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?

Exactly this! My DS after school football training is cancelled on the day/after school fairly often- parents don't get an email or alert & the kid just has to make their own way home/ring parents when school finishes to try & get a lift (Secondary school age). I know this is slightly different as the football coach is also a teacher so he is volunteering his time but that's the way all after school clubs are run ime. What if your DD injured herself playing football? These things can easily happen playing sports on wet & muddy fields. The football coaches aren't babysitters - they are there to coach football & nothing else. It's not up to them to come up with different indoor activities if the sport can't be played due to bad weather! I'd suggest you find a football activity that's held at weekends - but be aware you might need to stay & watch when the kids are only 4 years old. You can't always drop & run with these kind of sporting activities.

From the football club's point of view are they offering a chance to play football or are the offering childcare?

If it is mainly a football club then if football not possible it wouldn't offer an alternative. School lets are often via council hiring a pitch doesn't necessarily give access to school building.

If it is selling its self as after school care then they should have a back up plan.

The parents are the back up plan. Your child is still in school now, school is not child care it's education. Sporting clubs are not childcare they provide an activity. School can call you anytime if a child is illor has an accident, they do not have to give notice because ultimately it is your responsibility. You do have to get your head round that fact.

That's different because in those examples someone drops the kids off themselves. This is a pickup directly from school so the expectation should be that the parents will not be immediately nearby and available in case of a last-minute cancellation.

This is a pickup directly from school so the expectation should be that the parents will not be immediately nearby and available in case of a last-minute cancellation.

So they make sure that someone can - relative, minder, after-school - whatever is needed for each family.

It's simply splitting hairs to say that because the parent might not be there at drop off, different rules apply.

The final, repeated how-many-times-now point, is that the activity is not childcare, and if a parent chooses that option, they have to take the attendant risk of cancellation & plan for it.

Exactly this.

I think afterschool activities providers need to accept that they ARE in fact part of people's childcare arrangements.
Working parents don't get the rest of the afternoon off if it rains!
The responsibility of an after school club doesn't change just because some parents choose to use them in place of properly registered childcare.

It's not the job of the school or after school activity provider to sort out childcare for families who didn't make adequate childcare arrangements.

I'm just wondering if I'm reasonable to be pissed off as a first time parent at school. The notion that every child has pickup options that can change at two hours notice is bizarre and unrealistic to me.

Yes, this is normal, sorry. It's an activity not childcare. Unfortunately your options as a full time working parent OOH during early primary are the after school club (if they will collect from activity), childminder, nanny, or looking for a more flexible position.

Once at secondary school, in my experience, there isn't usually a call home when after school activities are cancelled - children rather than parents are informed.

Am with you as this is a company not a local football club or teacher volunteering. However this happens. It's crap as a working parent primary years stressful you trying to give them opportunities to be out playing football in the fresh air & better at that time than evening when they wrecked! Just appreciate your asc which sounds like you do. They a business too & am sure you pay them enough for the excellent service.

i’d be speaking my mind to the head teacher and/governors. Ultimately responsibility lies with them for these decisions,

..............and we'd know who to blame when this activity wasn't offered again.

Because why would a teacher want to research what is available, check references, etc, and make the booking, then advertise to parents and take the bookings, then be responsible for getting the message out as quickly as they can on the odd occasion it has to be cancelled for legitimate reasons, when this is the response they get to doing all that extra work so the children can have a fun activity available to them, outside of the teacher's contracted hours ?

It's not a school activity. It's not offered by a teacher after hours. It's a private company. The school only shared the information.

plus they are insured to coach football on the football field.It may not cover doing different activities in a different location

Sounds stressful

check with childcare that if happens again (and it will esp in winter) that they are happy to pick up early with barely any notice

do they pick up others as usual time so at school regardless

I think dd5 has her her advice so over the terms gym dance crafts cancelled a few times due to poorly teachers