Starting in reception - will yours be going in for half days initally and how will you manage it if you work?

[spokette]

My DTS start reception next week (boo-hoo) and they will be going in for half days for the first week. Fortunately, I am able to log into work from home so I will be using a mix of homeworking, leave and DH plans to take a couple of days off too.

One of my colleagues also has twins starting school and they will be on half days for 3 weeks. She and her partner both work and they are really struggling with how they are going to manage, especially as they cannot work from home. I feel lucky that we only have one week to manage this.

Was wondering if this was an issue for others? Another colleague told me about her local school where the reception children are on half days until half term! How do they expect working parents to manage this?

[serenity]

DD starts on the 3rd, but she's one of the few that does....

They do 9 until 12 until the end of September, then 3 days where they have lunch and finish at 2, and then they're all full time from the 3/10. However, the children don't all start at the same time - they 'feed' them in 6 at a time, every couple of days. I'm very lucky that DD is starting the first day, because she would have been very upset if the DSs had gone back to school and she hadn't! Some of her friends (from the nursery) aren't starting until near the end of the month.

The parents I know who work still have systems in place from Nursery, I have no idea how the new ones will cope tbh.

[hellywobs]

We had 3 weeks of half days. The first week was mornings only and my husband took the week off.

The second week was afternoons only (nonsensical - they're tired before they even get to school) and my mum came for the week.

The third week was mornings with lunch so his childminder took him to school each morning, I worked each morning and got to school by 1pm to collect him.

I was very glad when he went full-time!

[Oliveoil]

I remember last year when dd1 started doing mornings/afternoons for 2 weeks

dd2 was at afternoon playgroup from 1pm

so one week I did

9am drop off dd1, come home with dd2
12 noon, collect dd1, come home with both
1pm drop dd2 off at playgroup, come home with dd1
3pm collect dd2, come home with both

[spokette]

Marslady, do you feel that you have made it to the other side fully intact with the twins? I do(lol)!

[MarsLady]

Spokette.. our DTs are starting school at the same time. Sigh...

They go in at 11am on the first day and then straight into full days. How happy am I!

[islandofsodor]

We have the option of half days for the first week but when dd started no-one took up that option.

So ds will start full days straight away. Most children will have been to full time nursery anyway.

[Slubberdegullion]

dd1 starts next week and we have a system where by I will be in status agitatus until october.

2 days of afternoons (next thurs and fri) followed by
1 week of afternoons
followed by
1 week of mornings
followed by
monday and tues off
followed by
wed, thurs, friday full time
followed by full time.

The other half of the class do the opposite iyswim.

Thank the good Lord I am a sahm. Women who work must have raised blood pressure with such a carry on.

[ProfYaffle]

My dd1 is on half days for a whole term, I don't work so not a big deal but still a pita with all the other stuff we have going on atm. I don't know how working parents cope with it.

[mrz]

We have just installed a "cosy area" with a mattress pillows and covers for those children who feel the need to get away and take a nap.

[mrz]

I'm a reception teacher and ALL my children are FULL TIME from day one even the just fours (we have a single intake in September). spokette it has nothing to do with paperwork/assessments the idea is to ease the children in gently because in the past most children only attended nursery for half a day and it was often a huge shock to small children to have to stay in school for 6 hours + many of them found it very tiring (riven's daughter isn't alone in having afternoon naps IME).

[Anna8888]

cece - interesting.

My daughter did half days last year in her school here in Paris - she also had a half-size class. Most schools start out with full days (from the year of a child's third birthday) and full size classes - so up to 30 children for 6 hours a day. I was very happy with 3 hours in a class of fewer than 15 - but of course that meant that parents/grandparents/nannies had to be available for the rest of the day. Most parents here use school as childcare.

[LucyJones]

I can understand it when kids were just a home with their mum's all day and it would have been a huge upheaval
But now that the majority of children go to playgroup 5 sessions a week on their own the term beofre they start school it does seem a bit pointless

[spokette]

Cece, thanks. I did not know that.

[spokette]

The school has not told us about the training days either so that is not great for working parents who need to book leave/plan childcare.

I get the impression that some of those running schools don't realise that many children have parents who both work.

[cece]

It is to do with funding. Schools don't get full time funding till the term they turn 5.

[Dreadfulwoman]

Haha, ok, maybe not! Mine does 10pm to 8am, which means I get a nice cup of coffee in the morning and a tidy up before the storm hits!

That's true - why do they do it? And why does it change from school to school - it's obviously not statutory if it is different for every school within the same area?

[spokette]

Why do they do it though? I can understand half days for a couple of weeks to help the children acclimatise and to provide reception teachers time to do their paper assessments etc. A whole term of half days seems indulgent of schools imo.

[LucyJones]

Same trouble here with me and dh having to take leave. Can't have a family holiday this year as we can't have leave off togther at the ame time.
what annoys me more is that on 22nd September there is a teacher training day - fgs!

[posieflump]

said they couldn't give us the leave

[posieflump]

me and dh only have each other to help out
I only work 2 days so it's just 2 days we have to cover for 3 weeks
first week dh is on leave for those 2 days
2nd week I'm on leave for the 2 days
3rd week both of our work said they could let us be on leave as too short staffed so we told them no way round it and all we could offer was me be off in the morning and dh off in the afternoon so they both have us for half the day

tis crap not having family around to help