To think schools should get with the times re working parents.

Schools aren't childcare. Schools also think that at least 1 parent doesn't work for the times they set for stuff. Not their fault as teachers have a life also but it's a bit grating to be given a week's notice for a parents evening when you have to book AL 4 weeks in advance.

Glad I'm over the school stuff me.

Some do.

In a boarding school.

Maybe the OP should try that

Heck, just trying to teach them after lunch is nigh impossible for many.

You've clearly never taught.

They're children. Not adults. And they don't have the attention spans to be 'learning' for longer days than they already do. There's a reason primary schools teach core subjects (Maths/English) in the mornings and save 'topics' for afternoons because after lunch, most are 'done'.

Childcare and club options need to be in place in schools run by specialist providers. Teachers need those hours to plan and mark and do specialist training they're required to do. They also have families of their own.

Maybe jobs could try to be more family-friendly?

Which I am sure would improve life for both mothers AND fathers?

Quite. I really don't understand why so many parents these days seem to think it's ok to leave ALL the care of their children to school staff. A parent dropped their child off a bit late the other week, came in via the office, and said to me "his socks got wet, I've brought some dry ones, could you ask his teacher to put them on him?" I couldn't hide my shock at such a request and wasn't ashamed to reply bluntly "No, YOU can put them on him before he goes in." Which she did, looking a bit taken aback. It had taken me all my strength to refrain from adding "because YOU'RE his mother." The same parent has been in before asking us to give her child breakfast because they got up too late and she didn't have time. More than once. And no, it wasn't that she had no money for bread or cereal.

I mean, if you're going to have children, bloody PARENT them. Schools are there to educate.

& I suppose OP would like to end the concept of school holidays, as that's an inconvenient use of her time?

@working8til4

Who says it has to finish at 3

Try teaching little kids past 3pm & then see what you think about longer days.

Teaching is a profession. Teachers are there to educate children. They are not there as child care / babysitters or whatever.

FFS. Why don’t people understand that??

@working8til4

They can but DO THEY?

Well maybe husbands need to step up & share the load. You're directing your annoyance at schools rather than men who won't get involved.

I think staying in school so many hours would be quite a sad childhood.

No, schools should NOT be open 8-6. I don't think that ANYONE, children or adult, should be at an insitution for 10 hours a day 5 days a week. I just don't think it does them any good. And personally that goes for nurseries too, although I know that lots of parents DO put their baby into nurseries for that long every day because they have no other option, but is it any good for young babies to have barely any waking hours with their family except for the practical care such as getting ready in the morning and getting ready for bed?

Instead, what should be happening is that employers become more flexible towards working parents as they do in some European countries. Or there should be proper funding for more quality wraparound care - away from the school environment.

Clearly anyone who thinks that schools could be open 8-6 every day has never worked in a school and has no idea what goes on behind the scenes that parents never see.

Maybe workplaces need to “get with the times” re work life balance

Wrap around care is needed for working parents.

Parents can be male or female.

Changing it for 'gender inequality' reinforces gender inequality imo.

No one is saying it's ridiculous.

They're saying the steps needed to 'refine' it are complex and hard and not always possible.

I'm a nurse working nights, so actually I think schools should open 24/7 as I often work weekend shifts too.

I work till 10:30 at night can schools have kids till then? Some people start work at 5am so school might as well have kids 24/7

Why should all kids suffer because some parents can't get their act together. School and afterschool care are two different things. After school they can play, relax, watch tv... either at a child minders or in school. It really isn't the same as concentrating on lessons.

Its simply too long a day for the youngest children. They should be sleeping 10-12 hours a day. If they are at school 10 hours, travel 30 minutes, need dinner and bath where is down time? Might as well sleep at the school.

people are not all saying it’s not the schools’ problem, many schools do provide out of hours provision. However there is not the demand in all areas to make it viable, it’s another thing to staff and organise and it’s going to be expensive. Private schools obviously have the money and there are lots of commercial provisions. Until the government organises and funds out of hours and holiday provision it won’t happen across every school, but it will cost and who will pay at a time when we can’t adequately fund actual education for all children. Raising taxes seems to be an unpopular election pledge!

This is true.

Additionally, the situation in 2024 is a pretty new thing. Or at least, it doesn't look like it did in recent years. Which is the appropriate comparison here, because of course nobody in like 2015 made their TTC plans based around availability of wraparound childcare decades earlier. That would be absurd. The whole childcare sector is really struggling.

My kids are at secondary now, but when they were at primary we had a system exactly like the one the OP is talking about.

Breakfast club and after school club staffed by people that were not teachers.

Some of the staff were independent people just employed for that purpose, some were the dinner ladies and TAs who I guess wanted to earn some extra money.

I was on the after school club committee for a while. They were financed by the fees parents paid for their kids to attend.

However there were limited spaces and a waiting list for certain days due to the number of staff.

I'm not sure why some posters are deriding the idea as simply ridiculous. It is possible - it just needs refining.

For me that’s my old response. Now I’m just getting pissed off.

You might have four years to get your head around it but there still won’t be many feasible options for coping with it. That’s the reality. It’s really hard to find childcare if there is no wraparound provision at school.

Well I was a nurse working 7 am till 8 pm.
So obviously 🙄 school should open at 6 and close at 9 pm 7 days a week to allow my travel time, being late off duty and shift pattern .
I'm not expecting nights to be covered see how reasonable I'm being.
Or you just do what everyone who can't do " normal hours " work flexible hours do
You sort out your childcare

I don't think anyone is disputing that there should be available before and after school care. What is being disputed is that this should be the responsibility of schools to sort out. We are not childcare providers, nor should we be sourcing private childcare for parents. Because , what would inevitably happen when external providers can't be sourced or drop out ( as they would when it is simply unviable to run) is that it then, by default, becomes another issue that schools are having to deal with themselves- along with social care, mental health care, parenting and a whole host of other activities ( toilet training, teeth brushing to name but two) that have ended up our responsibility as services are cut to the bone elsewhere. Simple things like referrals for medical diagnosis which used to be the responsibility of GPs are now down to schools( the referral form for the community paediatrician is 19 pages long,) we do hearing referrals, speech and language referrals and therapy, occupational therapy referrals and follow up therapy, you name it, it has become , by default, schools responsibility. Wrap round care is just one more to add to the list. We would quite like to teach !