Letter informing parents about the closure of after school club

I do laugh when people say they wfh full time but spend an hour at each end of the day doing the school run. You’re not working full time then are you?

People have different patterns and flexi hours though. And the only people I know with an hour school commute are those with dc in private.
DH doesn't start work until 9:30 so can drop the dc off & be home before he even starts work. Mine often do a club when it's not needed for childcare purposes but because they want to do the extracurricular or spend time with their friends.

I guess it depends on the area, and the working patterns of the parents. The breakfast and after-school club where I work is always full and making a vast profit. Not sure about my child's one, but it's nearly always full.

Are you claiming Tax-Free Childcare? Does the school offer it as a payment choice?

Also more wfh post covid & many parents will just put their dc in front of tv etc whilst they continue working to save money.

Sorry my post should say £20 not £30.

It depends on the demographic of the school. We have a lot of parents who don’t work, and many grandparents who pick up. Our school is less that 150 pupils and our ASC has less than 10 most nights.

These things vary so much by area.

Some places have more extended families, others are commuter towns where people are less likely to have strong links. Parents in the latter are more likely to have informal childcare options if needed. In some areas the largest local employers are shift workers, in others the 9 to 5 is more common. The rate of adults on out of work sickness and carer benefits varies significantly by postcode. The most affluent places will have more families with nannies than the poorest.

There are all sorts of factors that mean one size doesnt fit all.

I have a job I do every day, working full time, but can do a school run on my lunch hour 🤔 Not sure why you think that isn't possible. Then deposit the kids with their nan/their hobby/the other parent who has then finished work.

I'm sorry your job doesn't allow you to wfh but that's not everyone else's fault!

Yes, this. Our cost is significantly under the national average because we know that even what we currently charge is a challenge for some of our parents.
Every single month we discuss staffing Vs children to make sure we stay in ratio but maximise places. We haven't raised prices in 3 years as we try to make it as accessible as possible but staff costs keep rising so we will have to do so soon.

Our after school club is £30 per dc (but you can get tax free childcare) & It's full.
Is the school in general under subscribed?

I get that it needs to be financially viable however I’m surprised that they don’t have enough numbers to run it. My daughter attends a tiny school (less than 80 pupils) and there is more than enough pupils needing it as both parents work

I laugh when people think nobody can ever work full time with a different pattern to them.

Working full-time doesn't mean working Monday to Friday, 9-5. That's a pretty outdated view of work, tbh.

If they've got people who actually want to, yes as long as the ratios work. But that's not a given.

If there's currently school staff who have DC at the school, either they finish when school does or their DC are cared for by someone else while they finish their hours. A TA whose kids go to a childminder for an hour doesn't necessarily want to do ASC for 2 or 3, even if it means they no longer need to pay for after school care. Maybe they have other commitments, their DC have clubs, or they just prefer them to have a shorter day.

We pay £5 in greater manchester, until 5pm!

It’s quite normal for ones not based in schools to collect children from nearby schools

£8.50 is ridiculously cheap. We pay £15 in a working class town in Yorkshire!

Sounds incredibly very cheap. I am in a different European country and it’s €50 each day

Yes someone up thread said that.
I've never used them so didn't realise.

Our after school club is empty too. Lots more parents working from home and picking up kids on their lunch break. Cost of living is so high any savings on childcare just have to be taken.

If they wanted extra money though could they not let the staff’s kids attend for free that way they have childcare but can earn extra money?

At the primary where I used to be governor, the after school club ran at a loss.

Can’t believe there are after school provisions that are Empty or undersubscribed?!

people in your area must either not work, have a lot of grandparent help or there’s a lot of childminders

I do laugh when people say they wfh full time but spend an hour at each end of the day doing the school run. You’re not working full time then are you?! A woman at my kids school does this and she has been asked to go in office one day a week and she tried to say she was being discriminated against as a mother. Try having a job you have to actually go to every day!

They are offering nannies and are very expensive.

Like others have said, they consider this very carefully. They may need more staff if there are more kids. There can be increased wear and tear on premises, they may need to provide more resources, snacks, drinks etc. All of this has to be factored in.
A lot of schools are also very mindful of the impact of rising prices on parents. I’m a governor at a primary school which runs an in-house wraparound care provision. It’s uber flexible because we have a lot of parents working shifts but it was losing money. After discussing with the business manager, we decided to ring round the other schools to find out what the going rates were. Ours was the lowest by some considerable amount. They had held back from increasing prices because they worry about losing families (as undersubscribed and money is tight) but decided on a modest increase that brought them closer to the average but they genuinely agonised over this. Please don’t think they're just increasing prices to milk parents dry. They’re doing it because they have to. Schools are horrendously underfunded - an average school spends over 80% of its budget on staff and aren’t usually given extra funding to pay for annual pay rises. So less than 20% goes on everything else.

Also, because Koru Kids use students, their availability changes all the time as they suddenly get told they have a seminar at a certain time or are required for a careers event. We tried looking for a nanny through them, but it was a non-starter as noone we spoke to could commit to being available for certain hours until they had their timetable in early October, then said it would change again after Christmas.