When to finish nursery before starting school

[mummydummyabc]

I have been asked what day my little one is finishing nursery before starting school. The Monday will be the August bank holiday and he is due to start school on the Thursday. What would you do? Would it help him get into the routine if he finishes nursery one day and start school the next? Would appreciate your thoughts!

Two questions:

• are you using nursery as childcare, in which case if you stop early what will you do?
• what are the reception settling in arrangements? If you haven't been told yet by school, don't assume they will be full time from the day term starts

I'd have personally thought a few special days together before he starts might be nice?

I seem to recall that children left my DD’s private nursery in dribs and drabs, some at the end of the school term in late July (if they had older, school-aged children and already had childcare arrangements in place for the holidays), and others at various points in August. By the time DD left, in late August, there were barely any of her peers left, so I’d imagine it’d be a bit odd at nursery in those last few days at the start of September.

I am using the nursery as childcare whilst I work. I had thought about having some special time at home with him that week, but wasn't sure what would help make it easier for him. He has always found returning to nursery after being at home during weekend/holidays hard. I am still not sure what the induction process will be like at the school. I was hoping to learn more about this before I tell the nursery about our plans.

Do you want to take some annual leave and have some fun days first? I don't think it will matter to him if he goes right up to the day before or has a few days off first. It's more about what you would enjoy and can you spare the AL. Keep in mind you'll have loads of school holidays coming in the next few years, so really you won't miss out if you don't take the time off. I did take a few days off before my dd started reception, but only because I had the annual leave and really wanted a few days off together to enjoy the summer while we still could. If you won't have a holiday club for school holidays though, I might save your AL. He'll be off for half term in only 6 weeks.

We ran nursery virtually up until school, to save AL for their part time start and to minimise holiday childcare in the first couple of terms of school. I took one day off before they started school (was actually an INSET) and took them to a pottery painting place.

I don't think there are any wrong answers really, but IMO children don't need a breather in between particularly.

I’d finish nursery on the Tuesday, have a special day together on the Wednesday then start school on the Thursday

Mine carried on attending nursery for a few weeks after starting school because school was part time. Some continued at nursery till half term for Sam reasons

In your place I'd take leave for the whole week and have a fun trip or two and a few relaxed home days before starting, then be there for drop off and pick up for the first two days.

It's a big time for them, it can be nice to mark it a bit.

I think you are right, maybe take leave for the week. Already thinking of ideas for nice things to do. I think I am more nervous about the whole thing than my little one!

Is he starting school on the Thursday though, have the school definitely confirmed this? DD's term started on the Thursday but they did a staggered start so a third of the new reception children started on Thursday, Friday, Monday. Then they were full time immediately. So in her case, I didn't work Fridays anyway so she finished nursery on the Thursday, was at home as usual on the Friday, and started on Monday. But if your school does something different you could spend ages faffing around start days, half-days, etc (you can insist they start full time if needed). If you don't know yet, then don't feel pressured to give nursery an answer until whatever their notice period actually is. Annual leave becomes very precious when you have school holidays to manage!

I would also check arrangements. We received a letter today about it and they don't start until the 9th and do 2 hours a day for a fortnight before fulltime

Definitely find out from the school what the start arrangements are.
He is very likely to not be starting on the first day of term for other pupils, and some schools take an age to settle them in to full days, so you might not have enough leave to be taking extra days before he has even started, when you don't actually need to.

Some definitely do start full time from day 1 though. Ours has just changed to do so, as the staggered starts were unmanageable for so many working parents, and children had often been in long day nursery in any case, it wasn't such a big change.

Stuck yes, but is that day 1 of the published term dates or day 1 of when the YRs start?

Typical round here would be everyone has the first day of term as an INSET, then YRs don't come in for the next 2 days while the YR teachers are doing home visits. "Day 1" for the YRs could well be the Monday or Tuesday of the next week, not the Thurs published. I appreciate it is not the same everywhere everywhere but PPs are just cautioning in case it is, as it would factor into her AL calcs.

I would contact the school to see what happens. Mine started a week into tne term as a few days where taken up by homega visits and then they whete staggered in over 2-3 weeks. At this point schools don't genuinely ly know when an individual child will start as they won't have worked out classes etc yet untill places are allocated after waiting lists etc. It's usually July when we find out.

Ours start full time from day 1, at the same time the rest of the school starts (publishes term dates).

Another vote for finding out the settling in arrangements before deciding. It might make more sense to take the first few days off as holiday. If he's only in school 9-10 you can spend the rest of the day together. Our school's settling in days went on for 2 weeks.

When DD2 started (10 or so years ago):

• our school started everyone together full time, but on the 4th day of term
• another local school had complicated arrangements of mornings and afternoons. Some children didn't start full time until half term!

In the first week of Reception, my children did half days - after that it was full time school. I have heard of other schools doing staggered starts and half days for quite a few weeks though.

MyThirdBestWig

Where we are it's full day for Reception from day 1 of term with all the other kids (after an inset day for all years, bit that's likely already included if it's a Thursday start). Am very sure of this as I'll have DS3 starting Reception this year, it was the same setup for ds2, though ds1 had 3 X half days first..

Totally agree with checking though! Hadn't realised some schools can have 2 weeks of soft starts though - how on earth do they think that working parents are meant to manage this?!? We can barely manage to cover all the school holidays, events and insets as it is

When DD2 went from nursery to reception, the local holiday club took children as rising fives and so lots of kids moved from nursery to the kids club as it was much cheaper for a day's care.

be aware they may want you to do short days for a while at school. I'd definitely take the week if I had annual leave, make sure he wasn't tired.