Reception settling in arrangements - what are yours as ds's school seems to have ridiculous arrangements

[Iamnotanuglyhag]

Ds starts reception in September. For the first FIVE weeks they go only 8.50 til 11.35!!
That's only ten minutes more than he did at preschool. Now for a week or two that would be fine but five weeks!!
They then have a week of an extra hour and then go full time the week before half term.

From a personal point of view this creates havoc with my work but generally I find it ridiculous. Surely 95% of reception starters have been to some sort of nursery or preschool? I'm sure a week or two of mornings only (and hey proper mornings would be nice not 2hrs 45) would suffice for settling in.

What is the teacher going to do every afternoon from 11.35 for five weeks?

Would the council have a minimum expectation of hours after the first week or two (albeit I know there is no legal obligation for them to be in school at this age) given they are providing the funding?

Rant over but am I the only one with school settling in arrangements for their dc like this?

My DCs reception class arrangements (DD just finished reception) was every other day for the first fortnight, then full time. This seemed reasonable as the class was a big one and it allowed the teacher to take a smaller half size group for the first fortnight and get to know them.

Your DS's school arrangements do sound a bit mad tho...

Our school does
1 week of mornings 8.50 til 11.30.
1 week of afternoons 1.00 til 3.00.
1 week of mornings 8.50 til 1.00.
Then in full time 8.50 til 3.20

DS started reception last year. From day one he did 9 till 3.15 everyday.

He did fall asleep twice in the first term but within 2 weeks of starting school he knew the routine for the full day and was fully settled. He is the kind of child who like to know what is happening when so full days really suited him.

My friends who sent theirs to schools who did settling in all said that it was ages before their children were settled at school.

ds went for half days (9-12) for a full term.
It was a pain ito childcare, but I think it helped them settle slowly & happily into school. In fact, it was a positive factor for me when choosing schools - I think they go too early to school, anyway...

Crikey that's a bit spooky. I was only thinking this evening that no one had started a 'what is the school thinking?' thread regarding staggered YR starts.

This time last year there were dozens. You've probably opened the floodgates now OP

Ridiculously convoluted here, too.

1st week 9-11.30
2nd week 9-12.45 (stay for lunch)
3rd week 9-1.45
4th week 8.50-2.20
5th week full school day 8.50-3.20 subject to school feeling happy about how child has settled in.

Such a palava. Thankfully my DS is an 'older' reception child. The 'younger' ones do a whole term of this fannying about before going to full days.

at our school the summer babies:

start 2 weeks later
2 weeks 9.00 til 1pm

then full time

it used to be until 12 but I think they have recognised that staying for lunch is a big thing to get used to and a great social free play time.

i think they work on the premise that not every child has been in childcare, so they work towards the two kids who never have rather than the twenty that have

Probably right@bigchris.

The silly thing with our school is that out of the 29 places in reception class, 26 are kids coming from the nursery class attached to the same school - the room next door, in fact. It's going to be a big change for them, yes, but it doesn't warrant this huge palava, in my opinion.

I need a bloody Excel spreadsheet to keep track of what time my DS starts and finishes each day/week!

at Hocus.

So, so far I have the most ridiculously short days/ long settling in period for this year prize. Lucky me!

I am thinking of shopping them to the council. What will the teacher who they are paying for do for all these weeks where she only has the class for less than three hours a day!?

Winter born - start the second week of term, full days.

Spring born - start the third week of term, full days.

Summer born - start the fourth week of term, half days. Full days after half term.

Which means DD2 - summer born - doesn't start school till 29 Sept. And I'm facing four weeks of dragging her to school to drop off her sister, then dragging her home all confused because she knows she's starting school and is raring to go .

smithagain with dd3 she flipped and couldn't cope with the not starting so they let her go in with the spring borns even tho her b'day is 28th August. Part of me hopes that dd4 pulls the same stunt, but hopefully after our trip to Legoland!

you're complaining about 5 weeks part time? dd1 and dd2 both had two TERMS of part time!

older half of the class - afternoons only (1pm - 3.30) until Christmas, then full time

younger half of the class - mornings only (8.50 - 11.30am) until Easter, then full time for one term

this is reception class, so for those becoming 5 in the ext school year

and as for when they start, the first two weeks of term they do home visits, so no reception children in, then they stagger them so a few start each session. dd3 will be starting Thursday 17th September.

last year we had a week of mornings, a week of afternoons then all day from week 3

DS was full time from day 1 and loved it from day 1. He settled very quickly.

Our local does

3 weeks mornings
3 weeks lunch and afternoons (no school on wednesdays as they have wedneday afternnons off)
then full time mon, tue, thurs and Fri, 1/2 day wednesdays. Wednesday afternoon clubs may not be started until Easter term!

6 of ours start first day full time, then the next day the next 6 children, then 6 more the next day, until all 30 children are in - winter born/summer born, regardless.

I think we've been lucky, both the schools I've had a dc start reception in have been full time from the first day. So useful. The 3 dc have all been absolutely fine with this too.

"What will the teacher who they are paying for do for all these weeks where she only has the class for less than three hours a day!?'

She'll be working within the school, ours certainly has planned lesson cover to release other subject co-ordinators.
So in the morning she has her class, and in the afternoon she will be covering other classes either for an hour or an afternoon. She's also doing all the course coverage, I've got two Moodle afternoons, so she'll have my Y5.
It will be the same for other Reception teachers in the same situation.

Dead simple with our school

dd went first day from 9.15am (so after the morning rush) until before lunch (12pm).

Second day (which was a Friday) from 9am until 1pm (after lunch).

Following week - 9am to 3.30pm (full time).

And that was that.

Another year to go for us, but our local school has all children born after March doing 9-12 for the first term (which is an hour less than the pre-school session).

Ours is nice and simple.
Reception start two weeks after the rest of the school. Intake is staggered over 3 days.
One class has the older children (Sept to Feb birthdays), the other has the younger ones so the day can be tailored according to their needs. School is quite flexible about days off for tiredness.

That's it. Seems to work OK.

I work in a different county to where my children go to school. Where I live, the LA introduced a rule last year that all children must be fulltime by the end of Sept. My children's school ignored this and allowed children to start fulltime at their own pace but this is the first few weeks for all:
Weeks 1&2: 8.55-12.15
Week 3: 8.55-1.15
After that, it was arranged with parents.
Where I work, they have a bizarre, complicated system which involves half the class doing mornings only for 1 term with the other half only afternoons, then they switch. Some children (the oldest maybe) are fulltime very quickly. I am unsure how it works. Sorry, that was very long and very unhelpful.

Ours are doing whole days from day 3 onwards this year because it was so confusing for parents (and teachers) last year!

Our not so local school is doing a similar thing so that some children are not going to school at all until the last week in sept...our local school (which dd is going to) is starting everyone on day 1 full time with the disclaimer that if any child is upset etc then they will have to be picked up...