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?

At DDs school they now do whole days right from day 1. If a child is struggling or are particularly tired any time then the parents just talk to the teacher and they can go home early, etc if required.

When DD started they had 4 settling in days, finishing at 11:30 two days then 12:30 after lunch for two days. They have scrapped this now.

My friend has her DS starting school in September (different LEA) and he has to do half days for the first term til January because he is a summer born child - nightmare logistically for working parents!

Erm, at our school until the end of Reception you basically turn up as and when you/your child feels like it. If you want them to do 5 full days from the off, fine. If you want to keep them on mornings only for most of the year, fine. You can tell them in advance, or just let them know on the day if you want to give your child an afternoon off or take them out for a week. God knows how they cope, but it's great for the parents and the kids IMO.

Our School
1st week: 1 morning 9.00-11.30
2nd & 3rd weeks: 2 mornings 9.00-11.30
4th week: 5 mornings 9.00-11.30
5th week: 5 mornings 9.00-12.00
6th & 7th week: 5 mornings 9.00-12.45
then its half term
After that its younger ones go at 12.00
older ones stay all day until January

Bear in mind that the majority of the children starting at this school have been doing 9.30-2.30 (or 3.15) at nursery/playgroup for a year.
Its a pain for working parents.

nothing very much here
you get to go into the playground with them on the first day and I think they may end up going into the classroom about 5-10 minutes later
pick-up as normal
need to have meeting with teacher sometime in first week but it's nothing really (they want you to sign a couple of forms)

but mind you their look round the school meeting was such a waste of time last time I didn't bother with it this year

At our school not only are they moving some children (mine included) into reception 7 mths early so they can get as many new starters as possible but they go back on a monday and do

9am till 12.45 Monday and Tuesday

Then go full time all day everyday which i thought was bad when we got the letter but reading how much time everyone else is getting to settle in it makes me feel very sad that hes getting thrown in at the deep end bless him.

The school in our village has a mixed nursery/reception class. Children can start nursery the term after they are 4. They do two terms of mornings only - 8:50 until 11:30 and then depending on when they are born, one, two or three terms of being all day. So the youngest ones are only in reception and have only one term of being full time.

DS is a November birthday and so had 5 terms in this class. I have one term off and then DD starts there after Christmas

some of these look an absolute nightmare
presumably in the school of the OP if your child had a first September birthday they are breaking the law

I presume non of these crazy schools blink if you take your dc out for the day for a trip to legoland or whatever

Ds was in Reception last year. Full days from the off and no other option.

I looked this up ages ago (I'm the one with two dd's who were part time for two terms - you'd have looked it up too!). From memory the legal requirement is full time in the term following their 5th birthday (assuming you're not home educating).

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

I'm sure the teachers will be sitting drinking coffee and clock-watching . After all, there can't be much else to do.

Ours is very simple.

The Reception children are invited in for an hour the day before term officially starts to meet their teacher, see where their classroom is, etc.

On the first day they start at 10.30 rather than 9.00, but finish at normal time.

Then it's straight into regular hours (although regular hours do include having Friday afternoons off).

Wow it's all totally made up isn't it?

Ours is

1st week - (Wed-Fri) mornings or afternoons (as parents prefer)
2nd week - full time if parents/teacher decide child is settling well, mornings or afternoons if they need a bit more time
3rd week onwards - full time

I think this seems quite sensible and for individual children to be taken into account.

I honestly think if summer born children are only going to be part time for 2 terms they should be allowed to defere starting reception until the following year.

Zero. Term starts on Thursday so the first week is just 2 days.

Reception start with everyone else 9-3 full days.

But is very little school so it's a fairly gentle environment anyway.

I am relived though as I work P/T and it has been bad enough coping with the holidays.

We had the split Jan / Sept start, which seems to me a much more sensible approach than all this fannying around with bits of days. Both children then had staggered entries, with six kids starting at a time, oldest first. But my children were both at full time nursery, so the school day was shorter in any case. As working parents I would just not have been able to do all the silly stuff, and would have been inclined to say that they would start full time or not at all (ie skip the fiddly days). We had variation amongst our friends in the same area, so it's not even LEA set, just the school's decision. All the children settled in fine regardless of the set up, and they were all very tired, so I don't see that it makes any odds.

dd1 starts on 7th Sept and she has

2 weeks of 12.50-3.20 (half the class as the other half doing 8.55 to 11.25)

then 1 weel of 8.55 - 1.35 (the first week of the whole class togetehr plus they stay for lunch)

Then full time (although they can be flexible on this if you have a summer born)

However dd1 is going to be 5 on her first day at school and would love to stay all day but the school has a 90 children intake so can unserstand why they do it like this

My son's recpetion setting in arrangements are pretty much as the OP sets out in her post. And TBH, I'm gad about it. My son has been in pre-school, but not attached to the school (there isnt one) and will ony know a couple of children in his class. Plus, he's ony just turned 4. Anything that makes his transition to school easier is fine by me. And even for chidren who have been in full-time day care, school wil be a different beast with new routines etc and lower staff/chidren ratios so I'd assume they benefit too.

I can understand that PT regimes can be difficut to manage if you work. But I think it not ony heps the chidren, but aso the teachers get up to speed on 30 new chidren if they can deal with them 15 at a time at first. (At my son's school the younger chidren do mornings and the older ones afternoons). Ultimately this benefits the children too.

DD (summer born) will be stright in full time one week after the rest of the school (when teachers have finished home visits)

Ds school is really complicated.

Mon/wed/fri one week alternating with tues/thurs the next week which goes on for the first half term. But with half days on wednesday. Then a friday afternoon added on to one week. Then I think they do full time, but wednesdays stay half days till a random day in november.

Days start and finish at different times to the rest of the school and they start a week later. Classes are split into halfs. They're not allowed school dinners till god knows when.

Luckily they've given us a list of what they're doing on which date so we have something to refer to.

I'd prefer straight half days to be honest - at least it would be the same several weeks on a trot.

This is not till next year for me but have already looked up anticipating probs:
2 local schools - 1 they all do mornings (850-1130) till christmas then all full time, the other they do mornings (same time) till christmas then full time IF born before christmas. If born after they are not full time till Feb half term.
My DS does 3 days full time (9-4) nursery so i think 1.5 terms half time is going to be odd for him. Quite apart from the problems it gives me - had hoped to go back to work but actually school is giong to be far harder than nursery to deal with (and as a teacher I can't take annual leave when I want, although I appreciate that holidays are easier!

half days for a term. dd acrtually ended up doing half days until Easter as she found it all too tiring. Hoping now she goes into Y1 she will manage full days!

DS2 started reception last September and did Wednesday afternoons (1 till 3) for the half term before he actually started school. On the last afternoon he and DH went at 11:45 and had school lunch. This meant that come September he was comfortable with the routine,teachers,dinner ladies etc although there were only 12 reception children.Even so that first week was a bit of a shock and he was so tired he fell asleep at story time!

I'm a reception teacher and all my class (including the poor little soul who turns 4 next week) will start full time 8.45 -3.30 on the first day. I have had children transfer from other LAs who still haven't been full time at Christmas.

mrz - interesting to hear that not all schools go for the gradual approach. Presumably you find it OK settling them all in at once?

I know the Head at DD's school quite well and am still trying to decide whether to try and put across to her just how difficult it is for the summer-born children to hang around for a month, waiting to start school, deprived of playmates because all their friends are either still at Nursery or settling in nicely elsewhere. (Because ours is the only school locally that seems to go in for quite such a late start - with summer-borns starting a whole month after the beginning of term).

(We've been through this before, with DD1, who was also summer born, and it made her very stressed )

We don't have any real problems some will have a few tears, while mum is there, but usually stop pretty quickly. Some may need a little cuddle or want to stay close by an adult until they feel more confident but that's to be expected. Lunch time can be upsetting for some when they see the nursery mums collecting younger brothers or sisters but again a cuddle can work wonders.
It's usually the mums who worry all day rather than the children