Wraparound - what are people actually doing?

[khaa2091]

Slightly panicking about the start of school..
what are people actually doing? I am aware of options but am curious as to what is actually working.
Especially those who do shift work …(nights, weekends and school holidays)

I don’t work shifts but make full use of school wraparound as I work full time. Worth putting your child’s name down as my DD’s school has a waiting list for wraparound.

It will depend on the school offering, your partners availability, any grandparents that are able to help, how far in advance you know your shifts, and how much money you have available to throw at the problem.

I have two friends who work swifts;

One knows a month or so in advance and her DH and grandparents cover most after school care, then in holidays she also uses clubs.

The other specifically chose a school where you only have to give a week notice to book the after school care. This is very rare though, and she compromised on the school in order to be able to do so.

There are also people who book after school care for every day even if they might not need it. They have to book a term in advance and this is the only way to make sure they have cover on the days they need it.

Start by talking to your partner about which 50 percent he will be responsible for.

Both my parents worked full-time and paid for wraparound care. If one of them finished early or started late, they still had to pay for my place but I just wouldn’t go that day.

We are separated but even when we were together we shared drop offs, organised with work as we both have flexi time. And we use after school service which is provided until 5:20.

Breakfast club, after school club, grandparents and holiday clubs

A combination of me and DH wfh, after school club and grandparents. No shifts though

Get a WFH job. We have no grandparent support so have to do every single bit of childcare ourselves or pay someone to help. Without WFH it would be almost impossible for us.

We use the school wrap around care, so do a couple of breakfast clubs and a couple of after school clubs each week. Wfh the rest. We don’t do shifts though.

Not shift work but work full time, we use breakfast club and after school club, thankfully we can wfh a couple of days so Friday’s we do school drop and pick up.
Holidays it’s holiday club, we’ve no family nearby to help.

We used a combination of grandparents and wraparound clubs. I haven’t worked on Mondays since the kids were born. For the first four years of having them at school I was self employed so only did what was manegable. I’m employed at 80% now but both of us wfh so it’s basically manageable.

friends where both parents work away from home fine things much trickier but this is relatively uncommon. Most people wfh at least a bit.

I work full-time but one of the grandparents was a shift worker, so could pick up on some days, but didn’t know rosters in advance.

Wraparound care at the school was easily available when needed without booking far in advance, so I’d just email to book as and when needed, but unfortunately it was more expensive if you used it on a casual basis like that.

There probably is less wraparound care available now though. My DD was in year 6 in 2020, and I think the increase in people working from home after that meant that many schools changed their provisions. We never needed it after the lockdowns. The one at her intermediate school closed down in 2022 so obviously lots of other families didn’t need it either.

My dd1 couldn’t cope with wraparound, I tried to go back to work when she was 7 initially then a year later I found 5 hours a day so no care needed normally, the occasional evenings and weekends (occupational hazard) now exh was around as long as i stipulated it (another story) and holidays we did split shift with me starting at 7am and switching the kids over in my work car park at midday and dropping him off (was 2 minutes drive to his from mine) only downside was having to runout at 9pm to fetch him because we only had one car.

We use breakfast club which starts at 8am at the school (we’re in Wales so only costa £1 a day for “care” as the actual breakfast is free).
When DDs were younger for after school we did a combination of after school club, grandparents picking up and me working part time. I work full time now and DH and I both WFH some days so usually one of us here for school pick up, my parents still do one day a week. Youngest DD is year 5 so at a push could let herself in and be alone for 45 mins until the eldest gets home from secondary school, but we haven’t tried this yet!

Most people I know do similar, or some use a childminder to do school pick ups and after school care

Shift work is really tricky as you’ll need different care each day. My friend on shifts has her husband do all the drop offs and pickups when she’s not on shift and she does everything on her days off as she does 3 12 hour shift I think. When their kids were younger they had to have a nanny with her own flexible childcare options as they needed different cover week to week.

my husband and I work standard hours with flexi time and hybrid working so it’s a different scenario.

It depends on what your child's school offers. A lot of our local schools have reduced their wraparound provision since Covid, as many parents started WFH, and the number of children attending decreased.

For the holidays most parents use holiday clubs. However, I would urge you to start looking now. As unfortunately many won't take reception aged children, and the hours they offer are usually shorter than a school day.

The first step would be to enquire whether your chosen school actually has spaces. Several of my friends found out the hard way after offers day that there was no space in wraparound care for new reception starters.

Additionally many holiday clubs don't accept reception children so i would start enquiring for suitable options if you're going to need holiday care.

Finally if there is space at wrap around provision you need to check whether you can book the club on an ad hoc basis or will you need to book a term or more in one go.

We both had shift working jobs but having children and no grandparent help meant we both had to do career changes. I have taken a massive pay cut to a WFH job and got the kids into school wraparound, there was a wait list so you might need to think about it now!

I work shifts and so does my OH. Luckily one of us is always home to do school pick up/drop off. If I do nights I usually take my daughter to school then sleep in the day and get up to pick her up, it is easier now than when she was out of school.

If you can't be there for school pick up or drop off, you could utilise breakfast club/after school club if available, childminder or friends/family.

We use a childminder for after school. The school's after school club was full, and I'm still 15th on the waiting list for a mid-week place 🙄 I've no idea what all the other parents are doing, but I know three mums in my son's year who aren't working the hours they want to because of the lack of childcare.

I wouldn't want to WFH with a child under 8 at home, I did it in lockdown with a toddler and even an emergency sick day with him at home stresses me out hugely.

Our school told us they had places on the open day, and said you just needed to apply once you have a place.

They lied. We got a very strong vibe that they didn't approve of Reception children in wraparound or holiday clubs.

This was similar for the schools I mentioned. They made all the right noises said there was wrap around care places etc but then once offers day came and the friends enquired about how to get on waiting lists etc they were told there was no spaces for new starters.

The schools obviously knew these parents wouldn't have chosen to make them their first choice if there were no places in wrap around hence misleading them.

i work 4 days a week, 9-4. I work from home one day so I manage to drop DS at school that morning, and the day I’m off.
So he goes to breakfast club 3 days a week, and after school club 4 days.
This works for now but when DD starts school in a couple of years I would like to do more pick ups for them both.
the wraparound care is pretty straight forward, I like if that you don’t have to fight for a parking space and queue to get into the school where you’re dropping off early/picking up late. Plus
its about a 1/6th tbe price of nursery fees!

Its the school holidays we’re struggling with covering!!

I’m amazed how common this is.

And releasing spaces a term in advance and it being more difficult to get a space in after school club that it is to get tickets for Glastonbury. I have so many friends who don’t know what after school they’ll have from term to term because there is more demand than spaces, they log on dead in midday when the spaces are released and within 5 minutes it’s sold out.

They don’t tell you these things at the open day though, they just make all the right noises about what the offering is.

I work shifts. DH also did but had to quit after a couple of years due to childcare issues. He got a Mon-Fri job. We had a childminder. We paid more for the flexibility we needed, but not as much as a full time space as we didn’t need that. We found people by messaging them directly through Childminders.co.uk with our requirements. Also see if there’s a local childminder FB group.
Both of you should apply for flexible working first. We both had a little when I first returned to work to allow for childcare. I thought it would be impossible as no one I work with had ever asked (mostly men), don’t rule it out.
Other options are nursery if you want weekdays only between about 7.30am and 6pm, but you’ll pay for a full time space, a nanny - expensive, you are their employer with all that entails, but you can decide their working hours, or an au pair.
Don’t just give up work. If need be one or both of you could try to change your hours, or even jobs l.