How to cover school wraparound?

[GreyishDays]

I have gone back to work recently, all good.
However, need to work on the childcare side of it!
After school club is £16 per child and there are two children. I was only planning to leave them there till five which makes it really not worth it.

Anyone do it cunningly?

My work is totally flexible.

I have so far thought:
After school club, but leave them there till six to get money’s worth but I don’t really want to do this.
Breakfast club instead.
Try and organise a regular play date on the day one child has a club straight after school.
Ask if I can work from home 1 day a week to save commute time. Maybe attempt to work another half hour when they’re home if they’ll watch tv.
See about a child minder instead.

Anything else I’ve missed?

Well if you can leave them in club until 6pm could you work longer on those days so work shorter days and avoid club altogether on another day? I work 30hrs and when DD starts school I will be doing 2x8.5 hour days and 2x6.5hr days so I only need wrap around on 2 days rather than 4 which would be the case is it was 4x 'normal' 7.5 hour days

Do you know any teenagers that could collect them and look after them at home until 5 ? Certainly wouldn't cost you £16 a day, but the payment you agree with would be appreciated I'm sure.

Oh that’s a good point. It’s £32 for both. 😲

I do have a childmindery babysitter who might have an afternoon or two free.

Yeah Talcott I could. How do you manage mornings, out of interest?

Childminder charges by the hour so I’d look at that

I did similar to Talbot. My DH took them to school two mornings, so I could start early. We still used after school but think it was two evenings rather that the three that would've been needed.

Is the breakfast club cheaper? I'm increasing my work hours in September (I'm part time) and the breakfast club is cheaper so I'm going to put DS in that, get to the office early and then I can be back for pick up time.

Any family members/friends who wouldn't mind doing one pick up a week?

I do longer days 2 days a week, dd has a club after school one day so I leave early to pick her up at 4.30. I wfh one day a week, nip out and collect her, and then carry on working for another hour (ish) while she stares at her iPad.

I go in really early one day a week so can leave early to pick up from school. My husband works late that day... And finishes early enough on Friday to do pick up. So that's two covered. We both do long days when at cover after school so can sort out others days. I often work from home another afternoon driving home during lunch. They go to breakfast club each morning as cheaper than after school. Do you get a discount for 2 ? Could you swap with a parent so you pick up one day (both sets of kids) & they do another?

Do the easiest thing that you won’t need to stress yourself to reschedule during school holidays. In your circumstances that would be childminder.

It just seems like such a balance of ease/what’s nice for them/money

After a big gap to look after children and a career change my new public sector job is not well paid.

When you say ''organise a regular playdate'' Is this with a friend of yours (fine) or will it be with another parent acquaintance that you hope will just look after your child for free? (not so fine)
Unless you intend to reciprocate on a weekly basis.

Obviously reciprocated on the play date.

Oh @GrumpyHoonMain I’m missing the school holiday reference. Not actually thought about holidays yet.
So are you thinking a childminder would do full days in the holidays?

We use an after school childminder (we have the opposite problem - after school club is cheap but shuts at 6 and we don't get back until 6.30!). In the holidays she does full days for us where needed, originally we were on a term time only contract with her but I've returned to work on a 52wk contract rather than a 38wk one and so we need her then too. We pay £5/hr, so £50 per child per day. It's expensive whichever way you cut it.

Honestly a childminder would be your best bet. Mine worked out cheeper than after school club (£3.50 ph rather than £15 for after school club) also meant I had cover in the holidays.

I paid my childminder a set amount per month that took into account the cost for a full time place after school and full days in the holidays. So instead of having cheep months when it was just after school care and getting a massive bill in the summer months / months that had holidays in I'd pay a manageable amount

We do something similar but put our money in the tax free childcare account and leave it there so if anything happens with our childminder we've still got the funds for an alternative!

I did a mix when ds was small. We didn't, and I think still don't, have an after-school club due to the local childminders protesting about it.

We did have a breakfast club, starting at 8.

I used a childminder 2 mornings and 2 afternoons a week.

I used the breakfast club 2 mornings a week.

DH collected twice a week

I worked from home one day a week so I could do drop off and pick up.

Although there was no formal after-school club there were after-school activities which lasted until 4, so that also helped on occasion.

In the holidays I used a mixture of the childminder, holiday clubs, taking time off work, working from home while ds did shorter activities and my mum also helped.

Breakfast club for me is £5.5 per child and starts at 7:30... would it be better to start earlier, half your lunch break and head back sooner. Make sure children have a club on every day after school and WFH the days they don’t. How old are they? Are they old enough for you to do a couple of hours whilst you entertain yourself?

My 10 year old is fine to be at home whilst I’m working for the others aren’t. I think from about 7 I could have managed

Lunch wise I either work through lunch already (if I’m doing a shorter day), or I get 30 minutes deducted as a mandatory break if over 6 hours. Is a bit of the NHS where this applies to everyone. So no wiggle room there.

I will have a look into childminder and breakfast club.

I think bigger could go home on her own soon, she is nearly ten. Younger is only 6 so we are a way off!

Thanks everyone. It’s nice just to chat about it as it feels like such an unknown!

I love our childminder and wouldn't be without her. She has the dc two days a week afterschool and for the full day on those days during the holidays.

We also swap childcare with another family, so have each other's dc a day a week after school. And then we both finish early a day a week.

Definitely childminder mine does a term time contract only for two long days a week before and after school. Then she gives me first dips on school holiday full days after her full time pre-school/younger ones are booked in. So I get the flexibility & so does she on what school holiday cover I need. She is fab we’ve used her for 7years best decision I ever made. I work from home 2d a week as well to flex school pick ups and carry on working till 5pm+ once the kids have a snack etc

All childminders do school holidays.

@GreyishDays - Well I'm really lucky as home, work and the school is all really close - so my specific timing may not work for others. As I'm at my desk within 10mins of dropping her off - this is all walking so traffic is never a factor either. So Schools opens at 8.50 for registration - I'm at my desk between 9-9:05 then leave at 3pm for a 3.15 pick up, I only take a 20min lunch break too rather than a 30min break on account of sometimes being in a few mins after 9. My role is quite autonomous anyway and I have a fully flexible line manager who really doesn't care or check as long as i do the work i need to do. DH also does drop offs on one of the long days and she goes to breakfast club on the other day which is a lot cheaper then after school club (£4 vs £12)

Thanks Talcott I’m finding the details are helping me work my own day out!