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

The problem as I understand it is that wrap around is often full!

I believe what OP is meaning is NOT for teaching hours to be extended but to ensure all schools put on the wrap around care with enough capacity for those that need it! The wrap around is often run separately, rightly so.

im worried that my closest primary school (10 houses away) advertises wrap around care (great we thought) but then I joined their Facebook group to scope it out before we apply for schools and the wrap around is full and not guaranteed, even if you signed up for the waiting list before being offered a place at the school!!!

Local 4-18 private school day is 7:20-5:30 with breakfast club and supervised play for the younger kids. Maybe something like that should be a state option (at extra cost). It doesn't have to be lessons after 3pm but games and sports would be great.

Kids at school 8 to 6? I suspect you want them to have only four weeks off a year too, to fit with your annual leave?

That’s house read a full time working mum .

@Gladtobeout

I said it wasn’t a bad hourly rate because it isn’t. The ones I use are more expensive and have at least 25 dc but I’m in London so didn’t want to assume it’s the same everywhere. There are about 7 external providers at my dcs school, why would they exist if they didn’t make money?

I'm so with you!!!

As a SAHM it doesn’t really matter what time school finishes as you’re not dashing away from a job to get there.

I think school should be 8 to 1 pm like it is in some countries so children actually enjoy their childhood and I say this as a full time mum to 3

If you choose to have children you accept the challenges that come along with it. Even non-parents know school is 9-3 so know that if children come along they'll have that to manage for their younger years.

We have zero family help at all, it's all on DH and I, and we've made sure we juggle it so that neither child needs to do wraparound full time.

DH earns over double what I do and still does half of drop offs and pick ups - he's never seen his job as "more important" than mine. We just juggle each week depending on each other's diary and commitments at work. Your DH might save lives for a living but he's a parent and it's a bit shit of him to put it on you because of his job. Also, the flexible working guidelines have changed since April and it's much more difficult for an employer to refuse because of the needs of the business".

It's not always easy, no one is saying that, but forcing children to be out the house from 8-6 every day isn't the answer either. Not all schools have space for extensive OOS provision - teachers are still in classrooms way after school finishes prepping for the next day so classrooms aren't a viable option.

I also don't just want any Tom, Dick or Harry looking after my children just because they're the only ones who applied and they needed someone for the job.

YABU. But I think a 4.15 rather than 3.15 finish would be a massive boost to working parents and the economy.

Yes....my husband does a majority, and there are quite a lot of dads who do school runs at my daughters school 🤷🏼‍♀️

Odd that you think adding 4 hours onto a school day is a better option than women asking their children's father to pitch in!

It really doesn't. £8 × 20 = £160 gross per session. Running 5 days a week for max 36 weeks a year (rarely run 1st or last week of term) is an annual gross of ~ £28k. Tax, NI, insurance, hire costs, resources, travel, public liability, admin, advertising, free trial sessions, training, dbs/first aid courses/ safeguarding courses, mandatory qualifications and registrations.... They barely turn a profit. You certainly couldn't earn a living wage from after school clubs alone.

Sadly OP school is for educating children and not to provide childcare for parents. Unfortunately, that's what lots of parents seem to think it's for.

The education system is designed for the needs of children, not parents. Being taught for such long hours is certainly not beneficial for children.

I'd maybe direct your frustration elsewhere, rather than wanting to add additional workloads onto schools.

If anything, I think children need to be with their primary caregivers more.

@Nat6999 when did your mum fit in sleep though.

External providers don't benefit much from a 1hr after school session once you've factored in travel time/admin costs. What kind of business can be successful only operating 1hr a day!

Plenty, otherwise they wouldn’t exist! It’s not a bad hourly rate when you are charging £8 plus a session for 20 plus dc and doing it 5 times a week at different schools.

@Nat6999 and how much sleep did your mum get? Was she healthy? My mum did nights while Dad did days. We were put in front of the TV with videos on repeat and a box of snacks so she could get a couple of hours sleep in the morning. She can't have had more than 4hrs sleep a day. She was not particularly healthy and I would put money on it being sleep related.

YABU - school is not free childcare. It's somewhere children go to be educated. And 8-6 is a disgusting amount of time for children to be expected to be there.

It's not lack of imagination. It's an understanding of the education sector as it is and the fact, after school clubs cannot recruit for love nor money!

External providers don't benefit much from a 1hr after school session once you've factored in travel time/admin costs. What kind of business can be successful only operating 1hr a day!

The only ones I've seen work are where the sports club hires out the school hall/field whatever for 2 or 3 evenings a week plus a weekend to offer a club. But even then, a child can only attend 1 session and it might not even be a 3:30 session so doesn't help parents needing childcare.

We left for school today at 8.15am, I didn’t spend much time with dc in the morning as they were getting ready and I was putting on a wash etc. They scooted to school so they weren’t by my side. Picked them up from school with their friends as Fridays is normally a play date. They pretty much ignored me for hours apart from when they couldn’t find a particular snack. Tmw one has a sports match & in the evening DH & I are out so dc are staying over with gps. On Sunday one wants to go to their friends house before we go away. I obviously don’t spend all my time with my dc (nor does DH) but my dc are happy, know they are loved & imo I don’t think we need to spend all our time together. I get 8 woks holiday but my dc often go to a holiday/sports/activity camp for some of the school breaks. It wouldn’t cross my mind to say no because they aren’t seeing me enough!

How about huge corporations are actually required to pay tax and then that pays for more staff. It really sucks we just accepted the govt propaganda that they can only hire more staff in these roles if taxes go up.

Ooo. I hear your side 💯. Modern living and the demand for there to mostly need two incomes, really heaps lots of pressure on. Especially as childcare is expensive.

But I think most kids would be miserable spending this much time at school. I think potentially it also would be counterintuitive to learning.

I don't think extending the school day is the answer. The cost to provide all those teachers alone is unfeasible. I also don't see things getting cheaper or life becoming less expensive. I imagine more children will be in the wrap around (paid for) care.

Does this only apply to mothers with careers? Because many fathers have careers and no one tells them that they must make a choice between career and parenting.

I work full time and still see my child plenty.

There’s a distinct lack of imagination on MN tonight. A school is essentially a building with children in it. There’s no reason those children cannot be in it for a longer period of time…breakfast club, homework club, sports clubs, film club, board games club, book club, drama club, crafts club. There are endless ways to entertain children on school premises.

And it doesn’t need to be free because the education is free. It could be outsourced and paid for by parents. I know schools which already do this for paid-far sports clubs so the process and precedent is already in place.

It makes absolute sense to align the school day with the working day.

Yes I think you would have hours across the board to suit more working people than you do now and even extend the hours a business or service is open to serve people that would have to otherwise book time off for example.