To think schools should get with the times re working parents.

[working8til4]

Why can't they be open 8-6 for everyone? It would help reduce gender inequality in the work place

AIBU - DON'T BE SILLY
YANBU - actually you have a point

This!!!

My infant school aged children were in bed by 7/7.30. I can’t imagine compulsory 10hr schooling and I wouldn’t have wanted it.

I think later start/finish times might work for secondary school children though but not longer days.

We used to leave school at 4 o’clock and get home at about 4:30. Nowadays I see children leaving school at 2:30. That leaves them on their own for a long time each day if both parents are at work. Schools don’t need to have a ten hour day to make things easier for working parents. A sensible length for the school day would be a help.

How freaking judgy can you get?!

My 6YO is at wraparound from 7:30 til 6pm 3 days a week because that's life. Dad and I both work. That's life. We have no reliable family support nearby. I've gone part time but I simply can't afford to give up my job completely as much as I'd love too and no doubt the same perfect parents on here would be labelling me lazy and a benefits scrounger if I did. Mothers literally cannot win, sigh

For what it's worth my child adores after school club, met one of her best friends there and it's very relaxed. She used to cry when I picked her up instead actually. It isn't the root of all evil

Your post should be about provision of wrap around care being more equal around the country rather than schools being open 8-6 imo.

I assume that it’s business reasons why provision is unequal - stuff like small schools having less demand and no space to accommodate the service but someone here will know better.

As if teachers and school staff don’t have enough to do between nappy changes, teeth brushing, parenting etc, now they must work longer hours because fathers are too busy and important to help juggle childcare 🤦🏾‍♀️.

I’m assuming you’re joking and also have no clue how schools, their funding and the entire education system works. If you’re not joking then get a childminder would be my suggestion. Schools are not childcare. They are YOUR children and responsibility……

Breakfast clubs and after school are available in most primaries? X

Most offer breakfast and after school clubs. As a teacher I used these for my own DC then went to my own job.

OP, I am with you! My kids are fully grown now but I have always thought it a huge problem that there is a mis-match between school hours and work hours.

When my kids were at primary there was no wraparound childcare. I remember when Ruth Kelly was Education Secretary she proposed “Kelly Hours” - a breakfast club and after-school club. All the teachers were against it because they imagined they would have to run it. But no, the school put the work out to tender and an already existing private company was happy to come in and run it. The teachers insisted nobody would need it but in fact there was a big uptake. Because parents do want to be able to fit work in with having kids.

Most kids would not be there 8 to 6 but some might need an early drop-off and others an after-school slot. And not always every day of the week.

I worked anti-social hours, I was always around in the mornings but not always in the afternoons, and let’s face it, 3.15pm as a finish time does not fit in with most jobs.

I didn’t work every day of the week but when I was working my DH could do after-school pickups but not until 5pm. This is surely not that unusual for families. We could juggle to an extent but we did need childcare. A couple of days a week of being at a club until 5pm is not like being sent to boarding school or an orphanage!

Lots of people being sniffy and judgemental about children being in wraparound care. But also, we live in an age where two working parents is essential to survival to most families. So what the hell do you want people to do? Either be rich enough to have one part time/SAH parent, or be on benefits? With no one inbetween?

Breakfast club kids eat cornflakes and fanny around playing games in the hall for half an hour before school. After school club kids do drawing, watch movies and play games with their friends for 2-3 hours after school. Or play outside in summer. That’s not “too much”, it’s not going to scar them for life.

When I was a child, I had a stay at home parent, and we sat in front of childrens tv with biscuits and squash every day after school. Really don’t see how my child watching films, playing games or drawing pictures with her friends is more damaging.

And if a long day learning is harmful to kids then why are they set HOMEWORK - which sometimes is too much for a tired child at the end of the day?

It’s funny how kids MUST ATTEND between 9am and 3pm, at the risk of parents being fined or jailed if a child has too many days off. But once the school day is officially over then apparently it is neglectful or harmful for the same kids to spend another hour or so playing games or colouring in at the same building! Makes no sense at all.

And near-100% attendance is required except, of course, for 13 weeks a year when school is on holiday, making childcare hard for all parents who only get five or six weeks off a year.

This really isn't about dads not being involved. Every child that regularly uses wraparound care in my daughter's class is picked up as regularly by their dad as their mum. It's about work places being too inflexible to accomodate any parent regardless of gender and it's about the cost of living being so sky high that this is the reality of surviving for many families

The irony is some workplaces run rather like schools - they have set hours and don’t like employees to arrive late or leave early. It’s almost like the people running these businesses once went to school and learned that everyone must attend for exactly the same hours with no flexibility.

I wouldn’t want my children in school for 10 hours a day. We both work but work opposites so the kids always have me or DH here.

Then you clearly didn't read the mortgage paperwork prior to going ahead with it, which would have clearly stated an example of what you'd be paying, if the mortgage rates "went up quite a lot". This is your own fault for not planning ahead, you should never have expected interest rates to stay low. Had you considered this, as your mortgage documents suggest you do, then you should have realised you would struggle, then buy a cheaper house instead. As for not having a child back then either, you either should have considered the financial impact of having a child before doing so, or taken extra precautions.

You give no consideration for the poor children that you want in school for such long days. Why not campaign for fathers to pull their weight with parenting in order to reduce gender inequality in the workplace? This makes more sense rather than shifting longer days onto children and staff in underfunded schools.

Oh God, not again.
Lobby to have inexpensive, very high quality childcare subsidised and carried out by skilled, well paid staff. School is for education. If teachers were covering 8-6 they'd be paid for 11 hour days or more. Currently it's a 7 hour day, 35 hour week deal. Are you really thinking 65 hours a week would work, including the non class contact time required each day. Could schools even afford that?!!! Approx £95k per year hahaha.

And yet many schools do provide it @PTSDBarbiegirl as wraparound care.

Honestly what a ridiculous thread completely unreasonable. Your school does not have available wrap round care therefore the whole education system needs to change? Yes you aren’t asking for teachers to do it, I hear you, however there are plenty of schools who do provide it not to mention child minders, external after school clubs Who collect the children from the school office. Where is this money coming from? The wages to keep a school open longer hours, the money councils pay for PVG checks, presumably some kind of snack would need to be provided.
This is the issue with so many, oh let’s have a baby but not think of the consequences or the what ifs. If you decide to have children, unexpected or not, you need to cover every eventuality - from snow days to sickness.
Your mortgage has risen, as it has for many, if you can’t afford it you move to somewhere more affordable. Your working hours do not suit your lifestyle if you can’t afford to pay for childcare or be available to do it yourself. Is it great, no it’s not but unfortunately that’s life and people need to stop expecting to be bailed out by others.

It’s not the day length, it’s the holiday lengths for me. Especially when most working people get 20 days holiday a year which doesn’t cover it. Unless you have grandparents to help then you have to use clubs which are extortionate. Also unlikely you can have both parents off work at the same time as it’s a juggling act.

Again, if you choose to have children you should know what the school holidays are like and have options in place.

I get you. Before I had the option to work from home we did have that set up (in the city) 8am breakfast club and after school club until 6:30pm. I've since moved somewhere a bit out of the way and we have breakfast club but after school is 5pm on the dot. Not ideal for working parents. No wrap around care. On the odd days I need to be in the office or farther afield for meetings/training, my OH has to take a half day to do pick ups. Its a pain but it is what it is..

I agree but the care is done by care staff not education staff. The purpose of school is education. Afterschool etc is childcare.

We have a child care option after school each night, a local nursery collects from school and runs it at their premises until 6 every night. On Fridays, with a school of 250 pupils, they have ONE child attending, the most they ever have is 7. It would be financially unviable to run it at the school, the demand simply isn't there. In effect, the babies at the nursery are subsidising the ASC.

This. The purpose of schools is to educate children, they were not created to provide childcare for working parents. Therefore, the school hours are based around children’s educational needs. Obviously, parents use the hours that children are at school to work but then if they need additional hours, they can arrange wrap around care. I work in a school and I am involved in wrap around care. Children do get very tired and that is why after school clubs are not teaching children anything but providing them with play time, crafting experiences etc.