Working parents of children in prep schools

[Jadefeather7]

I assume in many cases both parents work in order to be able to afford to send kids to prep schools. I imagine many will have high pressure jobs with long hours and possibly travelling. How do you manage school drop offs and pick ups? I know there are a few childminders locally that provide drop off/pick up services for state schools but haven’t seen anything for private prep schools. Do you all have after school nannies? Thanks!

I know there are after school clubs until 6pm which would be a great help most of the time but just wondering about those days where you need to stay in the office a bit later

The children I know who attend prep schools also have full time nannies.

We both juggle our work so we do pick up and drop off ourselves. We cannot actually afford the wrap around care.

I get to work to start my shift at 0700 so my husband does drop off. I do pick up so he can work a bit later. 2 days a week he WFH & soon I will too.

No nannies. Just a sports club once a week after school.

We found a childminder that did drop off/pick up at the school. Only after asking around and the school itself though, before that we juggled it ourselves sometimes MIL would help or we would do the after school/ breakfast clubs if needed.

From what I've seen, there's been a mixture of mostly:

Wealthy single earner with SAHP dropping off;
The same and nanny drops off; and
Couple with a main earner (accountant, lawyer and so on) working long hours and other parent handles most of the drop offs while managing a less time-consuming job.

I use a local wrap around club. They open for breakfast at 7am, then drop to all the local schools including DC's prep, then they collect at either 3pm, 4pm if they have a club, or later if they are at a sports match and I collect at 6.30pm.

My life wouldn't work without them!

Very few parents at my DC’s prep have nannies. Early care & after care are included in the fees so working parents utilise these. There are also lots of after-school clubs and many of those don’t finish until quite late.

We have good wraparound care that is very reasonably priced.
Normally we manage to juggle drop off and pickup between us, but we have the option to drop off from 7.30am and pick up until 6.30pm.

I do flexible working and my husband has his own business so does the drop offs. In the event he can’t/isn’t in the country, I have an agreement with work that all my meetings will only start after 10am and end by 2pm. At a push I could ask my nanny (she does a few days a week) to help but I generally don’t as she has my youngest child with her.

When ds was at prep, I dropped him off for breakfast, and picked him up after supper and prep. It was the only way to ensure the wraparound child care I needed to teach in the state system, as dh was in the RN, and away a lot.

In our school, most of the couples there is one sahp or there is a nanny to help out, a couple have grandparents who help.

Interesting.
I don’t know if my workplace is just a bit odd because we have 2 sometimes 3 meetings during the week which are from 5-6pm. None of my team have kids. With the commute I wouldn’t be home until 7pm. For the most part it will be ok as DH works from home 70-80% of the time however he does travel 3-4 times a year for 3 weeks and I’m wondering what I would do then. I’m thinking about whether I need to look for another job because mine don’t seem too keen on offering flexibility. School is still a little way off but if I move I want to have established my reputation somewhere before requesting flexibility.

We used to send ours to a prep school. Dh is a teacher and I work in an office so I generally did drop off and pick up.

Free before school care from 8am and very cheap after school care until 5.30pm helped. Lots of children of teachers, university academics and hospital staff at their school.

Sorry for the silly question but when you refer to wrap around care do you mean the before and after school clubs which are offered by the schools or something else?

Wrap around care is basically childcare provided on the school site, sometimes for a small charge. They may or may not provide breakfast before school and a snack/drink after school.

I work about 10 mins away from the school where they used to go to. the local hospital is 5 mins walk and lots of children had parents who worked there.

Do you love your job? If so why not start speaking with the owners or HR department about some of your concerns. Do they have a workforce which is getting older and you are likely to be not the only one to face these dilemmas. If they are completely resistant to change then maybe start looking elsewhere - although they are incredibly short sighted if this is their approach.

Ah the Wrap around care/schools clubs will be helpful but the schools I’m looking at only offer this service until 6pm. I will have occasional 7pm finishes if I continue in my current role.
Not sure we would need or be able to afford a full time nanny.

At my DS’s school the majority are SAHM or the grandparents do it, a few have child minders but we aren’t in London. School offers wrap around care from 8am to 5.30 pm for an additional cost.

@Mumdiva99 That’s a good point and I will certainly try before I decide to leave. I just don’t feel that positive as I have floated the idea of WFH more frequently with my boss and I didn’t get the feeling that he was particularly keen. Most of my colleagues are pretty young but there are a number of people who are my age or older who are in middle management roles like me- but they are all childfree and don’t have any intention of having children.

WHen mine were that young there were a range of different options from SAHM and nannies to au pairs, arrangements with another mum (eg I'll have yours on Wednesdays and you'll have mine on Fridays), more ad hoc arrangements around play dates and mums paying the sixth formers from the related senior school to pick DC up and take them home.

I used to get my housekeeper to pick them up if I couldn't - she drove and was very reliable (and grateful for a break from the ironing).

I’ve thought about an au pair too but the school isn’t walking distance so would need someone who could drive.

Most Prep schools offer b’fast club and then afterschool care until 6pm. You would need that extra hour so maybe start looking for an afterschool childminder who would collect your child and care for them until you pick them up at 7pm. You can advertise for this privately or look for them on childcare websites locally.

At ours there is a mix of SAHP, wraparound care and people who work flexibly.

We have a nanny share with another family in our child's class. She does the morning school run plus after school care until we get home from work.