To expect my children not to be given cereal and jam on toast for tea at (£15) after school club?

[Mallowmarshmallow]

My children have come home this week saying the above was all that was on offer at the after school club they attend.

AIBU for suggesting to them that this is not an appropriate tea for children. 'A light tea' is apparently offered during the session.

Does anyone know of any government guidance for healthy eating in childcare settings? I can only find early years guidance in my searches.

For full information, the after school club is local to, but not run by, the school the children attend. It is the only local option available which works with their school.

I'd expect something with more nutritional value. Something with protein like cheese, beans, egg or peanut butter with the bread, fruit, glass of milk.

My sons after school club costs the same a d offers a 'light tea' and they get a hot dog, fruit, yoghurt and a biscuit.

@Butwasitherdriveway

This might make me sound mean but I don't quite get people who expect other people to look after their kids and then complain about it.

It's not mean at all, you have a point.

However people are paying to have their children looked after, it isn't free.

I wouldn't worry about my child being given toast, cereal or a sandwich for tea. It's just a snack, most people serve a good evening meal at home.

It sounds similar to DD's after school club. It's £14.85 for 3-6pm and they get a snack on arrival. They make clear on website that it's a snack and not 'tea'. If you use tax free childcare it's effectively 20% less than that to pay.

Ours provides a different snack each day - sometimes toast with choice of toppings inc jam, bagels, wraps. Today she had pitta bread with cheese.

That would annoy me too especially with three kids - three times as irksome. A ‘light tea’ wasn’t something I had heard of until the school my child goes to starting offering wrap around care in competition with the third party on site provider their charging system is cheaper if you are there until 5 but hikes up if you are there even 15 minutes after justified by a compulsory ‘light tea’. Light tea should be something like beans on toast, scrambled eggs, baked potato but all I’ve ever seen the kids get is sandwiches. I don’t want to pay for that given that the day starts with toast in breakfast club, toast for snack, sandwiches for lunch (if you aren’t doing hot dinner and sometimes sandwiches even if you are) so the last thing you want is more bread based snacks.

And the after school club doesn't have access to the school kitchen - just a fridge and microwave so there's a limit to what they can provide!

@Zolrets

That would annoy me too especially with three kids - three times as irksome. A ‘light tea’ wasn’t something I had heard of until the school my child goes to starting offering wrap around care in competition with the third party on site provider their charging system is cheaper if you are there until 5 but hikes up if you are there even 15 minutes after justified by a compulsory ‘light tea’. Light tea should be something like beans on toast, scrambled eggs, baked potato but all I’ve ever seen the kids get is sandwiches. I don’t want to pay for that given that the day starts with toast in breakfast club, toast for snack, sandwiches for lunch (if you aren’t doing hot dinner and sometimes sandwiches even if you are) so the last thing you want is more bread based snacks.

The school can't cook anything.

My kids also just get a biscuit; they'd be thrilled with toast and jam or cereal.

Zoirets: beans on toast, scrambled eggs, baked potato but all I’ve ever seen the kids get is sandwiches
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Sandwiches is OK for tea (forget the 'light', just 'tea' will do). If they had beans on toast, scrambled eggs or jacket potato they wouldn't eat their dinner at home!

A sandwich or toast with something on it is ample. I had a sandwich for my tea much earlier, it just hit the spot.

Well, at the club I am referring to the school can very definitely cook something as they have access to the kitchen. Whether they want to is a different matter. There is no expectation from me that they would but they say they do a ‘light tea’ to justify a big price hike for that final hour. I don’t want it as it’s a inconvenient extra - more bread when bread is offered too many times already, not filling or nutritional enough to replace evening meal, yet enough to spoil childrens appetites, especially young ones who will probably eat the instance they get home as there is very little time before they go to bed.

Baked potato or beans on toast wouldn't spoil their appetite for dinner but a sandwich would? That's not logical at all.

After school snacks are the worst. DD manages fine at the weekends and during the holidays not to snack between lunch and dinner, she doesn’t need a carb and sugar laden snack at 4.30 meaning she doesn’t eat so much dinner. But, we’ve one term left of P7 so I don’t have to worry about it any more. The snack time was a social time, we didn’t want to leave her out of it so we just let it go. The kids chose the snacks.

To be honest I’d be more annoyed about such an early lunch at school.

Baked potato with nutritious filling = meal replacement. Sandwich = not a meal replacement but it is an appetite spoiler that (in the provision I am talking about) you are charged for and pretty much means that the child isn’t going to eat a proper meal at home as the food is served
about 5.15. It’s neither one thing nor the other but it is attracts a premium rate.

@GreyhoundG1rl

Baked potato or beans on toast wouldn't spoil their appetite for dinner but a sandwich would? That's not logical at all.

No, I would say it's the other way around though I suppose it depends on portion size - and sandwich size.

Just to be clear, I’d rather they didn’t do ‘tea’ at all in the provision I am talking about and that the price was cheaper. If they are going to do it though, it needs to be substantial and nutritious enough to actually replace the evening meal not be an additional eating occasion. What i don’t like is the addition of something unnecessary and poor quality to justify the price and I sense this is where the OP was coming from too.

I'm 30 now, but when I was in ASC between y3 and y5, the snack was always toast and something. Child choice of jam, marmalade, chocolate spread, marmite or just butter (marg). That kind of thing. I think fruit was probably offered too, and sometimes I'd have anything that was still left from my lunchbox.

In year 6, I moved to a different ASC that offered more diversity of snack, closer to a light meal, and it irritated me that it wasn't as easy or quick to eat as a slice of toast around whatever other thing I was doing.
🤷‍♀️

I have a fairly healthy diet as an adult, and so do my DC who occasionally (gasp) eat jam on toast.

Am I missing something OP? Are you thinking that they’re supposed to be being given something that constitutes an evening meal (either substantial or a light meal) to tide them over until either a bedtime snack or breakfast the next day? So they’ve had a full cooked lunch in school so they eat at After School Club and you don’t feed them tea at home? Is that where the confusion is coming from? Or are you complaining about the quality of the snack given to them? Because for 3 hours care plus food and drink at £15 there’s little profit to serve them a hearty full cooked evening meal that means you don’t have to provide one when you get them home. If it’s the quality of the snack then by all means suggest similarly costed nutritionally balanced foods that will stop the hunger pangs until collection to Staff (or pack your own if preferred). Kids get Starving after school when having lunch around noon and would soon complain without anything provided.

I think our kids might go to the same AS club. This is such a bugbear for me. ‘Jam Wraps’ are always on the menu. What’s wrong with pesto pasta or jacket potato. They’re easy to do in bulk and cheap as chips. But, other than this I love them. They’re so flexible and the kids have a great time there, so I let it go. If they went 5 days a week I think I would be more concerned.

What’s wrong with pesto pasta or jacket potato.

They require cooking/heating facilities.

My daughters after school club was a similar set up (on school premises, in the portacabin they used as a nursery) they always got pasta, soup, sandwiches etc... I gave dinner when we got home but not till about 7:30 and still she couldn’t finish her dinner because she had been so well fed... so I would be annoyed too

Sounds like they are having to make cut backs.

If you’re paying a lot extra for the last hour it’s because it’s not usually popular but they still have to pay staff the same/ pay for premises hire the same. The last hour is usually has less kids so it has to be made cost effective. The food aspect of child care is often the most difficult because you have to have someone making it, the right facilities and not to mention the right insurances and hygiene certificates. It’s a massive faff all round.

@GintyMcGinty

Sounds like they are having to make cut backs.

They don't have cooking facilities as pointed out many times.

Zolrets: it needs to be substantial and nutritious enough to actually replace the evening meal not be an additional eating occasion
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I get it now. I wouldn't want that personally, to me us sitting around the table together for dinner each evening was always important and enjoyable. If the nursery or whatever it is did offer a proper evening meal, presumably not long before pick up time, what would the kids go home to? They'd either get ready for and go to bed, or watch mum and dad eating at the table. Not much of family time.

Anyway it's up to you, there probably are places that do that if you search around.

I haven’t read the whole thread (sorry) but in one of the OP’s posts it says they have a fully functioning kitchen.