No Wraparound Care from September

[Mum2Girls19]

School has advised that they are not offering wrap around care from September as bubbles cannot be mixed.
They are thinking that part time places are also the way forward as they cannot social distance properly in a smaller place.
Further information hasnt been announced yet
Im a bit lost of how Im going to work without wrap around care, yes im working from home but who knows how long that will be for

Anyone else??

I work in a very small prep school. We are splitting the children into key stages before school and after school, so the children in KS1 will be in one area and those in KS2 will be in another. We only have 60 ish pupils in total though. Not all need wraparound care, so it'll be manageable. Hopefully!

@PicsInRed

How about the fact they very publicly and loudly opposed the reopening of schools in the first place? Even keyworker provision was sternly frowned up at the outset.

Wow did you mean to rewrite history to suit your narrative?

I chair the group that do breakfast and after school care locally and we won't be able to open with current guidance.

We've been told we will have to keep the children strictly in their bubbles and our staff will not be allowed to cross bubbles. They've also said we can only use the two rooms we normally use, we cannot hire extra space, and in fact the school may need to revoke our long-term hire of one room as they may need it. Nor are we welcome to hire the community centre that is in the grounds of the school.

They also won't allow us to have children from other schools in the building, even if we keep them in their bubbles. I can't run those bubbles in the other schools as they are both tiny schools. It would be one bubble and just two staff 3 miles from any other staff. Whereas if they were in the main school they would have two staff members not in bubbles as standby for emergency help. I won't run that close to ratio for safety or reliability reasons.

At the same time they "strongly urge" us to open and help as many families as possible... How I'm meant to do that with these restrictions I have no idea. I've also had to show emails to various parents who have been up in arms because various people involved with the council have told them that we are "absolutely allowed" to run from September without mentioning any of the issues we have

Also aren’t bubbles a bit pointless once kids start mixing at clubs after school? I’ve now had lots of emails from ballet, swimming etc saying they’re planning to open from September. What’s the point in a bubble preventing wrap around care if my child can mix with a gazillion others outside of school?

Look for after school nannies if you are struggling.

Yep, no issues with that.

Except maybe cost, availability, and the fact some schools are saying only household members may collect children.

But apart from those minor issues, sterling suggestion. Keep em coming.

It's an evolving situation and many schools have a different stance on this.

Our local academy trust which is several schools has advised there will be no social distancing in schools and all pupils to return without exception and school will be just like it was before the virus. Therefore since that is the case childminders and activity providers after school will open.

Our problem locally is that the usual holiday clubs and activity days are not opening in the summer holidays so no care during working hours at all from now until September.

Im a nanny for a teacher, i do 7am- 9am then 3pm-6pm, (i do bring my children with me) is this a possibility for you?

@Hercwasonaroll

I would go back to school and say that the guidance explicitly says wraparound should be offered. Say you expect them to offer something and you will be contacting governors. Parents need to push back against this hard.

Doesn't it say "schools should consider resuming where possible"? Not quite the same as saying it should be offered.

This is the reason I decided not to accept a TA job as part of my PGCE experience.

Without wrap around care guaranteed I'm.not going g back to work or signing up for teacher training

The government guidance is totally to blame for this mess.

If they would mandate mask wearing for all students then provision could be provided without social distancing.

The push to get all in for Sept has ignored the wider issues and the complexities caused by further outbreaks.

It is a crappy one size fits all policy.

We are going to have to use my mother for pick up and drop off and just hope she doesn’t get it from either myself or DD who will be in classrooms full time with no masks.

I’m still waiting to know what our school will do but considering they usually assume we are all waiting at home for them to announce an assembly at short notice I’m expecting it to be spectacularly inconvenient. The class bubbles are bonkers as most dc have siblings in the school and lots of the TAs are parents to dc in the school. We’re expecting staggered drop off but wondering if key workers will be able to drop off at one time. I can’t stress until I know however I also can’t arrange anything and school is a drive as despite being catchment school we have an air field between us. I’m currently ignoring it all. My cm also decided it was too much so I no longer have a cm for after school but I’m hoping dh can pick up most days. It’ll be a time to test how flexible my employer is!

I really don't think this is to do with teaching unions, who protect teachers. I've never worked in a school where it's teachers who staff wrap around care. TAs sometimes, but never teachers. It's not something I'm aware my union has even mentioned.

@Rainbow12e mn always suggests nannies but unless you’re in a city there really aren’t any unless you can offer live in and full time. most of us don’t have space of a spare bedroom or the finances to cover salary and pension etc

Dd9 - school hasn't offered an After-school Club option for the past seven years. We have to use a child minder generally to cover the after school aspect of wraparound care, although there is a breakfast club that we use at school on a morning

@GeorgieTheGorgeousGoat

I’m a childminder and I’m providing wrap around.

Me too, but our school is still running its after school care.

Some parents haven't been able to work properly whilst home schooling, they are desperate to get back to regular full days of work.

In fairness, after school nannies are not an option for the vast majority. The supply isn’t there. The cost is prohibitive for most.

Ours is luckily restarting, mainly because they really need the income from it to pay for all the extra expense that they’ve spent on making the school covid safe. It’s going to run in the hall with each class bubble separated, so nothing like as fun as the old club but essential childcare for those who need it

I know from my brother that no childminders in our area have any spaces free. The school wraparound is provided by an external company who have said the small number of students able to attend do not make it financially viable and they have lost their staff anyway.

In some area things are really dire. I am not in a city and they can't even replace the teachers who left on maternity or who have refused to come back due to shielding or vulnerability or their own childcare woes. This is normal school, not even wraparound. It is a massive mess.

It’s all unworkable bullshit, really.

Schools can’t insist on a parent picking up & not a childminder or grandparents or whoever. If a parent has OKed their child being collected by someone other than them, schools can’t refuse to let that happen.

After-school activities, siblings, school buses, car-sharing - they’re all going to make ‘bubbles’ pointless & the whole working-parent fragile ecosystem collapses if there’s no wraparound care and rigid rules make thing uneconomic or impossible to run.

Schools will open as usual pretty much I should think. If there is an outbreak in the school it will shut for cleaning & everyone quarantines fir 2 weeks. How else can it possibly work?

It’s going the hit families (and sadly most likely mums) very hard if No wrap around care provided. So many families rely on this. Really really crap I worry for the amount of mums that may have to consider leaving their jobs due to childcare

My childminder has been told by our authority that she can’t take kids before/after school or nursery.

It’s madness.

I’m a teacher, so there is zero flexibility with my hours.

@MazDazzle

My childminder has been told by our authority that she can’t take kids before/after school or nursery.

It’s madness.

I’m a teacher, so there is zero flexibility with my hours.

I don't think that's the kind of thing local authorities can decide. Maybe they have just advised her not to?

My children’s school finishes tomorrow. Will let us know about pick ups and drops up, and also if there will be any BSC or ASC. Unclear when they will let us know. So can’t even go to a childminder/after school nanny as don’t have a clue when/if they will be needed, and I can’t just afford to hire someone just in case. It’s a nightmare.

Our school has said that we will be providing wrap around, we just haven't worked out how yet. They recognise that it has to be done, so in line with the 'guidance' will just do our best to minimise lots of juggling around.