MAG Getting out of school early.....

[Kate E]

I agree that that would be too much.

My DD was moved to a prep elite group at the start of year 1, the hours & distance from gym gym & the motorway we have to travel on (v busy) meant she would be late by around 1hr if we left school at normal time (x2 week days) I had a word with the head & she agreed my DD could leave 15 minutes early those days to get going before the traffic started...I hate doing it but apparently she's not missing anything because I did say I'd be willing to make up the work with her at home but they said that it's not necessary!
Come year 2 this September she's moved the next group up that starts 15 minutes earlier than her last one, yr 2 onwards finish at 3:45 (yr 1 was 3:25) so I'm not looking forward to telling them in September or her missing this much twice a week .. I know her school will be fine with her leaving that early but that's an hour a week missed!!!

 

[wallinbl]

Do all American schools finish at different times? Sounds a bit silly

Yep. Our schools are broken up into grades K-5 (elementary), 6-8 (middle/junior), and 9-12 (high/senior) (generally, though the exact splits vary in different areas). To save money, the same buses are used for all three levels. That winds up with staggered start times in order to allow the buses to shuttle everyone.

 

[Beau]

Aswell he is only in grade one i think that if he was older and made the decision that gymnastics is to be a career for him that dropping out of school would be less of a problem

 

[sce]

Yep. Our schools are broken up into grades K-5 (elementary), 6-8 (middle/junior), and 9-12 (high/senior) (generally, though the exact splits vary in different areas). To save money, the same buses are used for all three levels. That winds up with staggered start times in order to allow the buses to shuttle everyone.

On top of that many gyms kids from different districts and each district sets their own start and end time.

 

[MILgymFAM]

On top of that many gyms kids from different districts and each district sets their own start and end time.

Yup, and on top of that, some schools here- of the same level and district- have different bell schedules. Go figure. I know both of my DDs gyms pull kids from at least 7 different (maybe closer to 10) school districts. They obviously can't make everyone happy but they do make concessions when they have to. Traffic here can be insane and there are girls getting out as late as 4:30 from school.

 

[munchkin3]

too young......leave school and go ride a bike and learn to swim first....then around 12ish, spend as much time as possible in gym! right when they get awful!

 

[MILgymFAM]

too young......leave school and go ride a bike and learn to swim first....then around 12ish, spend as much time as possible in gym! right when they get awful!

Hey, that's what we did! Ha ha ha! Turned 12 years old- never though of gym in her life. Now, at 14, she's there 18 hours a week!

 

[raenndrops]

Yep. Our schools are broken up into grades K-5 (elementary), 6-8 (middle/junior), and 9-12 (high/senior) (generally, though the exact splits vary in different areas). To save money, the same buses are used for all three levels. That winds up with staggered start times in order to allow the buses to shuttle everyone.

Our district has the same grade splits as yours... but we switched to "single route" bussing, and the high school starts at 7:40, middle school at 7:50, and elementary at 8:00. There is only 1 bus that runs two routes (it is an "in town" route that takes 15 minutes for elementary).
I know of another district where ALL students are in the same HUGE building. They all attend from 8:00 - 3:00. Still another district has 9 buildings that each run on one of 5 schedules ... with the Middle School starting the earliest!

 

[twinmomma]

Our district has K-8 and high school on a traditional school year schedule. Our DD just left a gym that was in our district to a gym in a district where the school district is year round and block scheduled. Most of the girls on her team are either homeschooled or attend in the district. They also started last week where my DD doesn't start until tomorrow. There's just no way to make it work for every scenario. That said, our team practices at our old gym started at 3:30 and the new gym doesn't start them any earlier than that either. 2 would be ridiculous no matter where you were. There's not a single district around that lets the kids out that early.