Constant changes frustrating for parents

Journalist Scheenagh Harrington, whose three children go to a Catholic school in the Tarn, was hit in an unusual way. “Our school kept its four-day week despite the change but that posed its own problems,” she said.

The MJC activity centre they relied on stayed closed when schools opened on Wednes-days. “We suddenly had no childcare Wednesday mornings – we had to work and had no local family network to take up any childcare slack.

“We were lucky. My husband and I are self-employed. We work from home and have understanding clients so we could juggle our hours. Had we still been in the jobs that brought us to France in the first place, things would have been much more difficult.”

Her sentiment was echoed by reader Matt Evans. He said: “I’d prefer it if they just stuck to one schedule rather than constantly changing it. We just get our work life planned around our daughter’s school and they change it all again.”

Heather Oakley, from Ille-et-Vilaine, said that being a stay-at-home mother when her children were younger made life easier. “But I would have preferred a five-day week,” she said. “As school buses picked up at 8am and didn’t get the children home until 5.35pm, it was a long day!” She added: “With all the homework that they got, they needed Wednesday afternoons to get it done.”

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