Breakfast club is undersubscribed

[Moppied]

My son is in his third year of primary school and goes to breakfast club 4 times per week. For all of the three years he has been the only one from his class attending apart from another child in his class who attends very sporadically maybe two or three times per month but some months not at all.

He is there for around 40 minutes each morning and gets really upset about going everyday as he is the only one from his year group. I feel bad for him and the mornings are always difficult as he is upset about having to go to breakfast club and I don't know how to handle it. I am a single mother with no family around and no child minders in our village so I don't really have any other options.

I spoke to the leader of the breakfast club who mentioned that for the past few years there have been very few kids from the new starters signing up and every year she has less and less children there. She used to have a decent number of kids per year group but this has really dropped off in the past few years.

Is this a trend everywhere or is it just at this particular school? Does anyone have any ideas on getting my son to stop hating breakfast club?

Is there a child from the year above/ year below who you could promote a friendship with?

What do other working parents do? You can’t be the only one in the village! Is there a childminder who does a slightly illegal school run with a crowd of kids in the morning?

Since COVID lots more parents are working from home. Many start later or work with the kids there until after the school run.

Ours is quite popular, but our school is fairly big so across 400 children there would always be more than a few going. None of my daughter’s friends go but there will always be enough to run it.

There are two kids from the year above. One of them will play with my son happily if the other is not around, the other kid normally doesn't want to play with my son and encourages the other to just play the two of them.

Ours had had no spaces for 2 years! We’ve been in a waiting list and juggling unsustainable childcare favours all this time.

I can’t see how working families manage without at least occasional wrap around care?!

There are a lot of grandparents and aunties at the school gates. I feel like the only one from outside of the village.
Never seen a childminder or nanny at the school as far as I know. Everyone just seems to manage without formal childcare.

Our breakfast and after school club used to be so over subscribed that you had to book months in advance to secure your space. Now you could book on the day if you wanted. Barely any kids go. It’s been since covid. So many people are working from home they don’t need it and they aren’t using other childcare as there isn’t any locally. I feel bad for my kids as they don’t want to go. But they have to

Yes we have this issue, our after school club does 2 separate hours after school and very few parents want the second hour so it keeps getting cancelled, it's so frustrating because 4.30 is too early for me (I'm one of the annoying ones not using breakfast club because I work flexibly and opt to work later to do drop off) pre Covid you struggled to get a space! But I'm totally guilty of being the WFH parent who doesn't need it is much now too.

We actually had to move schools last year as the after school club was closing due to lack of numbers on the days we needed!
breakfast club always seemed popular though, probably because it was loads cheaper than after school!
It was upsetting but thankfully kids are thriving in the larger school!

Looking at nurseries last year, it was striking how many advertised early starts on their information but actually since Covid no longer do so. Single parent, so I have looked in quite a lot of detail. The vast majority of places (schools / nursery / holiday club) around me (prime home counties commuting territory) no longer offer early (7am) starts and the expectation very much seems to be that couples work from home a couple of days each to manage drop offs and pick ups at the normal time).

My dcs rarely go to breakfast club. I wfh 3 days a week and the vast majority of time DP will be at home when I'm in the office. We're 10 mins walk from school so can get home in time to start work.

After school club on the other hand is at capacity.

Does he know any of the younger children to play with?

Unusual as most including our school are busy /full and waiting lists

Is there a friend nearby that you could maybe drop off twice a week instead and her take and give mum some flowers /wine etx rather then payment

I wouldn't feel guilty about it. If you show him that you're feeling bad, he will take from it that there is something to feel bad about.

I have never treated wraparound as something negotiable or optional, just part of life for my kids.

I might in your position look at giving him a small reward every week if he gets up and going nicely in the morning - but I wouldn't make that about enduring breakfast club but more about getting going and behaving well.

My kid hated breakfast club. She said it was too noisy and didn’t want to go.

In our small school there is never more than 6 kids in breakfast club. I’m quite surprised it is financially viable. The after school club is never more than about 12 kids either.