Starting Goodrich primary school

[Trish]

My daughter is due to start Goodrich school in September and I'm trying to work out how I might juggle my working hours around school hours, but more specifically the settling in period. I've got an afterschool club sorted out but does anyone know if Goodrich do a breakfast club? And my other question is whether anyone knows what the settling in schedule is like at Goodrich? My colleagues at work (with children in other London schools) have had to pick their children up at lunchtime for the first week for example, whereas others have had a month of two of their children attending school for only the morning or afternoon each day. If this is the case then I need to work out how on earth I manage this. It would also be great to know if there are any other full time working parents out there who have similar concerns? I wonder if we can help each other?!

[BeccaL]

Goodrich don't have a breakfast club but they do have an after school club on site run by Gumboots. The settling in period takes (I think) 2 weeks where they start off only doing mornings, then do lunch, then do full days. If you need to know, phone the school office - they're pretty good at that sort of thing.

[Gubodge]

Last year the settling in period was one week or less. The children's start days were staggered so a child starting on the Monday had 5 days of being picked up directly after lunch, but a child starting on Friday only had one short day. The 2nd week of term was straight to a 3.30 pick up for all the children.

Whether it will be the same this year I don't know, and will presumably depend on how they think it worked last time round.

[Trish]

I just telephoned Goodrich and they said letters will be sent out early July to advise of the settling in period but last year the children didn't start 'full time' until the middle of September. So my assumption is that we could expect 2 weeks of random attendance.

[Dorothy]

My son's first full day in Reception at Goodrich was on 15th September, so he had only a week or ten days of settling in. This was in 2008.

[jaw]

My little one isn't at Goodrich but at another ED school. We both work and due to where we're based we are unable to drop off or collect. We were fortunate to find an excellent childminder who does this for us - and helps during school holidays. Although she had been at nursery full time starting school was v tiring for my daughter - it's quite a different environment to nursery. I'm not sure that she would have coped with an after-school club in the early days - I felt happy knowing that she was in someone's house. A childminder could also help with the settling in period. I hope this is useful.