My 5 year old is currently in year 1, for the past 2 terms his school have run after school clubs which were frequently described as first come first serve with limited spaces. They were only open to years 1 and 2 which I assumed was mainly to do with their being lack people to supervise the kids.
This term, however, things are different, they are now including all years but the vast majority of after school clubs parents now HAVE to attend with their child otherwise their child can not go and siblings are not able to attend. There are 5 after school clubs and only one of them if open to all children without parents although of course spaces are limited. The clubs, are cooking, art/craft, Lego, Eco and Gymnastics (gymnastics is the one open to all, I guess they don't want parents on their balance beams).
The reason we can't attend is that I have no one who can look after my 3 year old whilst I spend an hour at the school, friends who I might usually ask will be picking their own children during that time and my family are 45 mins away. This also affects parents who have to pick other children up at different times, the school has a nursery that doesn't finish until 3.30 so those parents will be unable to a attend with the children and the junior school next door also doesn't finish until 3.30. The school also wants the same parent to attend each week as they will be working on projects so you can not share it. To my mind the only people who will be able tatted are those with one child or those with access to family members and or other childcare they can call upon.
I tried to speak with the Deputy Head about this as she was the one that signed the letter but she became very defensive, her first response to me being that they don't have to run them, and the second being that they wanted to encourage parents who WANTED to engage with their children in a learning environment. There are plenty of things I should have responded to that the least of which being that it isn't about wanting to it is about those that can, sadly I am 14 weeks pregnant and my hormones ran away with me and I had to leave the school immediately before they saw me burst into tears.
I am aware the school doesn't have to offer after school clubs and I am very grateful they do so, but, IMO unless they can be fair they really shouldn't bother. Am I right in thinking that this new system is extremely unfair and has anybody else come across a system like this? Should I take further action if so what?
Thanks for reading (smile)
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After school clubs that parents have to attend.
24 replies
JustALittlePeacePlease · 27/03/2015 10:55
OP posts:
tiggytape ·
27/03/2015 16:18
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