WIBU to complain to after school club about the food and screens?

[ElphabaTheGreen]

When I say 'complain', I'm thinking anonymous polite feedback letter because I'm a coward so as not to make things awkward.

DS1's before and after school club is really very good - lovely staff, great activities, reasonable fees and open good hours. But two things irk DH and me and I want to know if the MN jury think we're BU.

1. They are fed (in our opinion) crazy amounts of unhealthy food. A weekly menu, fed to them at around 4pm, is thus:

• Hot dogs and chips
• Fish fingers on a bun
• Pasta with ham
• Baked beans, sausages and potato waffles
• Chicken nuggets and crisps

They then get given a biscuit upon departure. Salad is offered. I know this because there is an enormous bowl of it, virtually untouched, sitting next to the dregs of the remaining hot food when I arrive.

Their website describes this as a 'substantial snack'. I call this a full meal and DS is so full of processed crap when he gets home, he doesn't want to sit with us for a family dinner, where we serve (in his opinion) disgusting things containing vegetables and the like. They also seem to routinely coordinate the day they serve chips with the school dinner chip day, so DS1 has invariably had double chips in one day. When I was at after school club myself, we got fruit and crackers with some kind of spread, and it was perfectly sufficient to keep us going until a proper dinner at home. I'd rather not give DS a snack and tell him not to eat the after school club food as I don't want him to feel singled out. DS2 will be starting there next year and he puts on weight far more easily than skinny DS1 so I'll be livid if I end up with a letter telling me he's overweight, when it would be because of the crap fed to them at school.

1. They always run a movie on a big screen AND have a PlayStation/X-box on a separate screen. They're currently raising money to buy a second PlayStation. They provide loads of other activities, games, books, not to mention dozens of other children to play with and free access to the school's absolutely beautiful, huge playground. Are DH and I BU to think the screens are absolutely unnecessary with all this? There is always a sizeable crowd of stationary kids around the screens (probably rendered motionless by their 'substantial snack' beforehand) despite all these other options, and even in lovely weather when they should be tearing around outside. I just think it encourages sedentary behaviour and will create fat kids in combination with that food.

I don't know any of the other parents well enough to garner their opinion on these issues so thought I'd don my hard hat and flame-retardant vest for AIBU instead.

Object away! Most places will then tell you to take your custom elsewhere. It's a bit like going to a restaurant, reading the menu and demanding that they make you something else, um, the door is that way.

Thank you, BackforGood. It is always such a relief to hear moderation and reason among the professionally offended.

Trifle A screen IS a lazy option for a childcare professional. I am not a childcare professional - I don't have the skills/ideas/headspace/time/energy to come up with other options to keep my children safe and contained to give me 20 minutes to get dressed or cook other than a TV. For someone who has trained to care for children, giving them a TV or PlayStation is a complete cop-out when they already provide a range of non-screen activities that require a minimum of supervision in a safe environment.

Is there a requirement for them to highly trained childcare professional? I don't think the requirements for either staff qualifications or ratios are the same as childcare settings for under 5s. Maybe your expectations are a bit unrealistic?

Just for clarification :

Not lazy = all children engaged in an activity of their choosing (including some looking at screens ) while staff supervise/take part in outdoor games, homework, board games, converse with children and prepare food.

Lazy or 'beyond' lazy = all children sat in front of a screen in a darkened room while staff sit on their phones for 3 hours.

HTH

In Scotland the requirements for qualifications are the same for asc as for nursery.

We're required to seek feedback from our clients and show that it's used in the development and planning of the service.

And we get plenty of parents who want things done a particular way. We negotiate, discuss and compromise. We've never yet told someone to take their business elsewhere

Well Trifle, if they are supposed to be providing a meal, then that is not good enough. There are rules and regs that childcare providers have to follow - you aren't actually allowed to just fill them full of processed rubbish and claim you are providing a meal. You also have to have food hygiene qualifications, and proper kitchen facilities that follow all their regulations too. Generally though, after school club is about looking after the children until the parent picks them up, it is not usual for them to be given their tea (or dinner, depending on what you call it) whilst there.
Expat it's nothing like choosing a different restaurant. This is the on-site childcare facility for the school. It should be providing a good quality service. People won't have the option to go elsewhere as you would with a restaurant - when there is an ASC on site, other local options are usually very, very limited. There is nothing wrong with making a suggestion to improve a facility that your dc attend.

To state the obvious, they with all their training (for which they probably earn not much more than minimum wage) will be supervising a fair number of children. The children will also be of different ages. Perhaps for a 10 year old, Playstation time after school is a more reasonable proposition than for a 4 year old, and therefore they have a range of things to cater for those different situations.

Statistically - what are the requirements in Scotland? I just looked it up for England and there is no qualification requirement and a ratio of up to 1:30.

ElphabaTheGreen

Oh right. You don't have headspace for coming up with other options but you expect 'childcare professionals' in charge of 20 odd tired, hungry children to do it, no problem

However you weigh this up, I think you are being rather unreasonable. Tell your son not to watch it. Unless other parents agree with you, the screens aren't likely to go anywhere.

BackforGood

Of course they can feed them the food the OP described. I got a school lunch yesterday: nuggets and curly chips, salad option available. What regulations are you referring to?

Jesus that's grim

Scotland, for children aged 3-8 it's 1 to 10 for sessions under 4 hours, 1 to 8 for longer. I think it can go up to 1 to 12 if all kids are over 8 but we don't do this as we have lots of p1-3

Qualifications: you are required to register with the SSSC within 6 months of starting in a childcare role. There are 3 levels of registration - support worker, practitioner and manager. You can get either an unconditional or conditional registration - you get conditional if you don't have the required qualifications yet and you will be given a defined time period to get them. Normally 3 years for the junior roles and 5 for managers.

The qualifications - support workers require and SVQ2 (In specific childcare subjects, there's a couple of variants), practitioners an SVQ3 or equivalent. Manager role is a very specific degree - a BA in childhood practice- or the equivalent professional development award at SQA level 9 which is degree level too, just a different study method.

The requirements for childcare registration with Ofsted just says food must be nutritious and properly prepared - that's open to quite a wide range of interpretation.

I also think many children in this country have nuggets, fish fingers, sausages or pasta as their normal evening meals at home. Its not really shocking.

The ASC at my kids school is generally staffed by the lunchtime supervisors. Nursery has to have staff with Level 3 early years qualifications.

Trifle Yes, I do expect them to not take the easy option, because they're PAID to do it. Yes, crappy wage, I get it, but that's their choice of paid work. I don't take the easy options at my paid work. I do at home. That's the difference.

Why are you larfing your arse. It is lazy. Its not a club
Umm, After School CLUB.

The 'paid professionals' will almost certainly be TAs from the school who are getting something like £7 per hour to look after the kids at a ratio of 1:30 'legally' but more like 1:10 'sensibly'. There will be a mixture of 4 to 11 year olds, all of whom have different needs. There will be a mixture of kids whose parents want them to have proper meals and kids whose parents want them to have snacks and some that don't want them to have anything.

Some kids will want to do nothing but look at an iPad, some will want to run about screaming, some will want to read a book, some will want to sleep, others will want constant attention from the TAs.

They will be using school premises, school catering, school staff to look after school kids.

Frankly you are lucky if your school provides them these days. I know of 3 in our MAT alone who have sacked them due to dwindling resources, pain in the arse kids and parents, non-payments and lack of staff. My current school sacked theirs off last year as parents were taking the piss and instead rented the room out to a 'proper' childcare company - who promptly put the charages up by 50%, paid for in advance. It's full to bursting with kids from other schools (collected by minibus at the end of the day) and 'our' parents are up in arms. Bad luck, they shouldn't have taken the piss in the first place.

I would definitely be looking for a child minder . In the clubs I have used over the years they have never had a screen as a regular occurrence or fed them like that ?!

They're a private childcare provider, separate to the school, so it's definitely not staffed by TAs. According to their website, all staff have a minimum of Level 3 childcare or playworker qualifications.

ElphabaTheGreen

I don't think it is about what they get paid. There is childcare on the table, with a variety of options available: games, indoor, outdoor etc. In my view, if you don't like it, don't use the service. There is nothing wrong with making a range of activities available for bored, tired children who have been learning all day. The fact that you personally think screens are unnecessary is your issue.

Hmmm, I've been nodding along with you OP but reading Stats posts I wonder if that is because I'm in Scotland, and so I've been spoilt! I had no idea the provision in England was so bad.

Not just me, Trifle. Plenty of PPs on here agree, which suggests to me that there may be significant numbers of parents IRL who may not like it but just haven't said anything. I will be discussing it with them (politely, in person).

You want premium childcare at a cheap price

You have options none of which you are willing to take because the cost is too much.

Not wanting my children fed crap and parked in front of a screen is demanding premium child care at a budget price?

MN-land is truly fascinating at times...truly...fascinating...

I have to admit I'm finding it interesting!

We do have a real mix of parents in terms of how 'bothered' they are about their kids after school club. Some just want somewhere for them to be looked after until the parent finishes and seem fairly uninterested beyond that! They're the ones who will, IME, be the quickest to move their children to a cheaper option when it becomes available too. On the other hand we have others who are really engaged, provide lots of feedback, suggest activities and outings, spend lots of time at pickup chatting to staff, finding out about what their kid did that day, looking at artwork and so on.

bigkidsdidit - All childcare in England isn't this bad. It's a real mixed bunch, as, I presume it is likely to be in most countries.

I agree with the person who said you want premium childcare at a cheap price. No-one is feeding your child crap: as you say, it's not his meal - he doesn't have to eat it. No-one is parking him in front of a screen: there is the option of screen time, which he can ignore.