Letter informing parents about the closure of after school club

They did this at our school and numbers are better and it’s thriving

Our primary had to close breakfast club then afterschool after covid. So many parents worked from home or flexed their hours that there just wasn't the demand

There’s no such thing as water tight childcare. Where should the money come from to fund your after school child are needs?

I think nationally tho, especially with the roll out of the new funding from 9 months there are very limited spaces and the childcare sector is struggling for various reasons.

I’m lucky to be able to compress full time hours to 4 days so I do a set day in the week of school runs and my friend also does a day a week. Another day I start later and do the morning and then she can leave at 2pm having started early (she brings her kids to me at 6:30am!) and collect them then mine do the childminder 2 days same 2 days as hers but it’s a real juggle.

We’ve made it work and it won’t be forever we keep telling ourselves but it is difficult.

I don’t know what the answer is really.

the head at our school said ideally we need 20-25 kids at each session (£6.50 breakfast) then £8 afterschool to make it viable with paying staff and covering costs but I think starting mid year in January could be problematic as people have themselves sorted now and perhaps trying to re-launch something in the September would be better?

Interesting thread

At my kids school, the ASC is £16 - and it's expanding, more and more parents are using it.

We hybrid work as do most of the other school parents we know and we all still use the ASC. But we all have busy and not especially predictable jobs. And TBH my kids much prefer it to having to keep out of the way while I finish up work.

Yes, that too. Some have 2 sets available, one drives 5 hours across the country fortnightly to help.

OP- Sorry to hear there’s not been much notice. That’s tough.

I hope ours doesn’t shut. They are incredibly useful for ad hoc/emergency situations too, often more reliable than other parents when understandably things can fall through if their own child falls ill, etc.

I absolutely agree it sounds similar to where we are.
people just look for alternative options for how to make things work.
There are also a lot of grandparents doing school runs here too to help out.

I expect ours will shut soon, our numbers have declined sharply. The reason numbers have decreased so much are:

• Stay at Home Mum does all school runs.
• Parents who both work from home alternate doing the school runs/both do it together. They often schedule a break to do the afternoon school run and spend time socialising with the SAHMs at the park before logging back on. SAHMs sometimes cover the odd work phone call during these social times if one does need to pop home.
• Mum works in the evening when Dad is home so she can still do the school runs/be there after school.
• Mum or Dad is a taxi driver or driving instructor. That’s very in at our school, as it’s flexible around the school day.
• Part-time working parents share after school cover for each other in the form of a reciprocal play date.

This happened after Covid for us - so many people went to being able to work from home and have more flexible working the primary school said it just wasn’t viable.
I help a friend and she helps me, we both have flexitime and I have a childminder 2 days a week as she is rammed otherwise I’d use her more.
the school wraparound sounds expensive but when you work it out it probably barely covers the wages, equipment/ craft or art materials, food and drinks they serve.

they have talked about opening one again but only running it 3 days a week. I’m on the school PTA we ran a survey and tried to identify which days people would use and only about 2-3 people said a Friday for example but lots of people said Monday/ Tuesday/ Wednesday and so they are considering trialing it for 3 days a week, but I’m reluctant to loose my Childminders space incase it shuts again and my boys are year 5 and year 6 so only another 1-2 years of wraparound needed anyway and my partner is a teacher so is about for the kids all of the holidays.

I think once these free breakfast clubs are all rolled out they’ll be an influx If it’s free but if people have 2-3 kids it gets quite expensive.

2 weeks notice is terrible tho they should at least run until October half term to allow some time for people to put other arrangements in place.

Yep-uptake is so low as so many more families are able to work flexibly now.

Within our school community, many households have at least one person WFH who can do the school run, then let the children play/watch telly with a snack in the other room. It's saving them a fortune.

Wow there is so much difference in cost between ASC’s. I used to work in one and it was always difficult to staff as not many people want to work 3-6pm foe close to min wage. Our one charges £5 up until 4.30pm and then £7 for 4.30-6pm, which seems really cheap to me. I think it runs at a loss though and some kids places are funded by the school. Not sure how long it can continue for.

We have just stopped after school care due to costs… when I went to pick my two daughters up previously they were often the only ones there. What do people do? Surely nowadays most families have two working parents and not only school hours? Why is uptake so low?
(I am lucky with a flexible office job so I am currently picking them up in the middle of my day then sticking them in front of tv and going back to work… )

@Jimmyneutronsforehead I have no idea who came up with the phrase "walking in a crocodile" to describe walking in pairs in a line but it's a really old phrase.
I might have to Google it's origins because I am curious now 😂😂😂🐊

Since Covid the way families work and use childcare has changed. When my 16 year old was at primary school lots of families used breakfast club and after school club permanently, most days a week. You booked a space for the term and paid regardless, lots of kids were dropped off at 8am and picked up at 5.30pm or even 6.

Now more families work flexibly, work from home. Few people want to commit in advance and risk paying for a day they don't need. ASC club offers many more options, pay on the day, ad hoc booking, pick up at 4.15pm. Working parents want to just be able to cover a meeting occasionally but not have regular, daily care.

Also my 16 year old's year was 75 kids, my 8 year old's year has 27! ASC isn't viable anymore.

This happened at a school I worked in - they had a big meeting about it and during the "well I only need a Wednesday so I wouldn't want to pay all week" chat a large number of parents ended up doing play date swaps so the whole thing never happened.

The school went from 50/60 families "desperate" for it to be set up to 5 families signing up.

Hmm... our school mooted a wraparound club at £7.50 for 45 mins... originally had about 50families express interest before the holidays.

Arrive back at school in September to get ready to go ahead with it... 3 familues committed to it. It is simply not viable.

We have a lot of families who work from hime, have at least one parent not in work for whatever reason, grandparents, friends collecting children favours for friends etc... once commitment was required people were not interested.

I’m at a single form entry primary and the wrap around is busy. There was a bit of moaning when they made it a flat fee for 3-6 as a few years ago you could pay for an early or late session. However, I’d rather have provision and it be financially viable. We’re on. £17 at the moment for the 3-6.

Totally forgot about this point too. DC primary is outstanding. It was always oversubscribed, with a 2 form entry. There were 32 in a class in KS2. Now they only have one class up to year 3. Only years 4-6 have two classes. So in not very many years, the school roll has dropped by half.

If there’s several parents who need it, you could club together and approach the school and see what they would need you to pay to make it viable.. it might be people are prepared to pay more!!! X

Ah, thank you. I've never heard anyone call it a crocodile line before but that's so cute.

Time's have changed a lot since I needed ASC, there was no support in getting from A to B back then.

Given they also collect the children from school OP, I'd he happy to pay double especially if it was a price that meant the longevity of the ASC.

Lol. I used to run an after school club.

A few things -
Legal requirements - more children = more staff = more costs

Parent values - you should be fully prepared to pay for the care of your child. If something happened, you wouldn't think twice about suing them, but you want the staff to work for a pittance whilst caring for your loved and cherished children perfectly.

Not the clubs fault - a service costs what a service costs. If you can't afford it, that's tough, but you can't just cut costs.

Used to really, really get my goat. Parents complaining we charged too much when coming in with expensive wine in their bags. And it was always the better off parents who moaned.

They're collected and walk down in a little crocodile line.

Worth pointing out what the drop in births does too.

I couldn't find UK wide school year figures, but the kids who've just left primary were born in 2013 or 2014. In England and Wales there about 700k births in each of those years. The new starters were born in 2021-1, when it was about 620k. I know there were also drops in Scotland and NI. That's a huge difference. It's reflected in school rolls, it's also going to be reflected in wraparound.

How are you supposed to get your children from school to the ASC down the road if you're working and that was the entire point of using the school ASC.

I was paying over £500 a month for two kids to do breakfast club and after school club for 4 days a week! I think WFH has massively impacted this provision.