Class leak

[Jackiestars]

Hi. I am new to mumsnet. I could be just an over protective mother and maybe thinking too much off it.
My little one has been in nursery last year - 8.30am to 11.30.
This year she starts reception full time. School started on Wednesday and we were informed they will do half day Wed and Thu and then full time from then.

Wednesday was fine, however, Thursday morning we had a message from the school stating school will be closed for Nursery and Reception due to a roof leak. We got another message later on the day to inform us school will be closed on Friday too for both Reception and Nursery and on Sunday they will let us know about Monday.

Today, we got a message telling us the roof has not been fixed and Nursery will be off until further notice. However, Reception will be back in but in the school hall. So my worry is how will the kids settle, isn't it making the transition harder for such young children? As they are jumping straight to full time and will not be in their classroom. Am I right to be concerned or is it just overthinking?

What do you expect them to do? They have found a solution whereby the children can attend.

That's very unfortunate as it is indeed disruptive for the children, in terms of settling them in. However, what choice do they have? They've already had them off for two days. It's better for them to be in building relationships with the staff and making new friends, even if they can't be in their actual classroom, rather than keeping them off for even longer until the roof is finally fixed.

The school are damned if they do and damned if they don't. Many will feel like you, because it's definitely not ideal, but they'd have even more complaints if they kept them off for even longer. In the circumstances, I think they've made the right call.

Well the school hall is the lesser of two evils really it's either that or they keep them off for an unspecified amount of time like nursery are which is even more disruptive.

It's not ideal but given the circumstances they don't really have many options. The children will be fine and hopefully the roof will be fixed soon.

I don't envy the poor staff tomorrow morning though if all parents are as annoyed as you when dropping their children off about something completely out of the schools control.

Blame the underfunding of school properties. It took months and being escalated as far as Prime Minister Question time for my DDs old Primary to recieve the essential finding, by which time the cost to mend the damage had reached over a million pounds

It's not ideal to be in the hall, but most children will probably be fine. They will have the same teachers, peers and toys. I imagine they have gone straight to a full day to minimise disruption to parents who work etc. They might have made plans e.g. have TAs from other years 'on call' if needed e.g. if children are upset.

My DS started with ongoing building work, which meant no free flow to the playground for the first 6 weeks and not able to use the separate playground for Reception at lunch time. The classroom was smaller and temporarily had no windows, as they were boarded up. It wasn't ideal but it didn't bother him, as he didn't know any different.

Settling in sessions are over the top for most dc in my opinion. You can explain to a 4yo the roof is broken. It’s unfortunate but just a blip.

Thank you! :)

Quite a few of our local schools changed their transitioning policy following covid because they found that the much quicker transition worked much better for children. So hopefully you’ll find you are worrying needlessly and all will be okay.

They are doing their best and will do what they can to make it work. They've prioritised getting reception back in over nursery as they're learning and settling is more important. My DD's classroom flooded a few years ago, thankfully they've since demolished the old school and built a new one.