Summer holidays - how's that going to work?

[ReadingTeaLeaves]

There's so much discussion about schools, but what about care over the summer hols. 6-8 weeks of no school work (and presumably much more limited support for keyworkers too). Are holiday clubs going to run with social distancing measures in place? Will private providers be able to get insurance? I'm really worried about this. Kids are in the middle age bracket - I'm able to work (ish) with them at home as they have stuff to do during much of the day, but once school finishes for the summer it will be much much worse than now. I'm surprised others aren't talking about this. Does anyone know how this might work? Are holiday clubs going to operate? We normally use a mix of grandparents, holiday clubs (at least 4 weeks), and 2 weeks family holiday. Only the latter looks possible now.

If my DP has to go back to the office, my DC will have to go to their grandparents. Regardless of whether it’s ‘allowed’ or not, we’ll have no other choice. And his employer seem keen to get his team back ASAP (which is ridiculous, because they can function absolutely normally from home - but they didn’t start from home until the day of lockdown because his employer hates wfh on an ideological level). I’ve been wfh 2 days a week, but have been having to go in the other 3 days because I need the labs.

The DC usually go to their grandparents during the school holidays, which I’m grateful for because we couldn’t afford holiday clubs even if we wanted to.

My neighbour’s kids are already going to their grandparents - they both came off furlough this week, so the kids had to go somewhere and there were no other options.

Grandparents not an option fir us either as my mum is 80, 250 miles away and shielding.

It won't be working.
I think that as long as I still have a job then I'll be WFH with kids staring at screens or in the garden. Far from ideal but it'll get us through.

One of my local privately run holiday clubs has been taking provisional bookings. Another council run one is doing the same.

Her after school childminder is also planning to be working.

I have booked in a few days and hope they go ahead as otherwise it will be way too much screen time.

My school intends to keep opening for key workers over the holiday. The headteacher has asked for volunteers to staff it.

They will just have to go feral. I've a yr 3 and 5 and for me it will be easier. Yes
they will have screen time, but they also have toys and games a garden and bikes. Anything has got to be easier then trying to school and work.

I feel like the rug has been pulled out from underneath me as a working parent and that my career will ultimately suffer. I’ve worked so hard to juggle both career and children, and to put in place sustainable arrangements for childcare (O/w school is only one part).

I don’t expect the children will be back before September (though would send them if I could) and even then perhaps not full time. No certainty on whether breakfast club will resume. Not clear whether grandparents can continue to provide care (DM had them after school) and unlikely to find any sort of childminder or club for after school locally either - trust me I’ve looked in past, provision is very poor.

Summer holiday would usually have been a combination of holiday away, grandparents and local sports camps. Looks like none of that is happening this year. So while we will both take time off work (we are both wfh) we won’t be able to take all summer off, and DC will be bored while we work from home, and our employers will get increasingly frustrated by reductions in productivity.

I can see this being a really frustrating situation. I imagine the providers won't be able to get insurance to open as normal.

I have kept all.of my annual leave allowance based around the summer holidays and half term in Oct.

My plan is that yes learning will continue, it has to otherwise the impact if my child returns in Sept would be far worse than normal holiday regression. And we've worked too hard for that!

We have had no lessons from school, so that's not really an issue. The 6 days I will work, oak or bitesize can continue.

The rest will be as we're currently doing, projects, practical and a couple of very in depth sessions in maths and English.

If we're not going anywhere much anyway due to shielding, the fun stuff can still happen in between.

I'm so lucky that my dd is 12. I hope that this summer will be her mainly up the park with a friend/friends. Would have been the year she would have been allowed to get a train or bus to the next town/beach but heigh ho, she will survive. She cannot wait for me to go back to work.

Try contacting local Childminders, even if you don’t usually use them. They’re allowed to open from 1st June and many will also be short of cash. They may offer summer cover even if they don’t usually. It’s worth a ring around.

Ultimate Activity have just cancelled all their summer camps, we had our 11 year old booked in for 2 weeks so not sure what we're going to do now. Looks like many of the other holiday, activity camps will follow suit if not already.

I thought Gavin whatshisname was going to announce the summer holiday plan this week? (I know, blind optimism 😂)

@Lemons1571 I saw that mentioned on Daily Politics today, I'll believe it when I see it.

DH & I run Summer holiday activities. We were pretty much fully booked before everything kicked off in Feb but made the decision to cancel a few weeks ago because we were reaching the point of having to incur costs (insurance, staffing, equipment etc etc) without any guidance or idea of if we would definitely be able to run, would need to reduce numbers etc etc. It just wasn’t worth it to us at that point, financially & logistically.

A lot of other local providers seem to have made the same decision. We hate letting parents & children down but it just wasn’t feasible / worthwhile for us to continue committing to this summer.

Who knows what Gav is planning to announce but holiday clubs take a huge amount of planning & prep. They don’t just magically appear and 4 weeks isn’t long enough to organise much either.

Barracudas camps cancelled too. Hoping some of the smaller local sports camps might run....

Kids can meet friends (up to 5 like everyone can) outdoors. They can have them over in the garden or go to the park.

Do look at the transmission rates on this, kids are half as likely as adults to get it. The bigger issue for kids is mental health so prioritise socialising outside with their friends where possible.

The summer school that operates from our school announced that they won't be working over the six week holidays only yesterday - I don't know what people will do - I hardly imagine anyone would fork out the cash if other options were available.

I've already negotiated with my 13 year old that he'll be doing online work every day in the summer - he did over easter and half term as well. There's just too many hours to fill otherwise, although a local watersports company are starting small group sessions next week, so hopefully they will keep on with that which will get him out with others a couple of times a week, and we'll keep on with an hour a day of exercise together

Me and oh both working full time so he has booked three weeks leave, I am in a new role so can’t have holiday at present.
I cannot find one holiday club open so unfortunately if my parents will have my kids that’s where they are going, rules or not!

Meant to add my mom is a teacher so normally has the children all of the school holidays.

It will just be like now. Without the school work.

I work for a kids sports provider. We usually offer 9am - 4pm in the holidays. This year we will only be doing 9.30-12.30 & will have to put £ per hour up.
We can only have 5 children to 1 coach & everything is outside. Ok if it’s dry, bloody nightmare if it rains.
We’ve decided a whole day of trying to keep kids 2m apart is just too much hard work, add in to that the possibility of having to make them eat lunch in the rain because we can’t take them inside.

I’m wish they’d send back mid August, maybe taking a longer break over the Half term/ winter , or just pay teachers a decent bonus for working 3 more weeks.
Would that work for teachers or impossible . Just that it’s been so long , esp only kids like mine,? Even if it begins on a rotating basis, getting back earlier would help so much

I also get why Y6 and y10 back, but it’s really not fair now other primary are going back and secondary arent at all