sept she does a fortnight of 2.5 hr sessions, either morning or afternoon.

From Oct it's 8.40 till 12 every day until Christmas, then after Christmas full time.

Oh there's a home visit by the teacher somewhere in that lot too.

I agree with Bundle - I honestly think its better to get them in from the start and doing a full day and then ensure that the environment is adjusted to their needs, than snatches of stuff here and there.

When I started school there was no phased introduction afaik. 'Never did me any harm' blah blah.

When dd was in her second week of Reception(ie, stay for lunch then go home) it took me half an hour to get her home because she had a massive tantrum at teh grand old age of 4.5. She just wanted to stay and play with her friends, poor thing.

I think I agree with phased intro., younger ones starting in January on hte whole though [undecided and sitting on fence]

yes but Mercy I bet you were a year older when you started school.
school can be incredibly tiring to a four year old, so I think full days are just madness tbh

Actually I went to school part-time when i was nearly 4 and was at full time school when I was exactly 5 (yes ok I am a September birthday).

And I am loads older than you so it's not an new idea

As I said, I'm torn between the 2 sides

Ours
Reception teacher visits pre-schools and/or the pre-school teachers take the children in for a tour of the school, a story and a bit of a play.

For the last month of summer term, children can go into the class one afternoon per week.

Parents meeting held during one of the above afternoons.

September - summer borns start the day after main school, spring born start 2/3 days later and the autumn born start 2/3 days after that. Autumn born do full-time immediately but only arse around in the afternoon unless they're at church (when in fact they mostly arse around).

Another parents meeting to tell us how to form letters & how often to read etc is held very early in the term.

Both DD1 and I were happy with it.