After school clubs

[HereBeFuckery]

Once again, primary school cancel a pre-arranged after school activity with 27 mins notice before the end of the school day. Last week, they notified us 12 minutes AFTER the end of the day that the club was cancelled and to collect children from the school office 'immediately'.

I get that clubs aren't childcare or guaranteed, but essentially, if you work (y'know, like most parents) you have to say 'no darling, you can't do X fun after school activity' because you, as a parent, would have to be free, not in a meeting and within five mins drive of school just in case they cancel at zero notice AGAIN.

Even a couple of hours would mean I could sort something out. In 20 mins I have no chance.

WIBU to make a formal complaint to governors about the piss poor communication?

I didn't either. But I was always available to pick up my child if I was called.

I used to always check my phone when my sons were going to After school clubs, at the time I'd usually leave to collect them from school. Just in case.

Re: ringing round if things get cancelled. I work in a school office and if it was cancelled at relatively short notice ie. person taking the after school club became unwell, or was called away to an emergency it would be unlikely we would be able to contact 20 parents by phone in that time. An app message is the quickest way to let parents know in the shortest amount of time, as often parents have assumed they have extra time before they need to pick up from school and so have gone off to the shops or something and don't always hear their phone. But people DO usually see a notification on their phone if they have a quick glance at it. We would ring the parents who didn't turn up after the cancellation because well, why wouldn't we? There is no reason for school to be shitty about it, but perhaps they have a lot of parents taking the piss and swanning in late all the time.

You have to think a bit more about how they operate. If it's a specialist thing eg a particular sport or hobby, they most likely don't have anyone available at short notice to cover.

Sympathies OP, I had a similar thread last week. (No, not the same OP for the PP who was wondering.)

Complete pain in the arse.

"I book both on days when DCs want to do an activity club and I have to work. It isn't rocket science"

This isn’t bonkers though. This is exactly what parents do at the school I work in and it’s exactly what happened at the school my children went to. I can only imagine it’s relatively normal considering it’s unlikely we've found the only schools that ever do it on this thread.

IME parents book their children into activity clubs like art/choir/football/coding/sewing etc because the childcare after school club gets boring every day. But the activity clubs get cancelled every time the one person that runs them is unavailable, or it’s parents evening, or a school play is happening, or it’s the last week of term. It is less likely to be cancelled when the activity is provided by an external company rather than the school, but it still happens occasionally. When parents rely on it for childcare, or the activity club finishes earlier than the parents can get to school, they book the childcare club. Not at all bonkers.

You have to think a bit more about how they operate. If it's a specialist thing eg a particular sport or hobby, they most likely don't have anyone available at short notice to cover.

Which is why the cover person would either to a different activity or the kids would go to asc.

This isn’t bonkers though. This is exactly what parents do at the school I work in and it’s exactly what happened at the school my children went to

Ime the only parents who would book asc & an activity would be for parents who couldn't get to school for the time the activity finishes. I have done this when I had to collect the dc at 5 or 6.

What is bonkers ime is to book an activity & the asc & pay for both even though you can collect the child when the activity finishes just in case the activity is cancelled.
It also would mean places are booked by dc who may never end up in the asc & normally there is big demand for asc so I'm not sure how schools would cover all that extra provision?
But it's not common ime to regularly cancel activity clubs.

Any paid for after school club is childcare to me. My DC goes to after school club run by an external agency, that’s open till 6pm 3 days a week and I pay for this. There’s also one day where I pay for them to do an activity at school run by a different agency till 4:30pm. I consider them all to be childcare.
The school also has some enrichment activities that are run for free, none of them interest my DC at the moment but when she used to go to these ones, I always book the paid for after school club as well. This is simply because they are free so I know they can get cancelled at anytime, also they run till 4:30 but I need childcare till after 5 so she goes to after school club after. I don’t consider the free school run clubs to be childcare because simply, they are free.

It's an appalling situation (one has to presume it was an emergency) but I don't think it really matters how anyone regards these things. Clubs aren't childcare, they are enrichment activities.

I do think the difference should be properly explained to parents from the outset though. At my school unless you're pupil premium, places at clubs are rotated each term to give as many kids an opportunity to attend as possible. I think this helps the distinction because you know you can't rely on it for the year, but it still isn't clear enough imo.

I don’t consider the free school run clubs to be childcare because simply, they are free.

I would agree, all the activity clubs I know through professional & personal experience are paid for.

I do also think that when a school says please pick up your child straightaway they're perfectly aware that most parents can't just appear in a puff of smoke, but they mean as soon as you can get there.

I know I'm (re)opening a can of worms but I'm desperate to know where these magical London schools are that run plentiful free activity clubs outside of school hours...

None for miles round here that I'm aware of. Closest I've ever had is a couple of extra choir rehearsals of an afternoon before a big performance, but that was strictly a one off.

All the usual/scheduled clubs, you pay. Usually a fair amount.

I think in seven years of kids at primary, we've had one club session cancelled with less than 24 hours' notice.

I assumed they weren't in London!

Other locations exist outside London.

Who claimed otherwise?

I've just gone back and I read the thread wrong and confused two posts. Apologies for the confusion!

Go on though - where are these magical places?

Okay, to clarify:

These are extra curricular clubs. Run by school staff.

They have been cancelled with (tonight) 27 mins notice between the cancellation message and the end of the school day, (last week) 12 mins AFTER the end of the school day - I.e. 12 mins into when the activity should have started, (three weeks ago) with just over 30 mins notice, and all of last term with no more than forty mins notice of cancellation. Four cancellations between May half term and July. Not once was enough notice given. These can't all be unforeseen!

I do pay for after school club/wraparound. I don't pay for it on nights when there is supposed to be an enrichment club. Luckily our ASC (paid) is amazing and will fit DD in at no notice (I guess they are used to school now!) and just bill me for it.

I do think it's shit to give zero notice REGULARLY. As a one off - obvs I would assume emergency. It's not a one off, it's every time it's cancelled. It's clearly not a priority. Fits with the school ethos of everything being suited to non working parents ("chat to your child's teacher at drop off or pick up"; "head will be on the gates at end of the day to speak to").

I am a teacher myself, I also run enrichment clubs. I have never given less than 24 hrs notice of cancellation and that's for secondary age kids who get themselves home.

I cannot check my phone or emails when I am teaching. Even if I could, I cannot start contacting ASC or our back up (granny). Especially not during the last teaching period of the day. If the message of cancellation was sent out before lunch, I could deal with arrangements then.

I guess the message is, DD can't do enrichment clubs because her school cannot be arsed to give enough cancellation notice to allow me to scramble emergency childcare when clubs are called off - I cannot keep expecting paid after school club to take her ad hoc, it's a pain for them in terms of staffing and not a reasonable way to behave.

Perhaps 'enrichment' is only for kids with a SAHP. That's the message I am getting loud and clear from this school. Fucking ace.

HereBeFuckery In all honesty I think you have to suck up the after school club charge and pay that even when they’re at enrichment. I’ve had periods of double running in that way and it’s a more costly way to do it but better then the scramble when things go wrong (which sound quite frequent in your case).

How on earth have you managed to run a club without having an emergency crop up that requires a bit less notice every once in a while. You must live a charmed life.
No accidents, illness, emergencies? Really?
I used to cover free clubs out of the goodness of my heart when people needed to cancel last minute. They had good reasons. Off the top of my head, child protection issues, cancer, very ill child(as in nearly died). Do you deem these reasons good enough for you to pull your finger out and parent or arrange suitable childcare for your child? I stopped covering because of entitled parents and schools trying to blackmail more and more free labour out of me. No doubt parents all moaned that they were inconvenienced for no reason.

Ime secondary teachers are absolute coasters too, so you can't compare primary to secondary.

Sorry, rushing as I still have marking to finish! My main point was: if DD does a club at school (enrichment), she is not at school at the end of the day to be collected by the (paid) after school club. She cannot simply walk herself over to the (paid) ASC! She has to be collected by them. They have stepped in in emergency situations, like today, and gone to pick her up especially, but this is unreasonable for them to do on an ongoing basis. Her (paid) ASC/childcare is not on the school site (they don't provide such a thing); it's nearby but run as a separate business.

Double booking her would not work - the paid for childcare don't offer a 'we will collect them after clubs' service. That's why I'm so frustrated at the lack of communication and notice. With time/notice, I can ring ASC and add her to their list of kids to pick up. With no notice I have to pray that they tell DD and that she asks them to take her when they aren't expecting to.

I feel like that's badly explained, but I hope it makes sense!

@BetterBeGryffinphwoar wow. Thanks. You're just lovely.

As do you.

Perhaps 'enrichment' is only for kids with a SAHP. That's the message I am getting loud and clear from this school. Fucking ace.

That was the message I got last week. Having to decide now what to do for January.

Although I should've said, your situation sounds much worse than ours, I'd be furious.