To ask honestly, how many children are in wraparound every day? Especially reception

[anothertwix]

My job is a bit rubbish at the moment. I’m three days a week. I’m searching for other opportunities but they are all full time.

Eldest dc starts reception in September. If I went full time he’d be in breakfast and after school club every day except Friday (dh works from home)

It feels a lot. Wondering what others think.

YABU - look for full time
YANBU - stick at three days.

The after school club also had a quiet room for those who wanted to curl up with a book. Most wanted to let off stream after being in school all day and basically run wild! They also liked the opportunity to play with older and younger children.

Nope, of course not. Everything I do is in the best interests of my children, through discussion with them. If they are tired after school, we go straight home. If they ask to go to the park, sure we can do that. If they want a friend over/go to a friend, no problem. We have complete autonomy over how we feel each day. One of my children actually needs more time to chill than the other, so I balance this between them very carefully. Anyone who’s got more than one child will know that they are different as individuals.

I think it depends on the child - mine have appreciated the diversity of friends to hang out with at after school club, and thry have loads of options available - sometimes they’ll run about outside, sometimes they’ll challenge one of the staff to a game of chess, sometimes they build Lego, sometimes they do organised games. In comparison they get bored at home!

Totally. A proper friend of their choice, rather than it being pot luck who’s there and how busy it is.

That's honestly really good to hear - mine never offered that kind of thing sadly. Well, there was a corner with books, but anyone could come in/out and be noisy, lol. I remember getting so annoyed because I just wanted to read or whatever in peace.

Their friends were at after school club - not random strangers.

My partner wants the kids to do 5 breakfasts and 5 after school. I want them to do 3 after school and I’m happy to sacrifice some mental health / stress to be there at the school gates (sometimes on teams calls) 5 mornings and 2 afternoons.

This year my eldest will be an independent traveller so I offered her to do as many or few as she likes. She took the list on and discussed with her friends what they were doing and she chose 4 after school and one morning. My youngest chose 5 after school and one morning and I had to talk him down to 4!

But mine get those choices at after school club and they can make them completely independently (I don’t have to juggle when one DC wants to chill and one wants to go to the park or see a friend). They have a book corner and crafts as well as access to the school playground and games so they can do anything they like, exactly when they like.

DT’s did their share of reading there - did great things for their reading ability as they got to see what books the older children were reading and wanted to do the same. DD very much looked up to an after school club friend from two years ahead.

Yeah, it's definitely child-dependent which is why I said they're two very different scenarios.

DS thought it was great for football as you had ready made teams⚽️

My DC’s best friends go to after school
club…it’s no coincidence that they’re best friends because that’s where the friendships were forged!

I work in a school and I'd say about 30% of reception are in wrap around care three to four days a week. If you've got good quality wrap around care it will be fine.

Fab, glad that works well for yours. Some parents prefer/need to outsource these things, others prefer doing it themselves in collaboration with other parents. Parents of course choose to do things differently 👌🏻

Fab for yours- my child’s best friends are all with their parents straight from school, so we sort things out ourselves. Great there is choice to suit the different preferences of parents- we will never look exactly the same, why should we?

Just because a job is advertised as full time, lots of places will accept if you ask to do 4.

My last two jobs I've just asked for 4 and been given it.

Yes I heard the same about my DS. He found school days very short compared to nursery. He went to ASC 3 days a week as work patterns changed

DS was in Reception last year. Of the 35 in the class (1.5 form entry) about 7 went to breakfast club and a similar number went to after school club. They weren’t always the same though so there were probably 3 who did full time wrap around in the end.

In DT’s two Reception classes the vast majority had two full time working parents (central London if that makes any difference) so almost all went to breakfast and afternoon school clubs - the exception being those with younger siblings and had a nanny who did after school collections and morning drop offs.

My two were, and they had been in full time nursery from 6 months (this was before current length of mat leave).

It was fine.

Very much depends on the child. My eldest DC was young for his year and despite being in nursery 8-6 more or less until he started school he really struggled. Knackered, teary, falling asleep in lessons and dead to the world in the evenings. The wrap provision itself wasn’t great for younger kids either TBH. I didn’t see any other reception child there all week. The first year is also really important for getting to know parents/ teachers. I’d honestly stick with 3 days at least Jan.

It's nice to have that bit of time after school with them and to be free to attend the odd assembly or sports day. For that reason I wouldn't go full time in primary unless I really wanted to or had to.

I used to teach reception and there was always a group of about five dc who are in before and after care every day. I wouldn’t say that they love it, but they are used to it. And they have friendships with children in other year groups that they wouldn’t have otherwise.

What I have noticed over the years is that some of these dc seem to have other things that make their lives more difficult, possibly because their parents are time poor. If they are in before and after care, their day is more complicated because they are doing different things in different places.

No water bottle, or one that they can’t open themselves that is always empty when they arrive.
Shoes they can’t take on and off independently when there is a nice cosy area in before/after care where they can go on the iPads but they have to take their shoes off.
MASSIVE bags twice the size of their own bodies that they have to carry from breakfast club to the classroom and back again.
Jumpers with no names on that get left on one place or the other that will never find their way back to them.

I think a lot of these comments are in response to those people who are saying 5 days in wraparound is a terrible idea and is disadvantaging the child.

Reality is much more nuanced and what works for some children and families won’t work for others, but there is no reason why wraparound is universally bad.

My eldest is summer born and has ASD, on paper you would think he might struggle with after school club until 6pm most days but nothing is further from the truth. It’s not even that we are making the best of a necessity, he has genuinely thrived from the opportunity to spend time there. It has enriched is social skills and development no end.

Ah, of course, we should return to the days when female teachers had to remain unmarried and childless 🙄