Confused regarding school pickups - can you explain

[HairyToe]

Sorry I'm probably being very dim but am thinking anout the future when DDs are at school. If I work full-time I will need someone to pick them up from school and look after them until I can pick them up after work. I know childminders do school pick ups - how does this work? I thought cms can only have a certain number of children at any one time Surely if a cm is going to be picking up my dc at 3.30 she cannot have anyone else in that 'slot' for the rest of the day (unless conveniently their parent finishes earlier than that). Do you see what I mean?

If a cm can legally look after 5 children for example, isn't she better off taking 5 full-time pre-schoolers rather than just school pickups? How can it work out financially viable for her to do otherwise?

I hope that makes sense - anyone?

Check whether the school will have an after school club and all your prayers will be answered!

If they don't, a local nursery or etc will often provide the pick up service to maybe the village hall or somewhere and you'd pick your kids up from there by 6pm.

we use after school club

I think this works because CMs are allowed a certain number of younger kids PLUS an allowance of after-school older kids. Our CM often has 2-3 pre-schoolers, and then picks up another couple from school and has them all at home. Plus she has my daughter who, confusingly, someone else takes to the CM as she's at a different school to the one CM picks up from!

I don't know the exact numbers, and our situation is a bit difficult to calculate as the CM works with her daughter.

But for us it works great. We have one pre-schooler, one at school and both end up in the same place at the end of the day for dp to pick up.

Also, for my dd, an after school club would have been a bit much when she first started reception. It's great for lots of kids, and she'd love to go now she's in year one, but to start with it would have made the day too long, and was too much like 'more school', rather than going up to the CM who she knew from pre-school days.

childminders can usually take 6 children but only 3 of these can be under 5 so technically all childminders have 3 spaces available for children aged 5-8. Childminders are allowed to care for children over 8 without taking them into account with numbers IYSWIM so a childminder could have 3 full time children under 5 and then have 3 after schoolers. Most childminders charge a higher rate per hour for after school care and school pick up because its for shorter periods of time. When i childminded i charge £3.50 per hour for after school care but only £3 per hour for full time . HTH

cm's can generally have 3 under 5, 3 between 5 and 8, and no limits on over 8's as long as the number of over 8s will not impinge on gthe care given to the under 8's. SO a CM will be happy to do school pickups, but may cjarge for say a set number of hours after school even if you only need care until say 4.30

I used to do an after school pick-up on the couple of days a week when I (deliberately) didn't CM during the rest of the day. It suited me - I prefer older kids, he was a lovely kid who my own DCs played with, and it worked well (but I don't CM at all anymore).

The downside is that it would be unlikely the CM could then cover half-terms, inset days or holidays because she would then be over her numbers. I agree that if there is a after-school / holiday club that might work best.

Registered childminders are allowed to look after a maximum of 6 children under the age of 8, this number also takes into consideration the ages of the cm own children. i.e if the cm has two children of say 3 and 6 she will only be registered for 4 mindees. Now, of thses 6 only 3 can be 5 and under and only one can be under 1 year old unlkess she gets a varaition from OFSTED.

When a child goes to full time education or 10 foundation sessions a week (think that's the right terminology), then the child is classed as an over 5 (or a rising 5 in the case of foundation/reception classes)so they take up a over 5 space allowing the minder to use all her 3 under 5 spaces an still then have space for the after/before schoolies. Hope that makes sense, I'm sure somebody will come along and explain it better!

Hi thanks for all these responses - had to go out suddenly. Just reading through them now... if dds will let me!

So to be clear if I 'hired' a cm for after school pickup/care would she also be able to take them all day in the holidays? If not would she still charge me for the after school pickup hours through the holidays? Sorry for sounding dense.

I'm pretty sure the schools here don't do after-school clubs - I've not heard of them anyway. We are in the Westcountry and things tend to take a while to filter down to us...

It is possible she would do holiday care and no i think in general childminders dont charghe for after school care in holiday time. Obviously that will vary from childminder to childminder although if you dont use them for holiday care some childminders may charge a reatiner to ensure oyur after school place IYKWIM. Look on the CIS site for childminders in your area and make some calls.

thanks very much i'll do that. Thanks for all your explanations very helpful

Some childminders will care for school children during holidays, inset days, misc. school closure days, but others will not. So make sure you ask about holiday care. The cost of care during school holidays may, or may not, be at the same hourly rate as the care during school term time. Some CM's I know will, subject to the parents booking at least a month ahead and for full-days during school holidays, charge a fixed price per day, rather than hourly. This is so they compete better with Camps / Holiday Play Schemes.
School holidays can vary between schools, so while your children may be on holiday from school, other children for whom the CM cares, may not be. Therefore confirm in advance as much as you can what dates you require full-day care, so the CM can tell you if they can provide that care and if so, at what cost.
If the CM can not take your children at any point, then yes they may charge you a retainer fee to hold your slot. However, every childminder operates differently, so ask about retainer fees.