School advice

[Vic820331]

Hi there,

Our little five year old is due to start school in Ireland next week but they have told me his school day will finish at 1.30pm.

In London, where we live at the moment, I have always worked but school goes until 3pm (earliest - appreciate our school days are long here!) and after school clubs run until 6pm. Is this the norm in Ireland too? What do working parents usually do with little ones after school? Are there activities at schools or is it usually childminders etc? Or does it vary?

Am wondering if I am going to have to find something that works more with school hours initially or if I can start enquiring about 9-5s.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Where abouts in Ireland? As Dublin will probably be very different to more rural areas.

But yes, it's a bit of a culture shock going from English schools to Irish school hours! We're not quite there yet, but from my friends, they: work flexi hours, work part time, don't work, use 'child minders' who collect from school (it's in inverted commas because they are not qualified, just locals who are paid cash) or use a creche that picks up the children in a minibus from school.

We're fairly rural/ small town here, so I've no idea about Dublin or other cities, but drive past any school here at 4.00 and they are empty of pupils and teachers!

1.30pm would be a normal time for junior & senior infants to finish (presume your DC starts at 8.50am if they finish at 1.30pm?)
From 1st class on they'll finish an hour later for the rest of primary school.
Secondary schools are more varied, mine finish at 3.30 but some will go till 4pm.
In my experience children with 2 working parents get collected by child minders (usually a local mammy, not as regulated as UK) or a crèche, or sometimes there's an after school club if you're lucky.
Be prepared for school holidays when primary schools finish end June, and Secondary schools finish end May!

Random Pyk= no idea why 🤔😬

My son started in September & I know a few of his classmates are picked up by crèche for after school & they do their homework etc. Our school is finished at 1 45 for juniors & seniors, no activities or clubs for this age range

Yes I.30pm approx is normal for the first two years, then it'll be 2.30 approx for the following 6 years until the end of primary school.
School holidays are long too with 8-9 weeks in the summer, 2 weeks at Christmas and Easter plus mid terms too (at primary).
I live rurally and it's a small school so no after school care here. People use childminders or work part or flexi time or family help out. Larger schools can have after school care, breakfast club etc so it depends on the school really.

In some schools there is an earlier finish time during the first few weeks of junior infants too, at maybe 12.30 or so. The idea is to ease them in gradually and not to overtire them. Again this very much depends on the school so it might be worth enquiring.

Sorry, ignore the last bit as it usually only happens in September. I somehow read your op wrong and thought your child was starting then, sorry.

1:30 is a normal time for Junior Infants. My daughter is 2:30 now she's in second class. I'm on mat leave now but before we just paid for a before and after school childminder. It was 200 euro a week. So the cm picks up the child and minds them. Afterschool clubs aren't really a thing in Ireland.

Arrangements will vary locally - e,g. we have an afterschool option till 6pm but it is oversubscribed. Most parents use a creche pick up until they are 7/8 and then they move to a childminder.

People use a mixture of childminders and crèches. Very few schools have after school clubs. We have one in our school but next to impossible to get a spot and it finishes st 5 and doesn't run on school holidays. Also remember summer holidays are much longer here as well and be prepared for random half days or days off for teacher training or whatever. Childcare is in very short supply at the moment so you'd need to start looking soon.

Thanks everyone. This is all super helpful. Am starting to think I should re-train as a childminder ;)

If you do you will have to learn to moan about the 'shite wages' even if you are doing it cash in hand, have no experience and no insurance lol

I had to use a mix of creches and childminders and my mam for years of primary. All secondary now and 'looking forward' to three entire months of looking at my cherubs as that is what they get in secondary school. Two months or roughly 9-10 weeks in primary and we seem to have unending bank holidays and random days off for teacher training etc. Actually maybe you should retrain as a teacher instead ;)

Welcome to Dublin by the way. We are only wonderful people us Dubs 😉

And the rest of the countrý is even better OP😉

Yep 13 weeks holidays in primary and up to 17 in secondary ah the joys...

No it is not. It is max 10 weeks for primary and 13 in secondary.

I presume PP is counting Christmas and Easter too, but if you also add mid-term breaks then secondary schools would have ~19 weeks off - not including the random training days.

Oh it is a joke and teachers bloody complain. I am sick getting emails for days off for teacher training etc.

I am counting the number of weeks required to take off work to cover the summer (8), Easter (2) Xmas (2) Mid terms (2) and longer bank holidays days etc - (1) - trust me I am covering 13 weeks plus every year with annual /parental leave etc - it is a big eye opener for my friends from UK.

It is ridiculous the amount of time our kids get off I agree.

Depressing to see such a snooty attitude towards childminders, no wonder so many have gotten out of it since the first lockdown.

Although it's not the norm in most schools to have breakfast/afterschool clubs in schools there's often private ones nearby that will drop and collect children from school. I see about 6 different facilities collect children when I'm doing the school run after school.

Depressing to see such a snooty attitude towards childminders, no wonder so many have gotten out of it since the first lockdown.

I don't see a snooty attitude towards childminders on here? Many people who mind small numbers of children and/or older children in their home are not subject to any regulation. This is through no fault of their own, it's the way the system is set up - there is no oversight in many cases.
It's not a great system really - take a look. The poor system, however, is not a reflection on the skill and care of individual childminders.

But it's something OP should at least be aware of when choosing childcare. I don't see the harm in pps telling her the facts. If you want to assess how experienced, competent and professional a particular childminder is, then this is a job you will probably need to do yourself. There is no guarantee a government agency is doing that job for you - many childminders are not included in their remit.

In Ireland childminding is more like babysitting - unregulated - so my kids go to one of the other mums 3 days a week.

Some other kids go to formal afterschool care (but unless you're really lucky, there's no way you'll get that with school only a week away!)

I will say, despite it being completely informal, I pay a lot more for my childminder here than I did in the UK... because they're doing it as babysitting, rather than a business, you tend to be charged the full rate for their time, as opposed to in the UK where it was expected that there were more kids being looked after at the same time, so you paid much less per child.