Part time in reception

[glittersparklefairydust]

Has anyone sent their child part time in reception until they are 5? Just wondering how you approached the head about this, what their response was, which part time hours they did and what impact this had?

Many thanks in advance!

I did p/t until my ds was ready to do full days. I told them and they changed their policy accordingly. I was surprised how brazen I was but i knew it was for the best.

I think it comes down to the LA or Head T. In some areas the LA takes a really hard line about things like this. In others the HT does. At least where I live it is like that.

In Scotland I know parents who have flexi schooled in P1 with nae bother either in part days, or full days part week.

I'm not sure if a school place could be withdrawn if school wanted to really play hard ball?

Interesting, what about if the child is at school full time and I want to reduce the hours? From all the legislation I've found it seems it's the law that they can go part time?

You are right. Under the current Admissions Code in England it is your choice whether or not your child attends part time. The school and LA have no say in this at all, although some still behave as if they do. You simply need to tell them your plans. Obviously, it will work better for everyone if you go for a regular pattern.

You have the legal right to go part time until the child is of CSA (The term after the term in which the child turns 5). Some schools don't realise this or try to discourage it. I would tell the school what you want to do and discuss how best it will work (for example they might do phonic work in the morning so it would be better to go in the morning and leave before lunch.)

Yes - we are doing this at the moment. DS attended for mornings and lunch only until half term (we felt that establishing the routine of daily attendance from the start was really important so chose this in preference to, say, full days but with Wednesdays or Fridays off). After half term he started a mixture of full days and half days, to build up slowly towards full time some time during the course of the spring term.

Touch wood, it's working well. Doesn't seem to be affecting friendships - on part time days he stays for lunch and play time, so just misses the last 2 hours. And the school does phonics in the morning so he's not missing any core learning.

We broached the subject when we looked round. Attitudes vary between schools - in our catchment school the head was pretty much "over my dead body" about it, whereas we were pushing at an open door at our first choice school (which luckily, he got a place at) and they're vaguely surprised more people don't ask for part time attendance.

I did this with my son. I had to be very assertive about it which felt difficult at the time. It worked out well though. Did part-time all year he didn't seem to feel left out or anything.

@starpatch in what way did you have to be assertive? What happened?

Thank you to everyone who has replied. Those of you who have done or are currently doing this - do you feel your child missed out on certain things, for example library books changed in the afternoon, practising for the nativity in the afternoon (actually doing the nativity in the afternoon) and other random things that I can't think of at the moment - did you just accept your child would miss out on those things or was there any flexibility?

Hi there. I had some trouble with the headteacher not being keen and not getting back to me. I rang the early years lead in the end and it was fine. I don't know what they did about assembly practice actually, that's a good point. But in terms of missing things reception is just quite overwhelming anyway, I think my son did miss one trip, but he really didn't care at that age, he just wanted his day off.

@starpatch thank you, did your son just take 1 day off? Did he have any gaps in his learning as a result? Did he struggle with the transition to year 1 as a result?

@starpatch 1 day a week I mean!

My son missed daily collective worship / assembly when doing just mornings. This didn't seem to bother anyone, and anyway the noise and bustle of everyone in the main hall would have been in the "overwhelming" category to start with - one daily dose of crowds and noise at lunch was enough in the beginning. He also missed harvest festival church service (again, nobody was fussed). I have no sense of him missing anything else. However, the teacher is being v flexible and thoughtful about timetabling so that he doesn't always miss PE, for example, or nativity play practice. I imagine a school which was culturally less supportive of part time might well not make these sort of adjustments, if a parent insisted on p/t against the school's preferences and advice?

Hi, my son was four mornings (until end lunchtime playtime) in first term, then two full days and two half days for rest of year. He did okay academically. He did struggle with transition to year one but I think honestly that was because of robotic year one teacher he had, had to move him mid year one, he settled fine in second school.

My youngest dd started school as one of a cohort of 90! There was a bulge class.
Very sensible head teacher told parents that every child would go full time from day 1 if they wanted. If parents wanted part time just to say what they wanted, if kids were knackered, fine to take them out on a Friday etc.

@AJPTaylor 😱😱😱

With DS2 the school were very supportive of just not taking him in if he was too tired or just not feeling up to it (independent school). With DD we asked to take her out 2 afternoon a week for the first term, they said no and then we told them we were taking her out for two afternoons a week. They then said yes! They decided which were the best two afternoons and we went with that.

@underneaththeash what changed with their decision?