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

Ok it doesn't even have to be free then? Unless the parent earns less than a threshold amount and works full time?

State schooling is free.

Schools are having a massive amount of their money cut.

To go from 9-3:30 to 8-6 would cost a massive amount of money even assuming parents wanted it which many don't.

So:

It's unaffordable
Lots of people won't want it

Private schools offer this kind of service but the extra hours cost a lot of money!

That sounds tough

Because children are not employees.

Because teachers don't finish work at 3pm.

Nobody really because you can use wrap around care.

Yes, has the OP even stopped to think about the effect that such long hours could have on some children? They spend more than enough time in school, as it is, without adding more time on to it.

Who says schools finish at 3?

Well let me introduce you to directed time. Teachers have 1265 hours per year they can be directed to work. Usually this is 8.40-3ish every term time day plus inset, parents evenings and meetings.

If you want school to finish later, it will have to start later.

There’s a lot of misconceptions on this thread.

Wrap around care/clubs already exist in a lot of schools

They are often run by external providers not teachers.

It’s not a particular new thing

Using said clubs doesn’t mean you should have not had dc & don’t raise them.

Do you actually have kids?

DS is 5. School is 8.30-3.15. He’s absolutely exhausted by 3.15. It would be counter productive to give him a further three hours of lessons. He’d also never last until gone 6pm for his dinner.

New word for your child’s spelling list next week: entitled

I agree OP and actually remember this being a Government aspiration about 25 years ago. Hence the wraparound care and sure starts being set up in schools.
The holiday clubs never in state schools fully catered for working parents but private schools managed to run holiday clubs in their school using external providers but using school facilities from 7.30 till 6pm. How easy is that.
All those local schools with empty buildings and playing fields all locked up for 6 weeks over the Summer what a waste.

I agree and I've sadly seen this lots in my teaching career. Children really not coping with being in school for so long even if part of it is a more informal after school club.

I don't blame parents at all as it's the shit economic circumstances we have and old fashioned culture of work.

But we should change that not the length of the school day.

My kids went to private schools and they started at 0820 and finished at 1630
If they wanted to do homework and supper they'd finish at 1830

Some state school near us start at 0900 and finish at 1445!!! How is that a proper school day?
Even when I went to school (I didn't go private), I started at 0830 and finished at 1600!

Why are schools doing such short days nowadays, or is it just when I live?

I'll bet they also then have much longer holidays, to account for the fact that they have covered their teaching hours in fewer, longer days.

I’m a teacher, so I use a school based after school club for my kids. I agree that parents should have access to subsidised childcare, but I disagree that schools should be coordinating it.

It most definitely couldn’t be paid for using existing school budgets, we struggle to pay staff for the hours they do already!

No matter how much you plan life happens and creates change.

And if none of your plans ever had to change and everything goes more or less as planned that is not you or your brilliance - it is mainly luck.

@Seashor I am a teacher as is my husband. We have no family for childcare. I need childcare between 7.30-5.30. so do I need to sort my shit out? What do you suggest?

Why can’t parents sort their shit out before they have children?

So teachers, surgeons, GPs shouldn’t use wraparound care @Seashor?

I’m not being defensive.

As teachers DH and I have meetings til 5pm (we don’t finish when the pupils do). We then chose a school that offered wraparound (we have no family). Obviously we have to pay for that - it’s childcare not education. DD is now in secondary sorts herself out and in so has reduced our childcare costs.

TBH, I would have loved 24/7 childcare as it’s difficult to find solutions for evening events but that’s a “me” problem and not common for majority of families.

My kids's school is open 7.30 to 18.30 but that includes wrap around care you can pay for before and after core school hours. It would be great if all schools could provide something similar but it's just not financially sustainable for a lot of them. Our kids attend a particularly large school which I think is the main reason it works and is affordable.

You get with the programme it wouldn't be one teacher doing 10 hours. You could make a whole new role doing the extended hours and give someone who wanted a part time job a job. Or use an external provider

Because children can't cope with working the same hours as adults.

I see it as an employer problem than the schools, there needs to be more flexible working options.

That's great but their mental health will suffer if they get kicked out their house as they can't afford it as a family..