Head taking advantage

[CakeWarrior]

Not sure if we are all bu but the parents of the breakfast club are feeling mutinous at the moment! We have begged, pleaded for the school to open breakfast club at 7:45, the same as the other schools in the area which are open longer and cheaper than our schools. Despite the amount of people its fallen of deaf ears, resulting in us having to pay childminders, run like the wind and in a few of us having to work an extra half day a month to make up for being unable to get to work for 8am and having to do 8:30. However... the headteacher brings his son every morning to school with him at 7:45... and we see him sitting in the breakfast club while we are all having to stand outside on the playground!! Our issue is this - either open it to ALL for 7:45 or none at all and he should - like the rest of us mortals - have to find suitable childcare arrangements until 8. Our children all say "oh X is there every day". I don't see why the head is able to have special treatment and we feel is abusing his position. He is no different to the rest of us working parents. However this man isnt the most approachable person - the deputy is lovely but we dont know how to approach this?

Staffing breakfast club, which will have set up according strict safeguarding rules, no.

Oh I see. No, I think people were just thinking of parents working on a rota to watch the kids in the playground before breakfast club opens. I may be wrong.

Whether the head has his child on premises before 8am is quite frankly, none of your business.

Surely you knew the breakfast club timetable before you accepted a place at the school? Didn’t it occur to you then that it might not suit your working hours? How many months/years have you spent moaning about it instead of coming up with a solution (that doesn’t rely on the school) for your childcare for your children?!

It’s not unreasonable to approach the school through the direct channels to request the hours be extended, it is unreasonable to expect the school to provide you with childcare to suit your own working hours and then slag off the HT becasuse you don’t get what you want.

My own son comes to school with me at 7:15/7:30. That does not make me available to care for other children in that time. I have sorted my own childcare out by having my son attend my own school.

You might get a better response if you could point out a business case for how it would impact if opening earlier, instead of sniping at the head and his child, who are none of your business.

Our Breakfast Club runs from 0730 to 0845 every morning, for the same cost as when it was 0745 to 0845, and yes that 15 minutes does make a difference when you have to face the rushhour traffic to get to the other side of the next town. It is run and staffed by the school, and they employ 3 staff who also do the lunchtime queues, to run it.

Imagine the HT came back with the real explanation and it was thus: “Actually, my partner and I split up a year ago, and me and Abi who runs the breakfast club are seeing each other now, and she watches Fred before she starts work.”

See? It’s called a PRIVATE life for a reason.

Are you all headteachers/teachers that think this is a teacher bashing thread?
Call me thick if you want but I certainly didn’t see it as that when I posted. I did however see it as being something that was unfair to those that had asked the Head if consideration could be given to breakfast club opening a little bit earlier and had got no response
OP says that the school is in a small village and it’s hours for breakfast club are different to others locally (and more expensive). If I was the Head and what OP says is true I don’t think I’d be quite so cavalier and shortsighted in my attitude to the needs of others especially when my own were being sorted in such an obvious way, with my child by virtue of my position within the school being allowed to sit with the breakfast club helpers whilst I got on with my work.
I readily accept that schools are not there to solve child care issues, but by providing breakfast club and after school care they have accepted that it is beneficial for them to do this. This being so it doesn’t seem unreasonable to me that they should at least consider the needs of many of its parents who would find it helpful to have an earlier start. The last thing any village school wants is for parents to begin voting with their feet.
You can argue all you want that once the hours change someone else will then come along and want something different but this is not the issue here - there are several parents who would prefer a slightly earlier start and presumably pay a little more for the privilege making it financially viable..

Yes we sort childcare issues for our children but he doesnt?

But he does, he takes his child to work with him, he just happens to work in a school - can you really not see how petulant you sound “he gets to do something we don’t do... in his workplace, with his child”.

There’s a difference between a colleague keeping an eye on your child while you’re in the building and being legally responsible for a group of kids whose parents are not present. It’s 15 mins, can the group of parents who would like an 7:45 start not do a childcare rota and take turns in dropping the kids off at breakfast club when it opens?

If I was the Head and what OP says is true I don’t think I’d be quite so cavalier and shortsighted in my attitude to the needs of others especially when my own were being sorted in such an obvious way, with my child by virtue of my position within the school being allowed to sit with the breakfast club helpers whilst I got on with my work

Nowhere does it say the HT's child is with breakfast club helpers. In the room, yes.

YABU. It's not your right to have breakfast club open when you want it. You use the facilities on offer and make alternative arrangements if it doesn't work for you. You chose your job, chose to have a child and chose that school. It's your problem to solve, not the school's.

with my child by virtue of my position within the school being allowed to sit with the breakfast club helpers whilst I got on with my work.

That is what you and the OP are assuming is happening. It may not be what I’d actually happening. The HT and the breakfast club helpers may know each other personally, as friends. The HT may have said, “Is it okay if Bob sits with you while you set up?” And the breakfast club staff may have said, “Of course, on the understanding that he is your responsibility.”

It is a private matter.

If I was the headmaster, upon seeing your complaint I would scrap the breakfast club altogether! It's set up to help you. You want 7:45, someone else will kick off it isn't 7:30. I'd scrap it out of spite of you ungrateful bunch. The school is there to educate, not babysit.

Don't understand why they don't open 15 minutes earlier if the staff are there already. Equally it would be a ballache to administer some people wanting 745 on and some wanting 800 on. Youd probably put as many noses out of joint as you please others.

My school breakfast club opens at 8. 15mins earlier would mean lighter traffic and get into work much earlier. They wont change it. Ive just accepted its better for the kids to start at 8, earlier is a bit shit.

Ours finishes at 5.15 too, its a PITA but I live with it because 2 hours at after school club is long enough.

I now get public transport because its quicker and can make pick up on time.

Don't understand why they don't open 15 minutes earlier if the staff are there already.

Because you don’t get to work and immediately assume charge of 30 kids. You get in, use the bathroom, wash hands, put handbag somewhere safe, log on to do a register, have a cup of tea, open doors. Watching one child as a favour precludes none of that.

Watching one child as a favour precludes none of that

So now the staff are in the room minding the HT's child?

So now the staff are in the room minding the HT's child?

I have no idea. It doesn’t matter if they are.

My breakfast club opens at 7.40 which is very useful. It is an outside provider though, so presumably the amount I pay reflects the extra staffing costs. Would other parents be happy to pay extra? If I drop them off even a minute early, they won't accept them as their insurance doesn't kick in until the official opening time.

So now the staff are in the room minding the HT's child?

I have no idea. It doesn’t matter if they are

I was trying to clarify if the staff were actually looking after his child.

I was trying to clarify if the staff were actually looking after his child.

Which is the whole point. We don’t know because it’s none of the OP’s business and they are under no obligation to tell her.

I sort of see your point but still think YABU. Perhaps if the head kept his child with him in the office until 8 then sent them down once it had opened for all it might keep people a bit happier

I see. We were at cross purposes.

*My school breakfast club opens at 8. 15mins earlier would mean lighter traffic and get into work much earlier. They wont change it. Ive just accepted its better for the kids to start at 8, earlier is a bit shit.

Ours finishes at 5.15 too, its a PITA but I live with it because 2 hours at after school club is long enough.*

Maybe schools don’t want children in school for a period of time that is longer that many adults working day? At least a childminder gives a bit of variety and the kids can be “off duty” as it were. I know childcare options are limited in lots of places, and I too do the juggle of where kids are and when, but 8.00 til 5.15 is a bloody long day by any measure. I’m not sure I’d want my child in school 9 hours a day even if that choice were available.

Maybe schools don’t want children in school for a period of time that is longer that many adults working day?

And where does it end? I’m pretty sure the HT or a senior member of staff has to be on site for the time the club is running. Maybe the HT is usually there for 7.45 but not every single day, in which case he couldn’t guarantee it without aiming to get in for 7.30, and so on.

I work in a school. A teacher leaves her 2 primary school aged children in the reception to wait for their school bus (there's a multi-school pick up point outside my school). The office staff and janitors keep half an eye on them for the 10/15 minutes that they are waiting so my colleague can go start work. They sit quietly, are no bother, and the staff are not legally responsible for them during that time. By your logic, that would mean that any parent who wishes should be able to drop their child off in the reception too? It's one colleague doing another a private favour, much like I assume the HT has with the breakfast staff for his son.

The whole HT/son is a red herring imo. Your AIBU is 'AIBU to be annoyed my school won't start breakfast club earlier?'. I'm afraid the answer is yes, YABU. You knew the times when you signed up, if it's not suitable then you need alternative childcare just like everyone else.

"Don't understand why they don't open 15 minutes earlier if the staff are there already."

Well that might just be because they have other duties to attend to, that are connected to the work of actually educating children? Breakfast Club might not be the main priority during their working hours?

Our breakfast club opens at 7.45 but the staff arrive at 7.30. This is because they have to put out the tables and chairs, set up the tables for breakfast, put out the breakfast food, set out the activitiy tables and generally get sorted before the children arrive. They need that extra 15 minutes!