private school holidays/childcare arrangements

[olliebird]

How do working mums manage with kids at private schools. I'm thinking of sending my 2 sons (3 & 6) to private schools, but am alarmed by the long holidays, worked it out at 20 weeks per year in all. How am I going to manage to work in a normal job? Anyone in this position, especially interested how you manage with teenagers.
My parents would have them, but not for 20 weeks per year!!!
This is making me consider teaching in a private school. My other option would be accountancy which would be better after they leave home etc.

[LIZS]

let me know if you solve it as currently can't even get my head around finding a job to fit in and be financially viable with childcare etc.

[Ladymuck]

Vaires by age, but combination of childminder (for younger ones), holiday clubs, au pairs (when older), self employment and part-time working.

[Lolly68]

20 weeks??? Why so long? Are all private schools like that?

[Ladymuck]

I think that we get 18 - 3 at Christmas/Easter, 8 in summer, 4 for half-term.

[Lilymaid]

Teenagers - I worked 3 days a week in office, one day at home. All holidays taken during school hols. Did swops with friends, arranged to do more home working in holidays, DH works nearby and came back at lunch time if both he and I had to be in the office that day. DH also took time off during holidays when I had to work and did some work from home.
DS1 wasn't into holiday clubs/sports courses etc but did go on a few PGL weeks. DS2 spent most of his hols on sports courses.
We have managed to get through without either DS getting himself into trouble or burning house down.

[LIZS]

Think ours is around 18 weeks, state schools are about 13

[NoodleStroodle]

At least DS will be at same school - I have DC at two different schools - so both have 2 week half term in October - but this spreads out over 3 weeks! And this sort of thing goes on all through the year...

[Lolly68]

Well I never knew that. I want my DD to go to private school. Will have to really investigate the implications now.

[olliebird]

At what age in the teenage years does it cease to be an issue, eg at 16 would it make much difference to them if you were working 3 1/2 day week during the holidays - would they prefer it?.
just trying to work ou the number of years this will be a problem. So if it is between ages 4-16, this represents 12 years of my career which will be a 25-30 year career. So should I put the career first and get someone else looking after my kids or take the second rate job option that would be working term-time?

[alibubbles]

20 weeks sounds a lot!

I look after the children of teachers at 4 different independent schools and the most is 17 weeks- Habs being one. The teachers get 16 because the other 1 is made up of the inset days at the beginning of each term.

State school have 190 days a year teaching, 38 +14, again one week is for the insets and staff training.

[WakeUpCall]

I work 22 hours per week, usually 9am - 1.30pm. In the holidays dh has the children in the morning and drops them down to me at 12pm when he goes to work. I go in at 8am during the holidays to finish earlier. It just sort of works out.

[stealthsquiggle]

Ollie - check if the school do holiday clubs. A lot do because they know this is a problem, and because they can make some extra money out of their facilities - the holiday clubs can be expensive. There does seem to be an assumption that if you can afford the fees you can afford nanny/au pair/whatever - but we certainly can't and I am trying to work out what this summer's patchwork of childcare is going to look like!

[Lilymaid]

By the age of 16 they only want you to be in the house in order to give them lifts, bail them out financially and to have meals ready and washing miraculously turned round in an hour - last two requirements obviously not necessary if child has been house trained!
At 12 or 14 though I think someone needs to be around at various points in the day or they have to be encouraged to be involved in activities (for secondary aged children it doesn't have to be 8 am to 6 pm as they can generally go by public transport or wait to be collected by others to and from activites as welllook after themselves at home for a couple of hours).

[nannynick]

I work as a nanny for teachers at private schools. I get 16 weeks holiday, so not all private schools will have 20 weeks, though certainly most will have longer than state schools - as I think the reason is due to private schools doing more teaching hours per day.

Schools tend to offer some childcare facilities these days, such as after-school clubs and holiday clubs. So using a holiday club may get you through some of the weeks.

You may be able to find a school holiday only nanny, not sure many exist. Certainly as I nanny term-time, I'm often looking around for things to do during the holidays. Could be worth exploring with local nanny agencies.