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.

No!
The club I managed was part of the school but managed by a management committee and we had our own registration with Ofsted and were inspected independently from the school. We planned activities based on observations of the children playing and how we could expand their play. Xbox, etc was very popular so we always had a list on the go so children got 5 minutes then the control was handed to next on the list.
some children like to be outside, some prefer indoor activities. These should all be provided for. Craft, construction, cooking, role play, quiet area, homework area, should all be offered. I always felt we should be a home away from home for our children. If they wanted to just flop and watch a bit of tv, chat with their friends, just chill, that was ok too.
I’d be asking the manager to show you how they plan activities, what their meal plans are. They have to provide evidence to Ofsted of this and those meals you described don’t come under ‘healthy eating’ which is what they should be promoting.

Thats really really expensive ours is about £7 an hour - its not hot food but good quality wraps/fruit/veg/yogurt and biscuits/crackers.

Sounds like it's bare minimum though most asc don't provide a meal.

Not really sure you can do much about it though if you haven't got any other options.
Email the manager and request less TV/more activities?

My son’s after school care picks them up from school and take them to the centre.

they play games, crafts - they have a chill out room. Monday they do forest school.
They also get a meal. £53 monday to Thursday.

It’s very much focused on play. I’ve never seen tablets but there is a computer in the corner

Our after school club has a tiered system
3.30,until 4.30 £7
until 5pm £9
until 6.30 £15

they do not provide a hot dinner, but offer snacks like crumpets / toast etc and children are able to take a packed tea if they wish

its on site at school so no tablets or TVs, they do play music and the kids can use board games , roll play, the school playground and library.

That does sound dreadful.
The one my children attend sounds similar but is a lot cheaper. It's run by the school and costs £7 per session. All they seem to do is watch TV and occasionally do some colouring in or lego. Snack tends to be a bag of crisps, a yoghurt and a piece of fruit.
Have debated picking them up at 3 as WFH but they are at least being supervised by another adult there and have friends to hang out with.

If you dislike the food, just feed them when you get home? They don't have to eat there?!

In Western Europe, not UK, but I paid approx £4 from 3:30-5. It closes at 5pm, and it doesn’t matter if you pick them up at 3:35 or 5pm, you pay the same amount.

No food provided, they had to have a packed snack. Mostly (barely) supervised play in the school playground, if temperature is under zero then inside playing with Lego at the table. No screens allowed at all. Except for the teenage supervisors who seemed to be glued to their phones…

Now my DC attend my school (I’m a teacher) and they just come up to my classroom as I finish up my work for the day.

I’ve personally never had a good experience with after school clubs. If it is as bad as you’re describing OP, you might be better to just take them home and put them in front of a screen/in their rooms while you finish work. Depends on their ages of course. My 7-year old would be fine with that, but my 3-year old is still very dependant and probably wouldn’t let me get any work done.

Based on what yousaying they seem to think providing a space and making sure the kids are safe is enough. It sounds very poor.
My son runs an after school and breakfast club which is £8.50 for 3.15 to 6pm. They always have a craft activity, toys and board games. They run games/ activities with them as well, sometimes in the hall or outside.
They have themed activities for seasonal holidays and celebrations like Easter, Christmas and Halloween. The Christmas stuff over December was full on with elves and even the Grinch making an appearance. Could you contact Ofsted to let them know what's happening. Or not happening.

It’s roughly the same price as yours - £20 for just under 3hrs

@CatGod if you don’t want to pay it and say you can pic kids up /work from home while they watch tv why don’t you do that

would work approve /mind ?

it’s so hard to find people to run the asc and usually at nmw as who is about 3/6 apart from teens

Look up Mother Pukka on Insta. She is trying her damn hardest to put an end to all this inflexibility. Notice how no men have ever raised this problem. Families are suffering immensely and it needs to change.

Definitely talk to them.

Is the TV on no matter what time you turn up?

My DCs brilliant CM did loads of activities with the DC, no TV or screens allowed - until about 5:15 / 5:30, when DC were the. allowed "wind down" time and could watch TV or play on the Wii.

So if you were one of the later pick ups, you could easily get the impression all they did was watch telly, when actually the provision was great.

Fingers crossed something like this is happening because yes if they're just stuck in front of the telly that's rubbish.

Have you looked to see if there are and Childminders doing a pick up from your school btw?

Wow that's a lot of money for not very good service!
I'm not in the uk, my son's afterschool club is 150 euros a month from 12 until 5pm (and free for low income families), no screens except for a film maybe once a month. Each month we're sent the list of planned activities for each day that month, things like window painting, pottery, playing on the apparatus in the mini gym they have, nature activities, local walks, arts and crafts etc. The rest of the time is spent playing outside or inside with the large selection of toys (ds is often playing with lego or magnetic tiles when I pick him up). The most exciting activity for DS is when they get to bring in a toy from home . No dinner but they get a healthy snack (and they all will have had a hot filling lunch at school anyway, free).

After school clubs clearly can be so much better!

Did you end up speaking to her @CatGod ? How did it go?

I run an after school club and we tend to have ‘snack’ that’s usually parts of whatever they’ve had for hot school meals that day, plus some extra stuff and it’s sort of given buffet style, so they can choose what they fancy. Usually stuff like roast chicken or pizza, pasta, cheese, choice of fruit, carrot cake or cinnamon swirl.

Crafts is very often colouring as the main thing, I try to bring in a choice of different colouring pages every day so it’s not repetitive.

I bring play doh in when I have a smaller group.

I also bring in a den building kit in the summer.

the kids also like to just run about and throw bean bags everywhere 🤣

I do get everyone to start tossing things away towards the end of session though, so when the last couple of parent arrive mostly everything is packed away and we’re playing something like Simon says, sleeping lions, doing talent shows ect. So those parents don’t often see everything we’ve had out that day,

I work at a primary school- I think the after school club is awful. Cheap , processed meals, noise and loads of sugar! I can’t believe people pay. It’s separate to school, they just use our building. It’s less than you pay though.

Ours is £17.10 3.15-6pm and the food is similar to a PP- wraps, crudities, pizza, fruit kebabs; all cold but balanced.

Ks1 is a lot of playing outside then lots of colouring, games, Lego, magnatiles etc.

ks2 they can do their homework and they have board games.

DS is yr4 and tends to do his homework or read or play uno.

Your cost seems reasonable seeing they are providing a hot meal at all. Basic is all I’d expect though- I don’t suppose they can provide a chef on less than £6 per hour per dc. Do you always collect at the end? It’s pretty common to pop tv on at wind down time. They won’t want to employ staff much beyond when the last child leaves so tidying up of any activities will have been done prior to home time so putting tv on or offering electronics is at this point would be sensible. Your thread is quite contradictory. At one point you say you can just work from home and pop tv in for dc the day you have no other option but to use what you think is this poor service. On one hand you don’t know what they are doing or being fed then you talk as if it’s fact. Surely your dc is at least 5 so is able to tell you with some accuracy what they are doing and eating and if unhappy than bringing the home would seem sensible

The after school club contract is with the school. At our school so many parents complained about the cost being increased again whilst many children were getting hurt and reporting the club was running amok, that the school served its notice on the club and brought in a new one which is much better. Neither of them ever put the TV on!

With the old club we paid £19.50 for 3.30 to 6pm, now we pay £17.50 for that slot but less if we want to pick up before 4.30pm. It’s cheaper because it now runs inside the school instead of at the adjacent community centre, so the room hire cost has reduced. The kids have access to board games and toys and they run organised games like duck duck goose. Crafts every day - usually one big activity a week like decorating biscuits or making mini pizzas or Christmas cards. In dry weather access to the playground and play frame, and the field for tag games and football. There’s also space for quiet reading, jigsaws or puzzles or colouring, and homework.

It isn’t a well paid job and of course it attracts students who earn a bit of money but don’t yet qualify for full minimum wage. You need strong management and staff who can handle lots of tired, fractious kids of different ages.

the TV being on is pretty crap. I’m employed by the school and we were told we can occasionally put something on the telly if the kids seem overly tired/not interested in anything else. But it’s been well over a year of me being there and I haven’t needed or wanted to put the TV on at all. We’ve discussed using it for music to play games like musical statues and follow some child friendly yoga but not really to ‘watch’ as such.

TV and tablet use every day is absolutely awful and I would complain about that. Although I would guess the screen time keeps the kids quiet. Unfortunately a lot of schools are under pressure to have ASCs but don't actually want to run ASCs. No teaching staff wants to stay later than a normal school day. Our ASC is very basic activities and crap snacks. The older kids are bored.

Ours has snacks so toast or biscuits but sprinkles vegetable sticks or crumpets. Activities tend to be themed and a craft with usually an option to go outside. We’ve been using it since it set up (school one) and at first it was more like you describe but it’s evolved to what it is now and as a result the children seem calmer.

Did you speak to them? How did it go?

I agree with you that it sounds pretty crap and hugely overpriced. It sounds like they massively cheated the Ofsted inspection and I would consider anonymously reporting them.

If things don't improve then if your DC are old enough to not disturb you unnecessarily then I would definitely think about pulling them out of the club and putting a film on at home for them instead.

Our ASC (in London) is run by the school. The staff are passionate and energetic. Whenever it's dry and light the majority are in the playground. The staff join in their games. Inside they have all sorts of toys and board games. They do lots of really nice crafts. In the run up to events like Christmas, poppy day, Diwali, they talk about the event and make related crafts. They put a film on every now and then, but not even every week.

Food is more of a snack, like cheese and crackers, a hot dog or soup, and there's always fresh fruit available. But both my DC have always had dinner at home afterwards as well.

We pay £13 for 15:00-18:00.

You asked for prices, so I'll share ours: it's £21 for 3:15–6pm (used to be £16 two years ago, but wage increases, etc.) and it's just free play and a frozen oven meal (pizza/nuggets/etc.) The children are really left to choose whatever they want, so it's usually ball games, toys or TV. I consider it babysitting, really, and it's cheaper than that, so I'm not that bothered that they're not doing much stimulation or educational, as long as my child enjoys it.