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

So you're proposing new roles, costing more money to schools that are already financially crippled, that only a select pool of child free applicants would be considered for? And these roles would of course be minimum wage or close to as we all know these types of jobs are the lowest paid out there.

Maybe your husband's big important job should only consider child free candidates and that would leave him free to look after his own sprogs?

Please show me the post where OP has said that it should be teachers doing the wraparound care? As usual on MN teachers won't miss an opportunity to tell anyone who will listen that they are the only ones who work hard.
I think it's a very good idea OP and it's practiced all over the continent. In Germany lessons for primary finish at 12 or 1, then it's play time with play workers not teachers. It's optional to attend so those parents who feel strongly about their children bring 'institutionalised' can choose to pick up earlier (and many do).

Yes, really hard. Back then when my kids were in primary I worked in an entirely male team (other than me). I don’t remember any of them ever taking time out for a child-related problem. If I couldn’t make it in because of a child issue I was seen as letting the team down. It was like they were just waiting for me to fail and I was determined that wouldn’t happen because I wanted to be as good as everyone else. The thing is, why weren’t these men ever picking up the slack at home? It seems to me they were the ones failing.

What about teacher parents? The two things are not mutually exclusive

If teachers are really doing all those hours then who is looking after their children? They should have got their act together before reproducing. Imagine wasting time on classroom displays for other people’s kids when you should be at home looking after your own!

Wow

The Teachers I know pay for wraparound childcare, like most working parents.

My children's other parent...their dad.

But sure, expect schools to pick up the pieces just because some women have chosen an inept partner that is unwilling to share care for their own offspring.

Fathers also work.

Sure, why don't we just give them to the state and get them back at 18.

I always think there should be more help/incentives for schools to actually have wraparound care on site. That’s the answer.
The problem is that it still costs the school even if an outside company do it - staff time for locking up/security/heat/cleaning etc.

I worked in school which rented out its sports hall, in fact the school had been built with that in mind. However they felt like it wasn’t making them any money so they stopped. It was very sad.

My primary provided nothing and did very few activities outside of school so it was mostly sitting empty fairly early. The head encourages staff to get off site quickly as well, so it was sat mostly empty from 4pm anywya.

Exactly. And a relationship issue. I can see several posters saying not having automatic funded wrap around care only penalises women.

This only applies if mum is the only present parent (as opposed to single parenting - I know several families where parents separated but the parentsstill equally share the drop offs and pick ups on the days thry have custody).
Otherwise, it's a negotiation between the parents, 'you do drop offs and i will do pick ups' or ' I will do Mondays and Tuesdays, you need to do Weds, Thursdays and Fridays'.

It only penalises women disproportionately if we allow it to, unless it's literally impossible, like the husband is away with the armed forces

My old school used to operate an after school club. When it first started, it was run by school staff wanting extra hours, but when the numbers using it started to dwindle, it wasn’t viable, so they used an outside company to come in and do it. It was a complete pain-anything they did meant that parents came in and complained to the head about-prices, extras, changes to activities or staffing, food, late collection etc etc. they often had staff members who were unreliable and wouldn’t turn up, which screwed up the ratios. It ended up being a huge headache for the school and meant later nights for the caretaker as well, who already started work at 7. The head closed it completely in the end.

There is a global shortage of teachers. They don’t have enough as it is.

And the vast majority of people who work in schools do so because the hours work around childcare.

There are childcare options you can access, actual childcare. Because school isn’t.

Children cannot sustain learning for that long. It would be barbaric.

Nobody wants to be a teacher anymore it seems

Don't blame them

I am TA.
I work from 7:45am ( breakfast club starts at 8am) to 5:15pm ( 2 hours from end of school day - After School Club finishes) I get 3/4 hour break in a day. It’s exhausting as it is, especially for the children who sometimes come to both clubs!
To pay all staff to cover those hours would cost a fortune!!! Your council tax would go up big time!
Also, if schools have shorter summer holidays or summer school ‘childcare’, you will end up with having to let school staff have their own holidays in term-time… imagine having to cover that!!

We do, we just do not get paid for it. We work beyond 1800 most evenings without pay.

Its also a low wages and high cost of living issue.

When I was young , one full-time wage was enough. Where two parents worked long hours in a high pressured job they would have earned enough to afford a childminder or nanny. Now millions of couples are working ridiculous hours for low wages and rely on the state to cover the child care gap because they have no choice. Its just not sustainable.

Children can’t be in school 10 hours a day. The real need is for state subsidised childcare as they do in Scandanavia or part-time jobs for parents that actually pay at a professional level. Quite normal in the Netherlands for parents to have part-time jobs and there is little stigma about it. Nothing will change until people agitate for these things and the social norm about childraising as a social good is established, rather than as an inconvenience for capitalistic gain. The government can afford it. They can afford the Rwanda scheme, wasting billions on HS2 on consultancy fees, and would rather prioritise that.

I think what you should say OP is all schools should have adequate wrap around care as needed by working parents and I know some in our area don’t have this which is bonkers!

The local authorities could make some decent money running joint primary school holiday clubs for a large area of primary schools in a primary school setting. There’s a local holiday club at a school and it’s always so busy / places fill up fast as it’s a half decent price, working hours and multiple schools can use it.

I don't want the teaching day to be longer or teachers to have even more workload.

But if your proposal is that these buildings could have a second use as a childcare before and after school and perhaps in the holidays, and that children could have the option of using say 3pm to 6pm for homework, sports, hobbies, cubs, etc, then I'm all for it.

There's wrap around care for that. Let children enjoy their childhood. 10 hours in school sounds awful.

@TheYoungestSibling
Which would be good but who is going to run these? And who is going to clean and secure the premises afterwards. And what happens if the after school care isn't viable. Who will arrange transport from one school to the " hub" What about academies, the local authority have so say in those.

It is definitely a good idea but it's not as easy as just saying " schools should get with the times". It shouldn't be down to schools to sort, it's not their remit, but whose responsibility would it be?

What I also wouldn’t like to see is forced use of classrooms for externally run after
school clubs.

i teach in a lovely ks1 classroom which is full of lovely toys, games, puzzles and resources that I have either brought in from home or bought myself for my children. I teach them to look after it all. Just like the pencils, felt tips which I have bought because mine run out at Easter and we have no school budget left. Yes, I shouldn’t do this, but I have, and I would be devastated if they were all used, moved, broken or messed with by an after school club!