Honest opinions please - Wrap around for year R kids?

Both my DC did wraparound care from reception 4 days a week, they enjoyed it - would often get annoyed at having to leave when I turned up especially on the occasional day I managed to get away from work early 😂. But it was at a prep school and designed for working parents so the days were longer anyway, lots of other children did before & after school, there was plenty of food provided (full English breakfast everyday at breakfast club - they didn't get that at home) and loads of different activities they could do after school.

So I think it depends a lot on both your DC and the wraparound care provided by the school - I think the quality can vary quite a lot which obviously has an impact on how the DC find it and whether they benefit from it or not.

Why would they not feel secure by going to breakfast and after school clubs? DT’s loved having breakfast with friends, extra football games and built in play dates after school.

I felt this guilt, went to pick DS up early one night from ASC , he cried because he loves ASC and didn't want to go home. He goes twice a week now, on the third day he does an activity instead with a provider who goes to the school. ASC seems to be playing, snack and then they put cbeebies on the smart board at 5. We usually pick up around 5 but it's open until 5:45 and there are other children there.

What does he do that means he can’t apply for flexible working - the legislation is there for these situations.

Mine absolutely loved going to ASC at that age. It was more time to play with their friends. They were never affected by tiredness. Now they are older. Y3 &5 they hate it and want to be at home. Different kids want different things

Reception kids are allowed at our asc

I would look at a cm. As she can then have him in holidays as well

What will you do for childcare for school holidays

2 long and 2 short sound good

Assume 5th day you don't work so can do school pick up

You'd be surprised how many of those inflexible 8-6, 5 days a week Important Man Jobs actually have quite a bit of flexibility...

DH aAnd I have both worked a compressed week since the kids were small. It now means we have an afternoon off each and do school pickups those days, after school club the rest, which has been a good balance since Reception. DS1 did 4 days in YR which was also ok - they adapt and a lot of schools take the after school club kids out before the other kids get picked up by their parents.

I honestly believe they do struggle, too long a day without a parent being there. I know that's unavoidable for some but it seems to stack up later on, it's just too much too young. They need to have as much time with a parent as possible to feel certainty and feel secure. My kids went and it was a disaster at times, I'd never repeat that. You can't get the time back.

DT’s (summer born) started full time nursery at six months and when they started school (didn’t do a staggered start), they went to breakfast and after school club five days a week. No problems at all - extra play time with their friends and lots of complaints if we collected them early and interrupted their games.

TA here. Yes they do get very very tired and After-School Club can often be too much in Reception. Before-School Club is usually fine though, in fact they often are more accepting of being dropped off for Before-School Club than they are for regular morning drop off time.

I work from home two days a week to enable me to do the school runs. The three other days DD is in breakfast and after school clubs. She's perfectly fine. I know for me personally i wouldn't want a working arrangement that didn't permit to do the school runs at least once a week. I work 9 to 3 on my wfh days and do longer hours in the week.

I would cut your hours. My DD started in September just gone. She found it very tiring. Her school won’t let reception pupils attend after school club, as they say it’s too long a day for them. It starts from Y1.

My GS loves before and after school clubs - he likes to play with the ‘big boys’ 😂

Thinking a little more - what's just as useful for us as picking her up on set days is that we have very flexible jobs. So we can go to all events (one of us at least), help with the odd trip etc.

Depends on the child, depends on the wraparound. We have a great after school club run by the same people who run her nursery, so she knows loads of kids there.

We were able to flex our hours, so we each finish in time to pick up one day and then work late the day the other finishes early. I'm glad we do that as I do think she benefits from us being at school, helps with tiredness, and also gives us some time to get homework done which can be a challenge otherwise.

But you'll be there one day anyway. If you can swing more then great but I wouldn't be compromising your finances or ambition for it.

It's nice to be able to pick up at least once a week so get to see the other parents a chat to teacher if any issues /have a play date etx

What are you considering doing

Working at home and finishing at 3 every day so all pick ups

Cutting down hours some days

Giving up work

After school club would be too much for my summer born Reception child. He did full days (8-6) at nursery last year but he's shattered by school. I work two short days to pick him up and then we have an after school nanny for the other days which has worked well for us. It's more expensive but cheaper than going part time. He doesn't go to breakfast club but I would be happy to send him. It's more the afternoon when he desperately needs downtime at home - this afternoon he even had a nap!

Do you have a partner ? If so please don't allow yourself after 2 maternity leaves to become the default parent. IMO now is the time to stand firm about them also applying for flexible working if you both finish early once a week and you keep your day off, then your Dd only has to go twice which I think is much more managble than 4 times. I would advise if at all possible for it to be tuesday and thursday so she never has to do more than one day in a row.

Apologies if you are a single parwnt this is obviously not possible.

In Scotland do p1 (6 months older than YR) and my boy loved after school club. He really needed to run about outside and our club was all about that. To be honest if I’d picked him up I’d have struggled to go to the park every day for as long as he needed.

It depends on the child, but my younger one did two days a week at ASC in Reception no problem. He did have his big sister there though which I think made a difference. I wouldn't have liked mine going five days a week tbh, so if you can easily afford it, I'd reduce hours. I've reduced mine recently too for similar reasons you want to. No regrets and it hasn't made a huge difference to salary after tax etc

My reception child started going after half term when I changed jobs. I didnt have to take him to breakfast club today as I had the morning off for his nativity - he complained!
It took him a few weeks to feel confident at school, so I'm glad I didn't have to put him in right away, but if he'd been doing long nursery days and knew other children in wrap around, it would probably have been fine. I think it depends on the child and the circumstances.
And sometimes it's just unavoidable!

I have flexed my schedule (still FT hours) so I don't use wraparound one morning and one afternoon. Partly for DC's benefit and mainly because I wanted to. I had the sylvan image in my head of a nice chat, doing an activity or something.

I reality, the variation to the schedule caused confusion in the early days, rarely ended up as beautiful as I'd imaged, and these days I get moaned at because he'd rather be at the wraparound. He's a summer baby and he's been preferring it to be since last Easter when he was 4y9m. I try not to take it personally...