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.

@dotdashdashdash how is £5 qn hr expensive because they have 30 kids they will stil have to pay staff £8.91 min an hr plus ni etc on top , building costs , insurance , food, , accountants all sorts really , not many of these places run at a huge progit

Am i the only one who would give my kids toast and jam or cereal as a snack, mine aren't overweight and its never done them any harm, suddenly its nutritionally void although that can't be said if the bread is wholemeal and the cereal sugar free etc but i have always let mine have everything in moderation besides now their teenagers they would prob eat the box the cereal comes in.
Op why not just ask the after school club if this is now normal and why they aren't providing previous meals ( maybe cook is sick ) there could be lots of reasons

How does it operate with only two staff? On a practical level - what do they do for holiday/sick cover for example? Breaks and lunches if they do holiday club?

@MrsArchchancellorRidcully how is it they need to pay staff and make a living
If your school charges £5 for 2.5 hrs childcare and a snack then its likely subsidised so consider yourself very lucky

@dotdashdashdash

Operating with two staff to that number of kids is where corners are being cut.

But the other wrap around providers near us only operate a marginally higher ratio and that's because their staff have minimal qualifications and are paid minimum wage- rather than bringing in appropriately qualified people and paying them decently.

Just because other people don’t operate brilliantly doesn’t make that set up the best.

Two adults is never best practise because if anything happens to one of them it’s a problem. In nearly 17 years of running playschemes and after school care the worst accident I’ve ever had to deal with was actually one or the adults.

And yes childminders work alone and all the rest of it with be thrown at it, but two adults to 40 children for childcare is a very poor ratio.

@dotdashdashdash how do you know its not funded though ?

@dotdashdashdash just read your update so your school runs in on its own premises so straight away a huge saving
The op is a private run after school so the £15 isn't purely wages it will be premises also equipment etc again a school would have equipment, also schools do have funding in different ways and some of this will of been used for items which the after school club then may use
Its very different to a private run after school club

StatisticallyChallenged

Sorry I should have been clearer. We have 2 staff specifically employed to manage and organise, plan and run the wrap around/ holiday care. We then have additional staff who have other roles within the school who also work on the out of school provision on an ad hoc or part time basis - lunch time supervisors, kitchen staff, kindergarten staff and admin staff along with the other TAs all undertake some of it (this is part of their jobs).

It's a very small school (87 kids including kindergarten) so all staff do all roles for the most part. Kindergarten runs 7.30-6 51 weeks of the year so there's always a full staff team on site, it's never just wrap around care.

@dotdashdashdash so very different to a private run one

Ah right ok.

That's a vastly different setup to what most after school care providers are dealing with (and will allow you to operate at a massively reduced cost). We're an off site provider, and for comparison

• our staff work 4 hours, even though the children are only there for roughly 3 hours. That's because it's shared premises so they have to arrive, set up a full after school club, then walk to the school to get the kids. Split pick up, younger kids before 3, older after 3.
• After the kids leave the whole place has to be packed back up
• In addition to the normal cleaning we now have to have daily covid cleaning before we open
• one of the staff has to prepare the snack too
• we're a 1:10 ratio (1:8 if the session is longer than 4 hours), and need to cover absence from within our staff pool as the temp agencies are next to useless
• we have to pay rent
• we have to do all the admin, bookings, billing, payment chasing etc

I can assure you with that regulatory/operating environment, £15 for a session isn't extorting anyone. I wish

Effectively your ASC is heavily subsidised compared to many others by virtue of it being incorporated in to the school setup so comprehensively. That's just not done here really - even the on site non profits are essentially independent operations which rent space (albeit sometimes for a nil cost). There's no backup from the school, no admin support, no catering, etc etc.

I'm surprised so many people are ok with kids being given cereal, crisps and biscuits and jam on toast and crumpets as snacks at after school clubs. It's all cheap sugary carb stuff that I would pretty much classify as junk . I know they have a budget but I'd honestly rather my kids were given nothing and came home hungry for a proper dinner with actual nutritional value, than they filled up on crisps and biscuits.

I would have thought a 'light tea' was a snack. I've never heard of a light tea before, only tea which is a snack!

@NoIDontWatchLoveIsland

I'm surprised so many people are ok with kids being given cereal, crisps and biscuits and jam on toast and crumpets as snacks at after school clubs. It's all cheap sugary carb stuff that I would pretty much classify as junk . I know they have a budget but I'd honestly rather my kids were given nothing and came home hungry for a proper dinner with actual nutritional value, than they filled up on crisps and biscuits.

I'm honestly not that bothered. They have a cooked school meal then food after club. I pack a fruit pot for them too for after school but they love making their toast!

Who mentioned crisps and biscuits?

That is the reason they are given some toast and jam. It's enough to keep them going until they have their dinner at home. I'd have thought most would be satisfied with that. It's not going to kill a child to have something containing sugar once a day.

I'd speak to the ASC manager about it. It sounds more like there's a staffing issue and whoever would normally cook isn't there.

I was just talking to DS about this - he's early 20s now! He recalls his ghastly after school clubs from primary phase, and the 'light teas'.

Bottom line:

They were the only facilities available.

I needed to work.

The 'light teas' were basically bread and jam, toast, and cheap packet sausage rolls on a Friday. There was a fruit bowl on the counter though for any child who asked.

They were parked in front of a TV for most of the time, especially in autumn to winter.

The staff ratio was crap.

These after school clubs were on LA school premises.

They were doing the best they could.

I fed them supper when we got all home.

@NoIDontWatchLoveIsland

I'm surprised so many people are ok with kids being given cereal, crisps and biscuits and jam on toast and crumpets as snacks at after school clubs. It's all cheap sugary carb stuff that I would pretty much classify as junk . I know they have a budget but I'd honestly rather my kids were given nothing and came home hungry for a proper dinner with actual nutritional value, than they filled up on crisps and biscuits.

But you aren’t the one dealing with 30 grumpy hangry children for two and a half hours are you?

@worriedatthemoment

Am i the only one who would give my kids toast and jam or cereal as a snack, mine aren't overweight and its never done them any harm, suddenly its nutritionally void although that can't be said if the bread is wholemeal and the cereal sugar free etc but i have always let mine have everything in moderation besides now their teenagers they would prob eat the box the cereal comes in. Op why not just ask the after school club if this is now normal and why they aren't providing previous meals ( maybe cook is sick ) there could be lots of reasons

In all fairness the majority of the reason I don't give my DC things like that is because I would have to scrape them off of the ceiling. I gave them jam tarts last week ...one bloody jam tart each and I came into the room 2 minute later to find ds2 trying to do a headstand in a chair. It's not healthy eating in my house its survival of sanity. Sugar buys me hours of hyperactivity!

One jam tart shouldn't have that effect on healthy children, Shiny?
Do you imagine the whole after school class experience "hours of hyperactivity" after their toast and jam?
Highly unlikely.

@GreyhoundG1rl

One jam tart shouldn't have that effect on healthy children, Shiny? Do you imagine the whole after school class experience "hours of hyperactivity" after their toast and jam? Highly unlikely.

I do apologise clearly you know my DC better than I do and found a way to turn a reasonably lighthearted explanation of why I don't give jam on toast to my DC into an attempt at a kick to another parent. Well done ...I truly hope you feel a bit more validated now!

My DC are perfectly healthy thanks (with the exclusion of DS1 being ASD but I don't consider it a health issue ) and your post was really unnecessary. I was simply qualifying in an attempt to be lighthearted that I wasn't commenting to be smug about food choices.

I truly hope you are proud of yourself for your vague (and really clunky) attempt at being superior. I didn't remotely suggest anyone else's child would have hours of hyperactivity.

Good, what nonsense! I was neither being superior or attempting to kick you. I've clearly touched a nerve.

Standard afterschool snack/light tea. Dont you feed them when you get home? For that little money you cant expect much more