What happens with your CM fees when your children start school ?

[pippylongstockings]

My eldest is starting school in Sept. How should she charge me ?

My CM is lovely but she hasn't CM before and so we don't really know what is expected. I feel that paying for a full place when he is only there 3 hours a day is a bit much, but can see that she is doing a school drop off and pick-up which will limit her in her day. My youngest will still be going allday.

For the last year I have been paying full fee's even though he has been going to pre-school for 3 sessions a week.

What is the norm ?

Until he is at fuul time school you pay full - once he startes f/t she needs to decide her before & after school fee

cms usually have a different charging system for after schoolies. Perhaps she may charge the full rate initially if your school is one of those that mess about doing half days leading up to staying for lunch and finally whole days. But if your child is just doing 3 hours after school then thats all you pay for. Unless...the cm has a minimum payment period or they may have higher fees. Your school child will now be counted as an over 5 so will allow her to use his full time space for someone else. There could be an unusual case of paying for the whole day, if your cm is the only person on call to attend in emergencies or you'd like her to attend the during the plentiful daytime school events so that your child has someone special there.

Sorry to highjack but how does it tend to work if the child goes for breakfast thn gets dropped at school, then collected for a few hours again after school?

And what about school holidays when they need to stay with the cm all day?

IwishI - that is before and afterschool care, so I would expect there to be a per session fee, or done as say 2 hours morning, 3 hours afternoon. Some childminders may charge a per-school-trip fee, others will include the traveling cost in their hourly/session rate.

School holidays would be charged as a full day. Some CM's may do a special rate for that.

Iwish - that is exactley what my DS1 will be doing.

I will drop them off at 8am - she then will take her DS to school and then drop my DS1 to school. She will then pick my DS1 up at 3.30pm. So he will be doing 45min in the morning and an hour and a half in the evening. But I am aware that she has had to arrange for her DS to be dropped off earlier, and catch a bus home so she can do the school run for my DS1, as the children go to different schools.

It is going to be a nightmare with tax credits! Which is why I am trying to get a flavour of the norm, so that maybe we can work out a general-flat rate rather than phoning tax credits every half-term.

Some CM charge a set fee for before or after school. Others charge an hourly rate. I pay £4.50 per hour per child for my two that are school age.

I work out 39 weeks at termtime rate & 13 week at Holiday rate add them together & divide by 12

I charge full days until they start full time school and then I charge just for the before and after school hours and full time for holidays.