how many after schoolers can i have?

[zoeuk1]

am i allowed to have as many children over 8yrs old as i want to? at the moment i have 5 children after school which includes my own two who are 7 and 12 yrs old. and then 3 more. only one of my mindees is under 8. i have been asked to have two more after schoolers both over 8. am i allowed to have this many? it would mean that two days a week i would have 7 children,but only one under 8.

It depends on who you insurance is with, if its the NCMA one then you are insured for up to 10 children, excluding your own. Personally I don't go above 10 after school including my own & under 8's. The most I usually have now is 9 and that is only for a very short time.
It sounds though that you are well set up for older children & as long as they all get on together & you are happy to keep them occupied in some way, go ahead & do it.

yesterday i had 6 after school which included my own two and all went fine. all the kids were occupied and happy. all seem to get on fine. luckily this weather makes it easier because we all go into the garden.

When I had my first inspection, the ofsted woman said it didn't matter how many children I had in the house if they were over 8. I said "so my dd can have her whole class over, then?" (heaven forbid) and she said "Yes". I wouldn't go over eight kids in total as the house would be too full.

OFSTEd said to me 'you have to take into account the impact of over 8s on smaller children.' E.G. your time is taken up with more older children so you so you cant care for the smaller ones properly. thats what they would be interested in.

Exactly the same was said to me! At last 2 Ofsted inspectors actually said the SAME thing