Cancelled Afterschool Activity

[CancelledActivity]

Hard hat on, I've been on here for years but don't think I've ever braved an AIBU post before.

DD1 is 4 and started school in September. DH and I both work FT, and she goes to an afterschool club everyday. They're the same company as the nursery she went to for years and are thankfully very accommodating. They collect from many schools in the area and run a fleet of cars and do a huge amount of work to make sure everyone is picked up when they need to be.

Once a week DD does football after school - outside company, held at school, advertised through school but paid directly to the company. Afterschool club very nicely put on a car to collect DD and a few others from football, and when the day changed at one week's notice recently they adjusted as well.

It's miserable here today, and we got a text at noon that football was likely cancelled and they would confirm at 1pm.

AIBU to think that two hours notice that DC have to be picked up an hour early is taking the piss? I was embarrassed asking the after school club to make a change to their schedule at such short notice, which thankfully they can do as it would have been difficult for DH or I to make it on time.

Surely an outdoor activity in November needs a contingency plan?

Unfortunately their plan is cancellation and for parents to collect their child or make other arrangements. At least now you know this is a probability going forward and can make standby arrangements to deal with such eventuality.

Clubs like this often get cancelled, don’t run first or last week etc. If you have good aftercare I wouldn’t mess them around I’d just use that. If she wants to play football take her on a Saturday.

Can't the after school collect early? That's what would normally happen in my experience. Indeed they've probably been notified too.

It is really shit how primary schools treat working parents.

I think it's really poor that many are suggesting that the children of working parents should just not have access to enrichment activities. My son's school makes this more expensive - you pay twice but at least it's all doable and it all runs in house so is relatively smooth

@OP This will happen again. But - it depending on who is (not?) running it there could be an alternative provision in a classroom somewhere. Even colouring (not ideal) but it's childcare. Just go politely (not all guns blazing) and figure out what the deal is for the future.

There will be times that the people who are running it suddenly get ill - do they have backup? (Quite possibly not)

They have done but they're a third party, not the school ASC. They pick up from at least 5 different schools so adding in an extra car or two at short notice isn't nothing and I don't want to be putting them out on a regular basis. They bend over backwards for parents and I don't want to take the piss as I value them highly (known them since DD was 9 months).

Thanks@Tomorrowisalatterday

I think you are mixing up after school activities with childcare- it’s up to you to have a contingency plan (with the after school club in case activity is cancelled) not the activity provider. hobbies are not childcare

Don't forget this is outside of school provision, something like PE partnership who come in to do these sports clubs. They are qualified PE teachers not school staff, they organise sport they do not have to provide alternatives. They hire the school field not classrooms

It is pretty rubbish but am glad after school club have sorted it out.

I don’t see why it’s the responsibility of the school to arrange things that are convenient for working parents. It’s the responsibility of the parents to arrange child care. Sometimes, things go wrong, particularly with outdoor based activities.

You wouldn’t expect an office to make contingency plans or run an after school club, or a police station, or retail. Schools don’t stop when the children leave and the adults in them have responsibilities after the children go home.

My experience of after school football clubs hasn't been with my own not particularly team-sport interested children, but with some of the students I teach after school (violin). I've had room to be flexible over the last few years, so "any chance of changing day / time because X wants to do Y club and they've just swapped days" seems to come up every so often.

Anyway, I think you may find that a football club for littlies stops for the rest of the term fairly soon, it's so weather dependent but once it is wet and cold as well as dark it's not worth running.

Glad you've got such a great after school care provider, that's such a key part of primary school arrangements for many.

The football company's plan is to ring parents to collect if cancelled. That's reasonable, they are running a slills based club not childcare. . You have been very lucky that your after school childcare have been accommodating to pick up from clubs but if they didn't you would have 2 choices, you take time off to collect or your child doesn't do the club. I'm not sure it's fair to be grumpy with the football club.

I'm not sure it's fair to be grumpy with the football club.

I'm grumpy with the football club AND the school.

The school used to allow them use a classroom before covid. No refund from the football club, so surely it wouldn't be a huge burden to allow them to use a room to supervise some colouring for an hour rather than leave us scrabbling.

Gah.

I know, I know IABU. But I'm still annoyed!

The football club definitely shouldn’t be charging for a session they’ve cancelled but other than that I don’t see a problem. The Afterschool Club are happy to pick the children - they’d let you know if they aren’t. It will be part of the service they give. If you’re really worried you can just ask them. It’s not an unusual occurrence so im sure they’ll have a policy for it. It’s actually a much better situation than if you had to pick the child up yourself.

I think it is reasonable to be annoyed with the football club as it doesn't sound like they actually said "we will frequently cancel so don't rely on this for childcare"

I find my son's school aggravating in many ways as a working parent but one thing they did well was making super clear when you signed up for clubs that they weren't childcare and could be cancelled at short notice. Allowed you to make an informed decision.

TBH I think there are loads of things about starting primary school that are a bit like this - schools seem to expect everyone to telepathically know stuff, which you don't if it's your first child starting school. Like "oh your child was in uniform on the last day of term, didn't you know it's always own clothes" or "such a shame you couldn't donate to the end of term party that we didn't tell you about"

Oh I hear you @Tomorrowisalatterday - I actually had to send an email 3 weeks into term "I think they're due to be in for a full day from next week - when does school finish as it's not actually written anywhere on the website?".

The school is lovely, the teacher is very impressive, they've been great with DD's allergy and overall I'm very impressed so don't want to be That Parent over this but Christ the administration and communication are shocking.

YANBU because these activity clubs are fantastic for children who would otherwise miss out due to their parents working.

I get they aren't childcare, but by absolving themselves entirely of that responsibility they're making themselves exclusive for those who don't work/have that magical flexibility to be able to collect their children at short notice. It's just another stick to beat working parents with.

We had to remove our eldest from hers when I was in the office full time because the unreliability of them was causing massive logistical nightmares and led to me owing favours all over the place.

Fortunately working from home now means our youngest can attend her clubs because my boss doesn't care when I'm at my desk as long as my work gets done and my hours are fulfilled. Not everyone is so fortunate.

It’s an activity not child care.

It won't help with the problem in hand but a class Whats App group will be invaluable for general information (if there isn't one set up already)

You have reason to be annoyed with the football club as it sounds like it’s an external provider, but not the school. If the football club said they were cancelling and no one would be showing up, then wether or not the school let them have a classroom they are in the wrong. Especially if they won’t even give a refund.

I don’t think it’s fair to automatically assume a classroom should be given up to this when the hall is already being used though. Sometimes teachers need to be in their classrooms after school to work and the cleaners need to clean. They shouldn’t be expected to wait to do their job.

The notion that every child has pickup options that can change at two hours notice is bizarre and unrealistic to me. DD's best friend's parents are a doctor and a teacher, they may not even have seen the messages in time (fortunately he goes to the same after school club so they'll pick him up along with DD and the others).

so actually you are all better off than parents who don't have the afterschool club, if it seems there isn't just your child going - the afterschool club will just collect all those children at the end of school, and not have to go out later.

How is an external company cancelling a session the school treating parents badly? Things get cancelled, that's life. What if the people running the session were ill?

The company are providing football coaching not childcare. If the weather is so bad they can't provide the coaching safely and there is nowhere indoor they can use I'm not sure what they were supposed to do. I expect they only gave a couple of hours notice because it was only then when they realised it wouldn't be safe for the activity to take place.
I don't think they are being unreasonable.

The school ds was at used to not tell us that the football was cancelled and just send them to the afterschool club and then charge us for that on the full price rather than the prebooked price. I used to find that annoying. I'd far rather have been given the option to pick up at normal time.

Although the time they forgot to tell ds' form that was the plan and he walked home by himself (aged 8yo, 40 minutes walk to what would normally have been an empty house at that time-luckily on that one occasion his big sister was home) was definitely worse. I was tempted to go down and "innocently" pretend I had come to pick him up and watch the panic unfold.

They provide football not colouring 😏 it's a sport club, they run sports programmes not childcare.