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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to ask how your child's school organises after school club applications?

46 replies

MamaAffrika · 13/09/2019 18:59

AIBU to think there must be a better system that doesn't rely on one person collating thousands of reply slips for clubs...

DC is in a large primary school. The application system for clubs is electronic and opens at 5pm on a Friday night - usually when many working parents are commuting home. The parent payment website usually crashes at this point and the WhatsApp group goes bonkers with stressed out mums and dads. If you do not have your shit together at exactly that moment then you miss out on booking a club. Organised parents with good IT skills with excellent WiFi always get their first choice of clubs - we are the lucky ones. Kids with single parents, parents who can't afford the lump sum instant payment or parents who happen to be on a bus at that time loose out.

Is there a better way to manage the electronic system? In a large school it's too time consuming to do a paper slip system...

OP posts:
Lougle · 13/09/2019 19:14

How is it too hard? I don't know what counts as large, but at DD's school, they all get a list of clubs on the same day. Every free club is listed and the children sign up. The names get put into a randomising app for fairness this year, and it tells them who has got the club. The names go up in school and parents get a text to say their child has x club on y day, finishing at z time.

Paid clubs are signed up for by the parents. Sometimes it's direct. Other times it's payment to school and they return the payment if the child is unsuccessful.

myself2020 · 13/09/2019 19:16

all online for our school, booking is open for 2 weeks towards the end if the previous term. no free clubs though, all paid for (about £65 per 1 hour/week per term)

Hoppinggreen · 13/09/2019 19:16

There are over 600 pupils at DS school and they use a similar system to the one you describe, it seems to work fine. Everyone doesn’t always get all the clubs they want but apart from that it’s ok

Original poster
MamaAffrika · 13/09/2019 19:17

Randomising app! Ha ha! That's the sports teacher thinking 'hmmm, he had tennis last term so he can have athletics this term' or 'that mum will be on my case if her DC doesn't get in'.
Large school = 4 form entry so 120 children per year group.

OP posts:
Teddybear45 · 13/09/2019 19:19

At DN’s school kids’ whose parents both work get preference for after-school clubs. If there are spaces left over (there aren’t always) then they become available to others

TheDarkPassenger · 13/09/2019 19:20

We have 3 form entry but clubs are chosen termly on an app thing. It’s not first come first served it’s random too. I think we have an amazing system

Original poster
MamaAffrika · 13/09/2019 19:22

Myself >>> the two week window sounds good. How do you know when booking opens? Doesn't that mean that the best clubs fill up really quickly?
In a club offered to 30 kids there could potentially be hundreds of kids trying to get it at the same time.

OP posts:
Grobagsforever · 13/09/2019 19:29

Same system as you OP, ours goes live at 12pm on a weekday. I am lucky in that I can block the time in my work diary and have good internet there, others miss out e.g ppl who work at Tesco and can't just log on! It's super stressful, the club DD wanted was gone with minutes. It totally disadvantaged non office based parents who don't have understanding employers!

Original poster
MamaAffrika · 13/09/2019 19:33

Grobags > it is super stressful. DH and I log on at the same time and have each other on speaker phone just in case one of us experience s a glitch. We refresh the screen constantly and we each click for a different club as they appear. The best ones are gone in less than 30 seconds!

OP posts:
KipperTheFrog · 13/09/2019 19:35

At DD's school its paper reply slips. The list of clubs went home in school bags last friday and parents had until end of school day wednesday to return slips to school office. Emails have gone out today to say what, if any, club your child has got into. Applied for 1 club for DD and she got it. Dont know how they decided who got what club if they were over subscribed. They do say on their website it's not a first come first serve though which seems fair. It's our first year of being eligible for clubs though so i don't really know how it works!

Yika · 13/09/2019 19:40

We have a full week to sign up online once the list of clubs is published. We can put up to 3 choices on one day, 2 on another, and 1 each of the other day. Then it goes through the randomising thingy - which means that the child also can't necessarily carry on a sport or music to the second level because there is no guarantee they will get a second year of it. But I find it fair and no stress of having to sign up within 5 minutes of the choices going up online.

GrimalkinsCrone · 13/09/2019 19:44

Teacher clubs.
We use paper slips and then the ostensible randomness of pulling them out of a hat. We also looked at how many clubs the child had signed up to, and used our knowledge of the child to come to a decision. Sometimes the child had a preference that the parent wanted to over-rule, sometimes the mum had grabbed everything going.
So the hat slip selections were influenced by that too.
My clubs have always been ND/quirky child friendly, so that influenced my choices too. If I’m giving my time, effort and resources for free, I feel justified in having an input into the members of my club.

ThereWere10 · 13/09/2019 19:44

They send forms out in March and they have to be returned by the end of March, for the following school year. Once you've signed up and there are enough people to run the club then it's binding and you can't change. That's for the afterschool club and the after school activity clubs.
Sports clubs it's a bit different as there's only a football club here and we can register for the clubs run in the neighbouring town. Registration there is online, twice a year and opens at 430 am. All the good clubs are gone by 445!

stucknoue · 13/09/2019 19:48

Back when my kids were at school you ranked the clubs you were interested in and if oversubscribed you only got one of your choices, they tried to ensure everyone got something and the free school run sports prioritised free school meals kids because it was free. Mine always got the clubs they wanted despite it being 3 form entry and over full (juniors has classes of 35-38). Library club (free) was woefully under attended.

elliejjtiny · 13/09/2019 19:48

My dc's school does it with letters advertising the different clubs and you put the reply slip in the bookbag the next day. My primary aged dc aren't usually interested but I don't think the clubs are ever full. There is usually a general sports club for years 1 and 2 and tooth or gymnastics for the older ones. Then there is chess club but you have to be able to play a game of chess to join that one (there is a learning to play chess club at lunchtime for beginners). All clubs are free.

lyralalala · 13/09/2019 19:50

At ours they give you a list of clubs. You fill in which ones the child would like to go to in order of preference. You have a week to hand them back in. Then the whizz in the office somehow collates them all and organises them so that the kids get into at least one or two of the clubs on their list

pumkinspicetime · 13/09/2019 19:51

Last school allegedly did it first come first served in a day but once my dc were early for another reason so gave teacher their slips at the exact minute school day started and still didn't get a place, it was obviously done on another basis.

This school is an electronic free for all which I have to use two electronic devices, because twins and hope the system doesn't crash before our requests go in.
I have all the clubs pre listed and tap buttons like a loon making sure I'm somewhere with good WiFi.
It is a stressful day!

Original poster
MamaAffrika · 13/09/2019 19:53

Ellie>>> all clubs are free? How? We have amazing clubs taught by serious experts in their field. A few are free but most are £40, some are up to £120.

OP posts:
pumkinspicetime · 13/09/2019 19:55

I feel your pain OP, I have it in my diary and have a reminder 10minutes before on my phone to make sure everything is good to go, I reckon you have about 3 minutes to get the popular clubs maximum.

Lougle · 13/09/2019 20:04

Most of DD's school clubs are free. Netball, basketball, rounders, sewing club, sketch club, choir and drama, chess club, homework club, football, etc.

Paid clubs are commercial groups such as taekwondo, karate, dance busters, etc.

elliejjtiny · 13/09/2019 20:07

@MamaAffrika none of the clubs at dc's school are run by experts. They are all run by a teacher or ta and sometimes a parent helper.

WhyBirdStop · 13/09/2019 20:08

DS is only nine months old, reading things like this makes me feel so stressed already! I went to a tiny village primary that only offered a few clubs and anyone who wanted to go could. I hadn't even thought about this as an issue

xTinkerhellx · 13/09/2019 20:09

We get a text at a completely random time and day advising that the online booking is now open. Log on, pick a club, pay.

You have about 10 minutes to ensure you get the club you want. If you cannot access your phone at work, then your child will be unlikely to get a club at all.

Some are free, the rest are £20 for the term. Which is very reasonable looking at this!

Original poster
MamaAffrika · 13/09/2019 20:10

Ahhh, one club my DC goes to is taught by an Olympian. It's impressive and affordable but it's the booking that needs to change. I'm very interested in this 'randomiser' and would like to suggest this as it sounds like the answer. Does anyone know what this software is called? Is it built in to the Parent Booking package. Or do schools just use another internet based random generator. If it's the second option then they are not gonna go for it cause it's more admin.

OP posts:
Original poster
MamaAffrika · 13/09/2019 20:14

Tinker > that's truly awful. Then anyone who works in a job where they can't use their phone at work will never get in. That's really not equal opps. So pretty much any public servant's kid is fucked.

OP posts:
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