What would your life be like if your DC school was like this?

[IfYourSchool]

Feeling peeved at all the family comments yet again. What would your life look like if your DC's school was not set up as childcare?

Your DC starts school the autumn after they turn 4.
Yr1: Children start part time, meaning for the first 6 months they have M, T, Th, Fr mornings 815-1145. After Christmas this goes up to 5 mornings.
Last term they go full time - all mornings and one afternoon 1330-1500 either M, T or Th.

Yr 2 - Full time as above: all mornings plus one afternoon, not necessarily the same afternoon as last year.

Oh, whilst we're at it.
Breakfast club runs before school once a week (7-815)
Lunch club runs Mon, Tues, Thurs 1145-1330 priority to those who have school in the afternoon. Limited spaces. Children who count as 1.5 children (i.e. any form of SN or non native language skills) are lowest priority i.e. they don't accept them.
School is closed over lunch.
Afterschool club runs Mon, Tues and Thurs 1500-1800.

Yr 3 - All mornings 815-1145
One afternoon 1330-1600 unless your child doesn't need English as a foreign language extra lessons in which case afternoon school starts at 1415 (note lunch club ends at 1330 and after school starts at 1500 and your child is not allowed on the premises if they have no lessons...)
Two afternoons 1330-1500
No school W/F afternoons.

Yr4 - as Yr 3

Yr 5 - 2mornings 725-1145, 3 mornings 815-1145
One afternoon 1330-1600, two 1330-1500, no school W/F afternoons.

Yr6 - 3 mornings 725-1145, 2 mornings 815-1145
Two afternoons 1330-1600, one afternoon, 1330-1500, nothing W/F pm.

Yr7 - 4 mornings 725-1145, one 815-1145
Two afternoons 1330-1600, one afternoon, 1330-1500, nothing W/F pm.

Y8 as Yr 7

Obviously if you have more than one child in different classes that could mean that they have "opposite" early mornings and afternoons.

Would you still be able to work the job you do now?

What if your DC's secondary school closed at lunch (1140-1345)? What would your DC do at lunch time?

While it sounds like a nightmare here in the UK we are so privileged that our children get a free education, I remember watching a documentary a few years ago in a different country where parents couldn't afford to send their children to school, they would be sifting through rubbish dumps to find something to sell, children would be begging to go to school it was incredibly sad.

I suppose it is not technically true that they're not "allowed" on site if there is no lesson. School property is communal property so technically you can go there and use the playground e.t.c. but not inside the buildings. It's generally accepted that you don't do this whilst school is running although it's considered ok to e.g. take a short cut through the grounds to get the the bus stop.

Your child would be there unsupervised though. Teacher/school supervision ends 15 minutes after the bell rings so after 12 the building is closed until it reopens at 1325. If your child is on the premises between those times, they are your responsibility and not under the care of the school.

Im invested now.

Where is this?

And how do people manage?

No dual income households.

We'd starve to death without both of us working

I would be in deep shit, and essentially unemployable.

All of the travelling backwards and forwards must be a pain as well. Do all of the children live within a couple of streets of the school? Multiple children with different schedules would mean an adult would spend ages going backwards and forwards as well.

Not sure about the comment about "school being set up as childcare" - sounds like a bit of a dig at people who rely on their child being at school so they can go to work.
No, it's more of an exasperated dig at my relatives sarcastic comments about my being too lazy to work. From my point of view, the British school system most definitely is set up as/to facilitate childcare!

@TheYearOfSmallThings and essentially unemployable. this is me. And it is shit.

@Neilhugs no, many have a 20 minute walk.
Children are expected to be able to walk/travel by themselves by the beginning of Year 2.
If the walk is considered too dangerous primary children will be able to apply for a bus pass or a minibus service is offered if there are enough children.
DC1 has a 10 minute bus trip home, he takes the bus 4 times a day, 6 if he has an activity after school!

As women are generally paid less than men, this seems a great way of forcing women to give up their jobs, then not having the opportunity to get better jobs once the children can look after themselves. Essentially ensuring men continue to out-earn women forcing co-dependency and keeping women in a vulnerable position.

We would need a single income household and life style until the kids were old enough to come home, sort lunch, and spend the afternoon alone.

We lived somewhere the kids came home from school for lunch. The women didn't work, and were also very curtailed in what they could do, as needed to be back for 12. It was a 45 min drive to any shop more than a food store.

It does doesn't it. I'd wonder why they bothered educating the girls at all to be honest as so many will be forced to give up their job if they want to have children.

I asked above OP but do your family live in this country, what jobs do they have if they do? Do you know any women who make it work, it just all seems so bizarre.

Why is the OP not answering any questions about where this hypothetical school is?

I would not be able to work with that set up.

Whereis this, I’m so interested. Is it somewhere where having a parent at home is more common?

Everyone already guessed! And it's not a hypothetical school, my DC go there.

I have some family here, but without children. Of my DC's friends' parents the only ones who work are those who have either parents or IL's who are "nearby". I know one set of grandparents who travel 3 hours one day a week, a couple about one hour away but most are very local. I don't know any women who work full time and I don't know any who work without family support.

I bet all the men work full time though don't they...

DD’s school (UK) is a pain – very short days (she won’t go 9-3 until she’s 10!) and no after school clubs. When I worked in an office she was only in 9-12 and I had to pay for a full time childminder place, it was a pain. But that system sounds even more bonkers!

@YourNameGoesHere pretty much. I can think of two families, one where the dad works 80% the other 90%. In both cases the mum works 40% and GP's cover the days both are working.

Just reminding everyone that women didn't get full suffrage in Swiss federal elections until 1971, and it wasn't until 1990 that they were allowed to vote in some cantons...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_suffrage_in_Switzerland#:~:text=Women%20in%20Switzerland%20gained%20the,election%20of%20the%20Federal%20Assembly.

That sounds totally bananas. I would literally move so that I could send my kids somewhere normal where I could explain to my kids simple concepts like school starts at 8:45 and finishes at 3:10 every day.

I suspected as much. In all honesty it's not a country I'd want to be raising a child in. How can you possibly explain to a girl that they can be anything or do anything and live somewhere that says the opposite?

What's the point in them going to school at all unless they don't ever want children.

A friend who married a German chap found similar. Their kids home by lunchtime, and even quite young children just sent home on foot if the a teacher was away, or they were ill, without a call home. Mind blowing.

just sent home on foot if the a teacher was away, or they were ill, without a call home.
Yes we have this too, although there was a fuss a few years ago so they now ask the child if someone will be home. I'm quite lucky in this respect as most of the teachers at my DC's school are part time and are called in to cover if another teacher is ill. One of the mums from à neighbouring village was complaining though as her DD's teacher is full time and when she is ill the telephone list(see below) is activated and they get notified 15 minutes before school start that there won't be any school that day...

class telephone list: every parent is given a list of telephone numbers for the class at the beginning of the year. Teacher calls first on the list, who then calls the next on the list etc until the last on the list calls the teacher back to confirm the message has been passed through the class.

class telephone list: every parent is given a list of telephone numbers for the class at the beginning of the year. Teacher calls first on the list, who then calls the next on the list etc until the last on the list calls the teacher back to confirm the message has been passed through the class.

See even this sounds bloody bonkers. What happens if you're busy or don't have your phone on you? Why not use an app to send a message or send a class wide text/email?

I'm going to assume this class list is made up of mums too and the dads don't have to worry about any of this nonsense?

Which country is this? Can you move?

So this is Switzerland?

Japan (where I live) has traditionally not been terribly friendly to working mothers, BUT I have to say things have moved on a bit in the last 10 years and it is definitely less bonkers than this.

They are still a bit keen on weird random hours that change from day to day (the hours and terms are similar to the UK schedule but often vary by an hour or so from day to day for no apparent reason. But on the other hand, schools have gakudo (afterschool care) which is very good and very cheap, and kids can go straight from school to the gakudo center once school hours finish, so if you use gakudo you are largely unaffected by the weird variable school hours. Most Japanese mothers now seem to have jobs, so schools are slowly having to move with the times.

They still seem to do the weird "telephone tree" things alluded to upthread, though. There is a resistance to putting stuff online here, in part because "Oooh, there might be one family who doesn't have a phone or computer!"

Countries where children have more independence are actually quite parent-friendly in the long-term, though. Our kids also start walking to school from the equivalent of year 2, and from about Year 5 the state-funded gakudo mostly comes to an end and it's expected that kids will get themselves to afterschool clubs, tutoring, latchkey kid from that point onwards, unless you want to pay for private childcare. The UK lifestyle of "school runs" (ugh) and ferrying kids around everywhere sounds awful to me!