What happens after 16 April?

[cadburyegg]

Hi, just wondering what happens after we get our school place offers, when term starts again. I’ve heard that some schools offer transition opportunities, parents meetings, etc, in the summer term? Presumably the school gets in touch with us?

I realise different schools will do things differently but just hoped to get a vague idea of what to expect and what the next steps are... (other than getting school uniform etc), as it sounds like I might need to save some annual leave!

Thanks

You’ll probably get a letter from the school welcoming you and telling you what to expect.

Do save some annual leave as many primaries start with half days for reception. It’s not compulsory and you can request full time immediately but many schools do a fazed in start for reception.

If anything like our school though you may not hear for a few weeks as they wait until after offers have to be accepted and even the 2ns round of allocations. So don't panic if you don't hear anything.

Most of the kids going to the reception at ours will have come from the nursery so for our nursery kids they'll do a few slightly wonky sessions where they spend an hour in reception classroom and I think one where they go for lunch!! (they're on half days in the nursery). No idea if they'll invite new kids to that too?

For dgs1, the school sent a letter advising that the Reception teacher would like to come for a home visit and inviting him into school both on date to be confirmed in June/July.
The home visit took place early July and took about 45 minutes and the teacher arranged a date for him to visit the school. My dd stayed with him for the first 20 minutes then there was about 10 minutes admin/form filling then a welcome to the school chat from the headteacher for about 20 minutes then a final 10 minutes back in the classroom with her ds.
It did vary, some dc had more than one visit to the school, the dc already at the school's Nursery obviously spent more time visiting Reception, and some parents had the school visit on one day and the headteacher speech on a different day.

Save the annual leave for September, many schools do part time only for first few weeks. At ours it was 3 weeks but I know others that are up to half term. School visits etc are normally in June and July.

Yes, do check about 'settling in' period of part time attendance .

Fortunately, schools seem to be abandoning this, as it is so stressful on pupils (who find themselves in cobbled together, often unfamiliar temporary childcare) just when the DC would really benefit from the very start from the calmer new stability actual school routine and normal childcare.

You will be contacted by your school once you have accepted the place - please make sure you do that and don't assume they will contact you if you don't.

You will be invited to a parents' meeting and there should be a visit session for your child. If your child attends nursery or pre-school provision on site, then they will usually have more visits, and this may have been happening already.

If you have any questions, please contact your school as soon as you get the offer - they will be expecting you to, and if they have an online portal for the LA they will already have their allocation list, though it will be embargoed until Tuesday morning.

Btw, part-time timetables for settling in in September are not enforceable. Your child is entitled to full-time education from the beginning of term, so if it is a problem to get time off, tell the school your child will be attending full-time.
(Part of my job is admissions and several schools present parents with the part-time settling in period as a fait a compli, but it is not!)

Quite often you won't hear anything until they're getting into the post-Y6 SATs period - they tend to focus on getting that out of the way and then switch focus to the transition points for the next year/intake.

So the usual procedure is to spend a month or so agonising on MN about optimal name labelling solutions (we're due at least 3 name labels threads), resist the urge to buy all uniform stupidly early cos they'll only grow (unless you have people showering you with hand me downs the second school allocations come through), and just wait on it - they all tend to do some variation of a few gentle settling in sessions and a parents Q+A/meet the teacher type session. Plus in our local area there'll inevitably be the "my school is better than your school" shitflinging fest on facebook - but one school in our area is always full of parents slagging the other school off - so don't get scared by the horror stories if you live somewhere similar (both schools are really really good)!

Do not phone the school, you’ll mark yourself down as that parent before the ink is dry on the register. Imagine if all 60 parents start phoning!

You will be sent a welcome pack, which could be a sheet of a4 or a booklet, with dates to come and see the classroom and meet the teacher.

I’d also recommend following the school Twitter or site if you haven’t already, as you’ll find dates for summer fayres etc.

At ds's school we had - an evening meeting for just parents to attend, no dc. Then a couple of hours where ds got to go and meet teacher and some of the other kids and have a play in the outside play area. Then on another day a meeting with the teacher (took about 10 mins!) These two were fortunately arrangeable on my non working days otherwise leave would have been needed! You will need some leave for September too- our school had two days half days, some of his nursery friends had 2 weeks!
The school will most likely send you a letter explaining what they will want you do. May take a couple of weeks to come especially with Easter Hols! They will also send about 20 forms to fill in (only slight exaggeration!) and want to see birth certificate, proof of address and probably get some photos of dc to put on pegs etc.
If you need before/after school club make enquiries asap and find out when they need money (and a few more forms) handed in some of these fill up very quickly.
There may well be second hand sales of school uniform at the school so hold off on that till you hear.

Our school sends a welcome pack which contains of settling in sessions in the summer term... DD1 had three, one ‘stay and play’ with parents, one with her pre school cohort and one for everyone, no parents, and there was also a ‘parents evening’, where parents went without children to meet the teachers etc. DD1 started last September and DD2 starts this September so I feel like I’ve only just done it all and will be doing it again in a few weeks!

With my eldest I got a letter around June to go to an induction morning in July ( same day all the other classes go to their new teachers for the day ). Then we got all information then .

Do not phone the school, you’ll mark yourself down as that parent before the ink is dry on the register. Imagine if all 60 parents start phoning!

Please ignore this advice. If you have questions, phone the school - that’s what we’re here for. We would prefer you have all the information you need and aren’t worrying unnecessarily.

Thanks for all your replies. our preferred school does offer full time from the start, I’m not sure if that or part time would be better for DS.

Not long to go

We received a welcome pack, an invitation to go for school dinner accompanied by a parent and then a full week in reception in July. In September he was full time from the outset and settled really well, he hadn’t been to the nursery there and didn’t know anyone so the continuity helped. I imagine it’ll be the same for DS2.