School newbie - talk to me about half terms & holidays

[EdPops]

Hi,

Our eldest DS is starting reception in September. Both DH and I work full time and whilst we can manage the hours between school closing and us finishing work, half terms and holidays are a different challenge altogether.

What does everyone do for childcare during the weeks you're working but your kids are off school?

Just looking for ideas really so we can plan ahead. DS has just turned 4. We have no family nearby.

Holiday clubs, there will be some locally to you, usually run by local authority / nurseries / schools.

Kids often need to be at least 5 years old to attend a holiday club. You may find a childminder who has a place for an extra child in the school holidays, or nurseries/preschools with the same.

Your local council should have a service for assisting parents in finding childcare, google your local area and childcare and see what comes up.

Wow do you mean from October? I'd look now as unlikely he's 5 by then it's hard to find clubs that take 4 year olds. Also 9.30 start 4ish finish usually so personally I'd look for a childminder.

Some schools do their own holiday clubs, does hours? Otherwise you will need to find a local one.

DS was definitely in a holiday club in the October half term and he wasn't five til the January. I think this was one attached to a school (not his) that also had a pre school so they could accept ones slightly younger. But yes, we got through the first year with a mix of A/L and clubs. This year (he's in year one now) we've been able to do shared days with other parents. So I'll have DS and a mate on a Wednesday for example and my friend will repay the favour on the Friday.

Lots of school holiday clubs do school hours rather than longer days...so if you're managing now with him being at school, you'll probably be fine with a school hours holiday clubs. My dcs school used to run one in the holidays...lots of leisure centres do too.

Our school nursery and our local private nursery both operate holiday clubs, which we use, along with a mix of staying at grandparents etc occasionally. Ds was able to go to those holiday clubs from starting reception year, so no issues with him only turning 5 in January. Possibly because they are both operated by nurseries so have provision anyway for younger kids.

Holiday club. Not a specific activity club, just a general holiday club. They took them from four years and mine loved it. Made loads of long term friends and became experts at Super Mario.

We do a mixture of family, swaps with classmates, clubs run at activities she already attends eg drama/dance workshops, loafing at home while we work from home and a sports club. Sadly there are only 2 in our area which cover a whole working day and they're expensive so can't/won't send her all summer.

The summer holiday spreadsheets start as soon as the May half term is over - my colleagues and I all start organising it that week.

The Christmas holidays are the hardest as very little else is open.

Start saving now for the summer- put away some of the money you may save from.nursery fees ending, or it comes as a huge amount in one go (between 25 and 30 a day in our area)

Also, are either of you working part time? As soon as my youngest starts reception, I am going to ask to donsome extra hours during term time, maybe 1 day a month, to give me a couple of extra weeks that I can take during the holidays.

As others have said, holiday clubs but you also need to tag team with annual leave. So you may only get 1 or 2 weeks off altogether and then you split the rest to cover childcare. So, if between you, you get 50 days then 5-10 days for a family holiday and then the other 40-45 days only 1 of you is on annual leave. Doesn't cover it all but if you mix in with holiday clubs then it is possible.

Our after school club opens 7:30-6 in the holidays so that's our default.

What childcare has he been at up until now, do they have any provision? Or just ask them about local providers, they'll probably be able to give you a list of names to check out.

Sorry just realised my maths is wrong 🤣. You would have 30 days annual leave left between you if you both had 10 days off together! That's why when DD was little we only had 1 family holiday per year

Oh gosh, how on the world do holiday clubs not cover younger school aged kids. I’d no idea this happened. This country is crap, it wants us to send our kids to school younger than is preferable and then won’t encourage childcare provision.

Some holiday clubs do take 4 year olds - you need to book early as there aren't many (my DD is august born so we had the whole first year to handle with limited options)

As others have said you’ll need to use holiday/activity clubs. If you’re lucky your school will run some kind of provision - ours runs a holiday club 8.30-5pm for the three half term breaks plus 50% of the end of term holidays, so 1 week over Easter, 1 week over Christmas and 3 weeks over the summer. We know that the summer cover is always the first 3 weeks of the holidays, so we book our family summer holiday for the second half so that we only have 1 week left to cover! Cost is £20 per child per day with a sibling discount.

Honestly, you just get used to juggling it all!

Their dad and I are both fortunate enough to have 30 days annual leave per year. I also work flexi time and their dad also has non working days in the week. So he can technically cover half of every week. Between us we work it out.

I tend to book the Christmas holidays off because my employer is more flexible about Christmas.

@EdPops what childcare have you used up to now? Childminders will sometimes do wraparound and holiday care. Also some nurseries offer this sort of provision for reception children. The other thing you can do to ease the pressure a bit is to not overlap any or much of your annual leave with your dh. You each get 5.6 weeks minimum annual leave in the U.K., so if you take it separately you've got up to 11 weeks you won't need childcare for. A pain I know as it's obviously nice to spend time off together. But you could take say, a fortnight as a family and it would still leave 9 weeks where you and dh can look after your child without needing care.

DD used to get picked up after school by a Private nursery and they also ran a provision in school holidays for Primary school children.

Lots of DDs extra curricular groups ran workshops 9-2 not great for work hours but good if you have a friend or family member happy to drop off and pick up.
Sports venues run clubs we have dry slope skiing/snowboarding sessions and watersports session too.

Residential options in the Summer are summer camps like Camp Beaumont or PGL.

Be aware that children are often exhausted by the time school holidays come around, particularly the October one and they often get run down as their bodies relax so don't try and cram too much family bits in if at childcare all week.

You will have 38 weeks to cover plus any end of term early closures...ours all shut at lunchtime end of terms.
Holiday clubs don't run on the training days.

@jannier 38 weeks?! Blimey, I don't even know any private schools that have that much holiday!

I save my holiday for sick days, inset days and end of term half days.

Holiday clubs the rest of the time with 2 or 3 weeks at grandparents while I work remotely.

I have loads of clubs locally but the ones with extended days fill up quicker so I have to be on the ball with booking.

Other way round? 38 weeks covered with school, 14 weeks not.

OP you’ll need to either find a childminder who is prepared to accept them for holidays only, or book a holiday club such as Barracudas.