Collecting from School

[Leah4]

Hi, my DD starts school this September. I currently work three days per week, from 9.30 am to 3.30 pm, and my journey home takes about 45 minutes. I have just checked with the after school club about vacancies, and they have an 18 month waiting list, and some parents have even put their name down in 2004!
She will be able to attend the breakfast club, but I am not sure what to do about after school part. She will only need to be looked after for about an hour. Would it be better to reduce my hours slightly in order to collect her from school, or should I look at Childminders? What do other people do?
If I reduce my hours, I will have to finish at 2.00pm and probably start at 9.00am (not great at getting to work at time), and I am not sure what my manager will think about this. I work for a very small company, and would reduce my hours by around 4 hours per week, which will make my pay quite a bit lower. My neighbour's daughter wil also be starting at the same school, and she will collect her, yet I don't know her that well, as have recently moved to the area.
Sorry for going on; just need to sort this out, quite a bit in advance due to my work. Any ideas would be welcome. Thanks

[badgerhead]

As a registered childminder I would be happy to do an hour a day for 3 days a week after school, you also don't say what will happen in the school holidays, as quite often activity clubs get filled up really quickly as well. Then if you use a childminder they would quite likely be happy to have her in the holidays as well if they have the space. If you don't use a childminder in the holidays you might be asked to pay a retainer to keep the space open, personally I don't as I do not want too many extra children in the holidays with my two at home as well as it restricts what outings we can do. I would look at your options carefully now as most childminders have an idea of what after school places they have for September. Does your dd go into full time school straight away as well as that has an impact on childcare arrangments for a few weeks or up to a term or so depending on her age & the school intake arrangements.

[ThePrisoner]

I have 2 afterschool mindees that only come for 45 minutes! Like badgerhead, I also do not charge a retainer during school holidays if schoolchildren don't come, although some minders may.

Perhaps you could ring up some minders and just sound them out (availability, charges etc). Check out the \link{http://www.childcarelink.gov.uk/index.asp\Childcarelink website}.

[Leah4]

Thanks for the replies. I will be taking two weeks off when she starts school as she will only be there for half days. I have previously looked at childminders, but could not find a suitable one near me. Will have to start looking agin. Thanks for the childcare link - very useful.