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

I think they should be more flexible with parent evening and other activities they expect parents to be at.

If your child does after school club or breakfast club they are st school for those hours anyway. I’m guessing you want free childcare - I would love that too!

Live in Canada and before and after school care is offered from 6.30am until 6pm.

Dunno how they can do it here but not in the UK

A lot of other countries have much shorter school days. I used to live in an EU country and my DS finished school at 1.30pm every day. There were no breakfast clubs or after school clubs and the school holidays were much longer than they are in the UK.

Absolutely.
I don’t think the younger years could cope with such long days but that doesn’t mean art, drama, sports or similar couldn't take place later in the day on the school grounds but club based. Many children miss out on extra curricular activities because their parents work long hours or they don’t have the funds.

Older years certainly could be longer. My kids finished school at 6/6:30pm in their senior years 13+

It would mean a massive investment and additional staff, of course.

Nice try OP. Unfortunately, most schools and staff think (at least on MN) that parents and their 'spawn of the devil' dc should just get in a jolly line dance singing the praises and dancing to the school timetable tune.

It matters not a jot that nothing and nobody else operates and works to the school timetables, except those businesses creaming it as a by-product.

One can only wish that some sensibility might prevail as a wish is all it will ever be. And gosh darnnit, you got to remember that all school staff are the most hardest darned werkers that walked the planet, everrrr.

As they often tell us in great detail. Yawn......

all school staff are the most hardest darned werkers that walked the planet, everrrr

No they don't.

most schools and staff think (at least on MN) that parents and their 'spawn of the devil' dc should just get in a jolly line dance singing the praises and dancing to the school timetable tune

Never seen that sentiment expressed.

@Dweetfidilove now they must work longer hours because fathers are too busy and important to help juggle childcare 🤦🏾‍♀️.
Whilst reading your comment I experienced the sensations and emotions associated with anger. I didn't "get", "become", or allow it to "make me" angry, I just experienced it. Those feelings have now passed, and I'll respond - rather than react - to your comment.

Lots of us are or have been single fathers, have cared, nurtured, raised and provided for our children when their mothers are unfit to do so and/or abandon them - and we just get on and do it because they're our kids, just the same as women do in the same situation. We juggle full time jobs, careers, childcare, just the same.

Lots of us move on from there to take responsibility for more kids too. Some of us carry that responsibility to the point of adoption. Other's don't, but that's fine too. Women do just the same.

Some of us even go on to become foster parents, or rather foster families - and not like the shitholes I grew up in way back when - and we do it because we care, just the same as women do.

The vast majority of us though, we're just regular parents same as everyone else, trying to get through life doing the best job of it we can, even if we do fcuk it up once in a while.. just the same as women.

I'm truly sorry for whatever it is life's thrown at you to leave you thinking this way, I know as well as anyone that some people can be.. I'll say "not very nice", but I'm sure you know what I actually mean (use your imagination, be creative). Please do try to remember though, it's people that can be cun "not nice", not just one gender, race, nationality, orientation, religion or however else we pigeon-hole them, ok?

Frogpole out.

How exhausting that would be for them!
That would mean kids would only have 2 hours awake time at home with their parents, how sad.

It’s strange as our secondary school is open 7.30 til 6 when my kids don’t need before and after school care anymore but I guess that’s not structured care it’s just open

Good point!💯
And who will pay for the teacher's children who would be in care for longer hours than 6 p.m.? Who would pay for that care?

@working8til4 perhaps schools should send buses around all the streets at 7.30am to collect all the children and then return them to their parents via the same buses at 7.30pm too????? that should cover most working days! are you for real?

She worked 5.30pm-9.30pm, a 20 hour week.

Why not just make them all boarding schools?

I don't know why everyone is saying wraparound care is easily available. It is absolutely not where I am. There were no places for after-school club in Reception. I've waited a year, and they could only offer me one afternoon - and I'm 15th in the queue for one of the days I need.

Thankfully I managed to get a childminder, but I know there are only two who pick up from our school (two-form entry) and they're obviously funny booked.

We don’t have enough teachers/TAs to cover the current school hours never mind extending them. Also, schools are there to educate. Not to babysit your children.

If you look at the Scandinavian way of being, there is less “school” and much more subsidized/free childcare. (Also better sick leave/personal/parental leave options for both parents.) Why are we continuing to allow billionaires and companies to avoid paying taxes that could very easily fund this kind of thing & improve the healthcare system? Why are we not demanding a better standard of living from our taxes instead of paying politicians extraordinary pensions and making rich people richer and costs for goods and services higher? We live in an upside down world.

I think state run wrap around care is the way forward. I don't think this needs to be run by teachers, but school buildings are the sensible place to have them. The buildings are publicly owned and the children are already there!

Good for you? When I look around our school playground it's around 80% women and 20% men doing drop-off / pick-up. I doubt our school is the only one like this.

I don't think anyone should have to abort their child due to a lack of wrap around care

And? Not my fault is it. The Scandinavian model others have mentioned sounds good to me.

My school is from 8.30-4.30: the kids are DEAD for the last hour or so of the day. They’re completely exhausted by that point. We also have loads of events/clubs/extra interventions that run after school until 5.30 and you can absolutely tell the difference between the ones that want to be there because they like the activity and the ones who have to be there because of childcare reasons. The ones who have to be there are miserable and just want to go home.

Also the earlier the school opens and the later it closes, the earlier and later the cleaning and caretaking team need to be onsite. Just in case anyone had forgotten that these hardworking people are workers who need a balance and have families too.

I had a fantastically flexible job working 3.5 days from home with allowances to do school pick up and drop off.
I was at this job during pregnancy and until my DD was 6 (so just about 2 years of schooling) at which point I was suddenly made redundant. This coincided with an unprecedented cost of living crisis meaning I had no choice but to take a full time job (for the same salary as my previous part time job) with much less flexibility.

Even with the best laid plans things change.

As it was easy to just “use wraparound care” ffs! you know, not everywhere is London…

DS’s school has a very small minority of two full time working parents so they offer no clubs other than occasional specific activities up to 4 pm, and no childminders collect from there.

I had to find and hire a part time nanny - these roles are like golden dust as too few hours 🙄 - and pay her quite a lot. Have been tempted to go part time as in the end I work the extra hours for crumbles. 🙄

(The upside is that at least she is a native English speaker unlike me, with a lot more imagination than me and manages to get listened by DS and keep him away from screens…)

I'm going to be blunt here...it is not the school's fault, nor is it their problem, that you can no longer afford your mortgage. That is entirely a family matter. You have lots of excuses but ultimately you have two choices. Either continue to struggle as you are, and accept that you actively chose this situation, no one forced you to be in it, or you sell up and move somewhere cheaper with wraparound care. Wraparound care, as you can see from the numerous working mothers that have responded to your thread, is plentiful. You live in an outlier. It's not the job of the school to fix your problems for you. You are a grown up, make some difficult decisions and actually work on solving your own problems.

In an ideal world, schools would have childcare on site. Ours does and it's great for working parents, but is run entirely by staff on minimum wage. The irony is, in more affluent areas this is less likely as the cost of housing is too much for someone on minimum wage to afford to live there and simply offering jobs won't fill vacancies. Raising wages would cost parents too much as schools cannot afford to absorb any costs. People need to recognise this when moving to more expensive parts of the country, that certain minimum wage services won't be as available as in other parts of the country.

What about shift workers OP? Should schools be open 24/7 365 days a year?