After school club - Am I expecting too much?

[CatGod]

DC’s after school club has now increased it’s prices to £20 per evening, 3:15pm until 6pm and I’m wondering if it’s actually providing a good enough setting.

They have a great website: nutritious, hot meals provided every evening and lots of activities such as crafts, board games, toys to play with etc.

In reality what I’ve seen has been meals such as cocktail sausages with mash & frozen veg covered in instant gravy, or potato smiley faces with pizza etc. and there are biscuits or cakes given out every night.

The only craft activities seem to be colouring and drawing, mostly when I arrive the TV is on so loudly that they don’t hear the doorbell and some of the kids are playing on tablets.

DC is too young to tell me accurately what the eat or do every evening and I obviously only see a small part, I very rarely see what they eat.

So I emailed their central office to ask for a weekly menu and list of activities provided, citing the examples on the website. The response has been that if I have concerns then I’m to raise them directly with the woman that runs the club and tv/tablet time is limited. I’m happy to do that if I ever see her and not one of the very young women that always seem to be there when I pick up but should the company itself be adhering to some sort of guidelines? Should there not be a central menu of what they’re feeding them each evening or what activities are on offer?

I’m not sure if I’m expecting too much from them. At the moment we’re just massively limiting how often we have to use it, not because of the price but because quite frankly I think they’re a bit crap.

As far as I’m aware no there isn’t really any set guidelines on what meals or activities they have to provide, if you don’t like it then your option is to look for somewhere else.

I think that's really cheap tbh. Ours stopped providing food so they need to bring their own snack. And it costs more.

I always found after school clubs hit and miss, never been overly impressed but they do a job.

If I had any alternative then I’d definitely be using it but unfortunately the school is in the middle of nowhere and there are no other options.

Do you mind me asking how much you pay Viszla? The provider runs several other ASCs in the area and some of them are as low as £13.50. It’s also significantly more than friends at other schools pay so I’ve no idea what’s reasonable.

It feels like there should be some regulation as otherwise what’s to stop companies charging what they like and sticking kids in front of the tv with chips every evening?

Are the doing the job though or are they doing the bare minimum? I can work from home whenever I like so could easily pick up at 3:15 and stick Netflix on for 3 hours while I carry on working. Not sure why I’m paying someone else to do something I’d never do myself!

If you don't like it, then don't pay anymore and find a different place.

We pay £18 but it doesn’t include a hot meal option, it’s wraps, bagels or sandwiches plus a small snack.

Our ASC is £10 but only provides snacks not dinner. It is run by the school. They are outside whenever the weather permits, and when inside there is colouring, crafting, board games, foosball, giant jenga, that type of thing. A film after 5pm. Around Easter and Xmas and other holidays they are making decorations and little goody bags of crafts to bring home.

I have 2 kids at different schools and different after school clubs. £10 each for both.

One had great activities, loads of crafts, loom bands, Hama beads etc. Food is dreadful - a packet of crisps and Nutella on a cracker.

The other seems to be tv or playground but with Yorkshire puddings and gravy, fish finger sandwiches etc. Lots of fruit available.

Luckily the clubs are well matched to their appetites and interests!

Is there really no regulation at all? Surely there must be? I can’t seem to find anything on Google though!

Those saying if I don’t like it, don’t use it. What am I supposed to do? Is it really suck up paying for my child to be fed crap while they watch tv or give up work?

I’d happily pay £20 for that and feed him dinner at home. It sounds great.

They are generally quite poor ime. Often staffed by teenagers.

They are mostly regulated by Ofsted though, so it's not true that they're completely unregulated.

I would pick him up and have him at home or use a babysitter.

That does seem like a lot of money. My DC’s school is the cheapest in my area but the school employ someone to run it rather than using a company to run it. I pay £9.50 for 3.15-6pm. They get a snack of fruit or cheese and crackers before 4.30pm then a tea which vary from soup and a roll to chicken curry and rice. They also get a pudding such as yogurt, fruit or jelly. When my DC started in reception year, I made a point of asking what they had eaten every day as my child was not forthcoming with anything. I would recommend asking for the information your require. With regards to activities. It’s tough to entertain them in the dark evening. I’m not a fan of my DC’s activities every day but I’ve just decided to ignore it and wait for summer when they get to run around and play outside until 5pm before going inside for food.

We pay £16 I think and they just get toast / crackers if they want them. If the weather is good they're outside on the playground and the ASC have a storage container of various outdoor equipment. Yes in the winter is it tv, craft and it isn't particularly exciting.

Honestly - I need dc to be looked after while I'm at work and absolutely it is a bit crap and they're a bit bored but nobody ever died from being bored. And it is better to be with other kids to play with than them watching TV at home for 3 hours straight with no human interaction because I'm working.

I’ve just found their ofsted report from 4 years ago, it’s hilarious. The night ofsted were there they made fruit kebabs as an activity, had an array of toys out, a bat & ball activity and they capped it off with circle time to discuss what they’d learnt 😂. What bullshit, the only circle time they do now is around a tv screen.

So that proves that they know what they’re supposed to be offering, they just can’t be bothered if no one is there to observe them.

Ours is £12 for 315-545 but I’m in Scotland so maybe cheaper? No food provided and mostly just outside running around. Some toys inside but it’s not usually set activities or anything, just some board games and outdoor toys with supervision. Sometimes there’s a movie on if it’s awful outside. My son enjoys it so still goes now in p5 even though he could just come home (we work from home every day between us).

And the inspection was in January so apparently it is possible to keep them entertained without a tv even in the middle of winter.

Why do we just swallow this crap instead of pushing for what evidently is possible?

Ours is £18 with no snacks or food and entertainment is mainly running round the school playing field or doing some colouring in.

It doesn’t promise anything else though and I would ask head office for a direct contact email address of the woman in charge and their complaints policy. Take it from there because I would expect what they say they are offering and providing to be adhered to.

To be honest I’d be happy with board games, colouring and toys.

It’s the constant tv and iPad that annoys me. And the crap salt/sugar laden food when I’m not allowed (and wouldn’t) send him with that stuff in his lunch box!

That’s the thing as well, they say they offer all that stuff and I’m happy to pay for it but that doesn’t seem to be what’s actually happening.

I’m going to speak to her tomorrow I think.

£11 for ours including food. We have a menu and it’s mainly things like beans on toast. They use the outdoor area and have a lot of toys.

Gosh! I pay 9£ and there’s no tv except Fridays they watch a film and have chocolate pancakes

its run by the school and they do colouring, games like musical statues etc and they have access to the garden and playground

im happy enough with that

food is basic but we get a menu

usually pasta, pizza, hot dogs kinda thing

20£ seems a lot for what you’re getting .

Our school is £3.50 per half hour, so would be £17.50 until 6pm.

Usually just free play with lots of toys, games, colouring, basic crafts, then outside play in the summer. At 4.30pm they tidy up and put a film on, even in the summer—but I think this is more cos the kids start flagging at that point.

It’s an extra £4 for a hot tea which is things like jacket potatoes, pasta, so relatively nutritious. Except on Fridays when it’s sandwiches—as I assume they don’t have enough kids in to justify cooking.

It’s run by the school, there are other more structured ASC available from outside providers. But they are more expensive, finish at 5.30pm and don’t provide food.

I think you should pick her up at 5

I expect the school know it’s not great. They are limited in what they can do to improve it as it’s really hard to recruit after school club staff.