Summer holiday clubs costs

[8654677j556]

Ds is going to reception in September and I read this piece in the guardian about the price of an average summer holiday club www.theguardian.com/money/2022/jul/19/charity-criticises-lack-of-uk-summer-childcare-as-cost-rises-to-nearly-900. We are in London so it says average is 161 a week, I've also seen lots of clubs at 50 pounds a day around here. How much does everyone pay and how do you afford it?

£54 per day (8am - 5pm) and the kids have to bring their own lunch and snacks.

It's a lot cheaper than nursery. We were paying £70-85 a day for nursery (depending on age) whereas the holiday clubs we used (SE) were between £25 and £33 per day. That's for a full day of about 8am to 6pm.

We've since relocated to NE and hol club here is £33 per day but that includes all the meals and some trips out which the SE ones didn't include.

We used tax free childcare and paid a certain amount in per month, to cover higher costs during school hols.

DD has no functional grandparents - We sent her to hol club a lot - only child so it meant she had lots of fun playing with other children and hol club is cheaper than a family day out! I was part-time initially so she went 3 days a week throughout the six week summer hol and we did long weekends and day trips away inbetween. The other hols we'd book leave to cover half term. Then she'd do about a week during the Xmas and Easter hols too, with annual leave covering the rest. We used to keep some annual leave for termtime so we could have some childfree days out too.

DH is now a SAHD but DD's still going to holiday club some days over the summer so she can play with other kids, give the holiday a bit of structure and to mix up what we're doing a bit.

The other issue with holiday clubs is that kids tend to enjoy activities where their friends are. My child is an only and it's
often just not possible to synch up with other friends. In fact,
often you can’t even be sure there is a kid there age even. I have actually genuinely admired DS from 4 up going to activities where he hasn’t known anyone. I think he’s been brave and resilient however, I know many children who are quieter and may have found the situations he has been able to overcome, insurmountable. The times he has come home and said kid x, y or
z has been mean to him, it’s like a dagger to my heart. Oh yes, he went to one £££ club at 4 and an older kid taught him to spell out F U C K. 😧I’m not sure he could spell his own name reliably at that point but kudos to that expensive place, at least he learnt some spelling there.

Ds is also an only and I was wondering whether we would end up using clubs more often to stop him from getting lonely or less often because of having to go by himself.

The one we use is £50 a day, it’s a chain camp with loads of activities and opens 8-6 which we need. There are a few cheaper ones around here but they’re less convenient and shorter days. We plan and our holiday for the year in January meaning we can take advantage of the early bird offers which brings the cost down quite a bit and use tax free childcare as well.

I don’t know anyone that goes with siblings, mostly because DD is 5 and in her class it’s all younger siblings that aren’t old enough yet. Alleviating boredom is definitely a thing though and not unique to only children. Half the kids going have a SAHP but given the choice between toddler sibling or camp with friends, they’d choose camp every time!

£220 a week, Central London

No grandparent help here. DH and I both take leave to cover part of the holidays, and use holiday club for the rest. It’s run at DD’s school (they also do wraparound care in term time), costs £32 a day including food (Yorkshire) and is open 8-6. It will cost us £500 for the summer holidays.

There are various activity camps around here but I’ve noticed that they are usually 9-3. I think they are more structured with a timetable for each day, from the adverts I’ve seen for them.

It’s still cheaper than nursery was (£45 a day) and the costs are holiday times only instead of all year round (I use after school club a few days a week during term time - £10 per session). I pay use childcare vouchers so I’m used to the money just coming out of my salary.

It’s usually 3-4 weeks in holiday club over the summer holidays, the October and February half terms, and one week at Easter. If we go on a family holiday in June, that would mean an extra week at holiday club over the summer, and vice versa.

We plan it all out at the start of the year in a spreadsheet. Usually we each take a weeks leave in the summer and have a week off together. For half terms, I might book the Monday off and DH books the Friday off, so we only need three days in holiday club.

As previous posters have said, you and your DH will need to keep some leave to cover inset days, the week between Xmas and New Year, early finishes at end of term, and events like sports days. I have a flexible job so can leave early for these and make up the hours later, which is a godsend.

It depends on how much time you want to take off together and how much annual leave you take separately to cover the holidays. Also on how flexible your jobs are for things like sick children/school events.

We are able to WFH and the school is very close so we can usually do school events by taking a differently timed lunch break and when the kids are ill, we WFH around each other and make up time in the evening. So most of our annual leave can go on school holiday coverage - this year, we will only use a couple of weeks of holiday club but next year it will likely be 4 or so

But you're paying less overall presumably?
And the cost of wraparound cwrw and school holidays needs to be factored in when looking at finances and considering working hours of the parents and location. Wfh for example, has meant that any school holidays my child has been able to be in their own home with activities setup and was very much a consideration. I value this more than the additional 20k that could be gained by working office based.

Maybe his is the time to review your circumstances and choices?

I think you are very fortunate to be able to have your child at home whilst you work. DH and I WFH, DH fully and me 3 days a week but we can't have the kids at home whilst we do. Would be totally inappropriate in my job and DH needs long periods of uninterrupted concentration and does a lot of work calls.

I dont think we can WFH with a four year old. It's also just the minefield of having to book all these things in advance. Also as he is not five until later in the year, we're planning on using our AL for the first half of the year.

The other thing we have been considering is an after school nanny who could also do some days of the school holidays - we have concluded it's not cost effective until our second starts school but you could explore a nanny share maybe

@8654677j556
I am not going to suggest that it's easy, but it is possible to make wfh with a child work. My lo is a summer born so literally went to school days after their 4th birthday and I managed to "train" them to know when they could do xyz. I also setup activities they could do independently etc. Not ideal as not working, but preferable to the alterative in our circumstances.

I do have quite a lot of autonomy in my consultant role, so organise my schedule in holidays to reflect what works best for us.

And tbh, having now worked from home with a child to educate as well during two lockdowns, holidays are a breeze!

Do you think your 4 year old preferred that to holiday club?

My 5 year old would 1000% rather be at holiday club than playing on his own all day. My 3 year old, I think might actually enjoy being on his own more and might do ok with this when he was 4/5

I wonder that too. Mine would definitely love to hang out with friends all day every day but not sure about clubs.

This week's camp 10-3 £35 per day. South East. I think it's reasonable. Dc is doing 3 days.

It's not run by a school though, it's based in a school.

Mine would definitely love to hang out with friends all day every day but not sure about clubs.

Where we live the only way for DS to hang out with his friends all day in summer is in a holiday club. Most families either have two parents working or else go abroad for the whole holiday - there are very few kids just pottering around. I think it's a shame because I grew up among hordes of free range children, but... different times.

@TheYearOfSmallThings we are in London so am guessing that this is also true here. I am still amazed with how many parents just go abroad for the whole six weeks and WFH from Italy or France.

We are London too. It's not just the WFH crowd (I will be doing a bit of that from Ireland). I have Romanian, Albanian, Lithuanian, Polish friends where the husband stays in the UK working, while the wife brings the children back home to live with the wider family. It's really important for family ties and language - they learn so much.

In the SE. We use 2-3 weeks holiday club in the summer normally. And then she goes to holiday clubs for most of the half terms (we may take the odd day off for a long weekend, and have been away for the May half term) and usually a week at club for Easter and Xmas. So that's about 7 weeks over the year. This summer she has a week at a singing and dancing one: 9-3, take packed lunch, £95 for the week, and a multi-sports one which is £125 for the week (again 9-3, take packed lunch). There aren't any full day ones around here. Luckily we both WFH and one of us starts early, the other finishes late. We did consider travelling 30 miles or so to one of the large chain ones which is near DH's work as he can go into the office, and might do that in the future when she is a bit older. Have an only child (age 7), and she by far prefers to go to clubs than to stay at home with us (when given the option). Sometimes she knows people there already but has managed to make friends at all the ones she has been to so far. She's a massive extrovert.

It very much depends on the child, their interests, what their friends are doing etc.
Mine is very outgoing (unlike her parents!), happy to go into a unknown environment and get stuck in, usually easily finds someone to play with and loves doing art and craft and messy play. Whilst she's happy at home for a bit playing on her own or reading, she isn't happy doing this for more than some of any day.

Where we've had problems with hol club was Reception year when Covid bubbles were still operating and she ended up in a bubble on her own which she hated. TBH that was bad management with that hol club as there were either things wrong with it. We didn't use that one again. She also isn't into most sport so multi-sports camps don't appeal. She did three days at one last summer (only one open the bank hol week!) and didn't like it as she doesn't like ball sports and they didn't have any arty/crafty stuff. She prefers multi-activity type clubs.

This summer we've booked her into the days when there are things she'd really love to do - crafty/arty days, trips out, boat trip, party day. And also asked a couple of her friends which days they're likely to be in.
This hol club is at her school so she tends to know several children from her year there even if they aren't in her class.

Yes, strangers forced together like that for my lo for a week would have been their idea of a punishment tbh! And even now when I have offered that they could do activities in the holidays I'm still told they'd rather be at home.