To think wraparound childcare for year 7 isn’t a thing

[BananaPie]

Help me solve a debate with DH..

I think that when ds goes into year 7 in a couple of years time he will be walking to school and back by himself. He’ll be home by around 4pm and will have homework to complete.

At the moment while he is at primary school he goes to the after school club most afternoons and either me or dh pick him up around 6pm (neither of us work from home).

I think that when he is at secondary school we will need to change our working hours so that one of us can be at home from around the time he gets back from school. That way we will be able to check he isn’t accidentally burning the house down and make sure he settles down to some homework.

Dh’s view is that this will be too tricky to organise with work and we should get a nanny / childminder/ tutor.

Wider context - some special needs issues and we can’t see ds being particularly independent/ sensible by the time he gets to year 7.

What do most people do?

A Year 7 kid should in theory be able to go home unlock the door and not kill anyone for an hour before you get home. As someone else said I'd die if I had a childminder in year 7

Don't be ridiculous! Of course you wouldn't die, talk about dramatic.

Back in the real world there is no problem going to a childminder after school. It's just somewhere to hang out and get fed, have someone to talk to. Most of the teens who came here would bring friends back to join us for dinner or just slob around. Even the neighbours young teens would join us sometimes.

The only difference between going to a homework club and coming to mine is that I feed them and they can kick of their shoes and slob on the sofa/in the office to do homework.

Funnily enough it never stopped any of them becoming independent and confident young adults, even the ones who came because they were too anxious to be home alone in yr7.

How hard is it actually for people to understand that there might be a world of difference between your 11yr old and someone else's. They have enough going on in their lives at that stage without putting pressure on any child to do something they aren't ready for.

How hard is it actually for people to understand that there might be a world of difference between your 11yr old and someone else's. They have enough going on in their lives at that stage without putting pressure on any child to do something they aren't ready for

I don't just know my 11 year old though. I know my DD's wide friendship group and tbh through doing a lot of volunteering at the school pre covid and knowing the parents well, I know a large majority of her primary year group of 90 as well as working in a school and fwiw there are no primary 7's in our after school club and that's the last year of primary

It's not that people don't understand that children are different.

But that the vast vast vast majority of year 7 children would be fine. Therefore that's why there is no standard wrap around provisions.

The op will need something specialist and bespoke. Which she's recognised straight up by suggesting changing work hours

Surely the variance isn't so much in the dc as in the parent's working arrangements? I fully agree most 11yos can occupy themselves for an hour or two. I am less convinced most 11yos could manage 3.45 to 8pm including cooking their own tea. That is why my dc will need to access childcare.

Group care is no longer available. If your child has particular needs, you either have to meet those yourself or hire someone in your place. I wouldn’t worry about it too much until a year out and then 6 months out because kids change so much at that age. One day it’s like a switch flips and suddenly they stop being quite so incapable, even kids with SN, so it’s just too hard to predict exactly what care will be required.

Our school finishes at 3 and only offers clubs/library/ homework club till 4.30 max and on a Friday year 7’s finish at 2 so this was a real headache for us and that was with no SEN.

I was only comfortable leaving mine for an hour/90 mins right at the start so we juggled hours so one of us was home by 4.30 depending on traffic but it wasn’t long before I felt comfortable with it being a bit longer.

I would start by checking what the school offers and until what time then consider options for someone coming to the house if hours can’t be juggled. Perhaps a sixth form student looking to earn some cash? Mine was too embarrassed to keep using CM which we did to begin with on the 2pm finish day.

It doesn't really matter what most people do, does it? You have to do what's right for your child, according to his needs/your situation.