JacquieL Posted December 29, 2004 Share Posted December 29, 2004 Our school is changing the day after xmas beginning at 8:50 and finishing in the am at 12:30. We start again at 1:10. My problem is that the nursery finish at 11:30 and restart at 12:45. As we are trying to integrate for part of the day (nursery and R) and we have been having our weekly planning meeting at lunchtime, our times are getting further way from each other. My HT has said that i can have an hour for lunch finishing at 12:10 but I got the distinct feeling that she wasn't madly keen about that.What do others do as i know that the 3 session morning is very common in schools now? Our Nursery and Reception are different sides of a corridor with only the Nursery having outdoor access. We have been trying having a 'free-flow' hour several times each week which the children really look forward to. Staffing has been difficult as there are 3 rooms and outdoors and 4 staff so one in each area and if students are in they help out as well. My NNEB also does ELS with Y1 for half an hour each day so she disappears. She also disappears for PTA meetings. I know this one is an 'old chestnut' but would welcome comments and suggestions, especially how people run timetables to include literacy and numeracy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Susan Posted December 29, 2004 Share Posted December 29, 2004 EEEEKKK! I can see why you feel demoralised Jacquie and I am not sure I have anything positive to say but this move is not going to make the integration of nursery and reception any easier. Are you sure you could not persuade your head to allow you to move in the other direction to become more aligned with Nursery? How will your reception children manage with this very short lunch hour? Although dinner time is often one of the hardest parts of the day for Reception, cutting the time to just 40 minutes will also be very hard for them and for you as teachers. We had to shorten our lunch time to 1 hour from 1 hour and 15 minutes, to conform to required teaching hours and it was surprising how much more stressed everyone became. If this time change is going to happen, as it appears it will can you not arrange to somehow use the outside area during the nursery lunchtime, at least you could have some sole use time without interruption and continue your moves for integrationand free flow as have you have been doing. I would imagine that by 11.30, the Reception children will be ready for some outdoor activities that are perhaps less demanding than focused tasks inside? Good luck, I will be interested to hear how you get on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted December 29, 2004 Share Posted December 29, 2004 Jacquie my head is spinning - What time does your day finish. Hope you have given your parents the notice required when changing the start and end of the day as well as hold a meeting for parents this is statutory. You can read about this here My Webpage You are also required to give parents adequate time to take children home for lunch if that is their wish. As a parent I would argue 40 minutes is inadequate. I would agree with Sue's comments about making the sessions fit in with the nursery pupils, I think reception children are ready for Lunch at 11:30 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magenta Posted December 30, 2004 Share Posted December 30, 2004 That's going to be a very long morning Jacquie - I agree with Susan by 11.30 the Reception Chn. will need a break! Doesn't help with the intregration though! We run a FS Unit - Nursery chn. finish at 11.15 and Reception at 12.00 so we use that extra time/space/staff for smaller family group activites. You obviously wouldn't be able to do that but as our Reception have 1hr 25mins lunch we are able to. Good luck Jacquie, let us know how it goes! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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