Starting School

[GemM83]

Question?!!

My DD starts reception in September, she will have just turned 4 in the August......does she HAVE to start part time or can she go straight in to full time?

Shes had full days of nursery with no naps for over a year, so is very much used to the long days and to be perfectly honest/selfish it will cause absolute havoc part time as I work full time as does DH.

Is it a parental choice or is it set in government stone?

Thank you

 

[kbwebb]

My DD has attended the schools nursery and is now in the schools reception class.

When she started the schools nursery They did a week of 9-11 then a week of 9-1 and the following week they did the full 9-3. Im assuming if your child will be going part time to start with that the school is doing this so that everyone in the class can settle together as some children may not have been in childcare previously?

If it is that the school is doing the part time hours as a way to settle everyone, could you pay for them to go to before/after school clubs to help with your working hours? we have a afterschool club on the school grounds here, which only charges £1.75 per hour.

 

[lau86]

Our school doesn't do part time though the younger ones do start a week or so later. Check with your school I would say

 

[george83]

My son started full time too so think it depends on what the school decide

 

[Sealion24]

It depends on the school, my eldest started last September and went in full days straight away and started the same day as the rest of the school went back!

 

[pompeyvix]

I am sure it is school dependent. My daughter had a week of mornings, followed by a week of afternoons before going full time on the third week. I was on maternity leave so it wasn't a problem, but I have no idea what we'll do when my son starts in 4 years time! There was no option to send my daughter full time to school and after school clubs wouldn't have worked in the first two weeks as when she was on mornings she would be finished at 11.45am. She'd then have to go somewhere until the after school club starts at 3.15pm.

 

[wildflower79]

DD did mornings for the first week (half of reception went mornings, the other half afternoons) and there was no option to start full time.

Then the 2nd week she did 9-3 which was just a few mins later/earlier than normal hours, just so they weren't coming and going when it was really busy. The 2nd week I think the kids that were used to doing the school run, if they had older siblings, could do normal school hours.

 

[Eleanor ace]

It is school policy rather than government legislation. At my childrens school they just go straight into fulltime. I have friends whose children go to other local schools and do things differently (mornings for a week, then mornings + lunch for a week, onto full time is a common approach and a couple of schools stager the children so that a few start each day over a month (staggered by age and the other one stagers by alphabet). My friends DD did mornings for a while and was able to go to the school preschool (which she'd attended before) in the afternoons, an option they allowed as lots of parents couldn't manage a month of only working mornings. It was quite unsettling for my friends DD but I imagine some kids were fine with it. Might be worth approaching the school to ask whether they do the same, or offer an afternoon playgroup (I've heard of this too) or something.