Schools should 'provide sleepovers' to help parents with cost of childcare

[Itchyandscratchy]

Here

Speechless.

"The school day is not fit for purpose." Who's purpose Scottishmummy ?

What about doing something regarding cost of living compared to most wages/salaries?

Im fortunate enough to earn enough to pay my rent and bills and have flexible hours so I can be home when the children are but I know plenty of people heavily reliant on free childcare by other family members and top up benefits like tax credits because the cost of rent and council tax is so high a percentage of their take home pay.

Who has children to never see them? How is that good for the parents or the children?

Yes I'd like to see option of extended day,suits my needs
Yes me who fulfils the children need like safe secure home,stability full fridge by working
If its safe,adequate and regulated I cannot see problem.my kids always have fitted in around our routine.as is case for most folk

Horrendous. Just horrendous. Because we all know it won't be anything like prep school flexi boarding.

In fairness the article alludes to 8-6 day,that's not onerous

I imagine it would create a rather sad picture of your priorities in your child's mind, if you would leave them at school overnight because of work. I know it is hard to earn a living and that many jobs are cutthroat...but if you decide to have kids, work is no longer your priority. I work with children that don't see their parents for 12 hours a day. They are not necessarily badly behaved, messed up or disaffected...but it does have an impact. I can only imagine that being left overnight in a school not fit for purpose (as boarding schools are) would have an even bigger impact.
But this government don't give a monkeys about children, particularly those from less than wealthy backgrounds. They want to please the employers who should be doing something about working hours and conditions...for goodness ake, we live in a technological whirlwind world, why are we considering living like Victorians in the poor house?!

Yes most of my friends and family have highly successful careers and not one has Scottish's attitude.

That's a very lame and obvious attempt at goading
Im not rising
Try harder

I think having a before and after school club ran by childcarers is a bit different to extending the school day.
As mentioned upthread the government should be supporting working parents by making work places more family oriented. E.g Childcare vouchers.
The other problem is paying the people to look after the children, you either employ someone who's qualified up to the eyeballs who will provide quality care and activities or you pay a pittance to someone who hasn't a clue. Obviously the more qualified the staff the more expensive for parents...
Childminders, IMO, are a great option.

I'm a teacher. I'll happily have my tutor group overnight.

So long as I can be paid £3.50 per kid per hour - the rate for CMer or babysitter round here.

30 x 14 hours (6pm - 8am) x £3.50 = £1470.

Obviously I'd be deducting £147 each night to pay for my own dc at their school sleepover, but still not a bad rate....

Good qualified staff won't be queuing up to sleep overnight in a crappy school building with several fed up kids for the minimum wage.

I just find the terms of this debate so depressing. The assumption underpinning the whole discussion is that children are just a massive PITA who get in the way of parents economic productivity.

People have really odd ideas about childhood in this country. We seem to have this rosy vision of what childhood should be yet we are also prepared to shove our children into school from 8-6 with no down time or freedom to have space and do their thing.

I just think it's really sad. And before anyone accuses me of being a "Doris Day SAHM" I work - freelance.

tasmania

I'm a SAHM and I say yes, take them!
as long as they will have all 6 I'm in!

I am in the extremely fortunate position to be able to work in a school. Mine and dh's income is very modest, we live in a modest house, we don't have many family holidays (and certainly not abroad).

BUT, the dc know I am home for them after school. I can therefore take them to swimming / hockey training / friend's houses / emergency shopping trip for new school trousers etc etc. I can be there for them.

If I had to work all day I would seek out a child minder or approach a friend / family member.
I would NOT NOT NOT leave them in the same building where they have already spent 8 hours that day.

I appreciate it is a great solution for busy mums (who perhaps don't have the time / energy / inclination to seek something better for their children) but to my mind it is a lazy solution which does not have the interests of the child at the forefront.

I can think of 2 or 3 times over ten years when a sleepover option might have been genuinely useful to me, I doubt there would be a lot of take up for that. But before and after school clubs make all the difference. I am in the ridiculous position of possibly needing to cart my youngest to school in the next village rather than use the very good school across the road because the further away one does wrap around care, the over-the-road one does not. The cost of before and after school care for the nearer school would be more, and even more important, every CM in the local area stops work at 5.30, whereas after school club continues till 6. Unless I leave work early every day I can't get to the CM for 5.30, the extra half hour makes all the difference, plus the fact that wrap around care is quite flexible and I can book occasional sessions on top of their regular days. It's not because I don't want to see my children, but because I work full-time that I need adequate childcare during working hours.

Exactly buttercat

You're v het up with emotive terms about crappy locations,is your school a dump?
School my kids attend is not a crappy environment,far from it
I can see though if your experience is crappy poorly designed school you feel aggrieved

I'd quite like to bring up my own children. Not send them for increasingly long periods into the care of other people who probably never get to see their own children

The working day needs to change so it's easier for parents, not make the day even longer for children with even less time with their parents.

How about everyone works part time. 20 hours a week.
That means more people can be employed, more time off work for everyone, less benefits needed. (I am being flippant, of course)

I can't see anywhere in the proposal where it say school sleepovers are compulsory. It offers the possibility for those who cannot afford the cost of prep schools that provide flexi boarding or aren't able to get scholarships and/or bursaries to cover the costs. Those who are against it or who think their dcs wouldn't like it don't have to participate.

For me flexi boarding makes my life so much easier and yes I have used a CM before. When I used a CM I had to fit around her and her other school aged mindees. It meant if ds wanted to do an after school club at school he could only do so if it suited the CM. I got thoroughly fed up with negotiating with the CM, arranging for ds to do something and then discovering that he couldn't because the CM changed her mind or could no longer pick up at the time she had agreed. As for cost it is only recently where the annual cost of a CM (including holidays) is less than the annual school fees plus holiday clubs and ds is at the end of year 4.

When I travel for business I can arrange for ds to stay at school safe in the knowledge that I am not relying on a number of different people to do the school run, for ds to stay with etc etc. It suits me perfectly and ds loves boarding. It isn't for everyone but it is for some. I'm lucky that ds has a very high scholarship and that I can afford to pay the balance of his fees. Fwiw the boarding cost for one night at ds's school is £35 including all meals which is cheaper than it would be to pay a CM for overnight care.

BehindLock: as you say, you are in an extremely fortunate position.

By the way, at after school club my children (and this is true of all the after school clubs I know of around this area) are in a different building, they do different activities, not more school work, and get a chance to relax with their friends. They like it.

I've done supply,you visit a lot of schools,most are shite. You wouldn't believe how shite. Teachers do a fab job at making the best of crappy facilities.

It's a proposal to help working parents,not housewives who don't dont need provision
No were is there discussion of compulsion to participate in extended day
It is option for working parents,and a useful topic for discussion

Probably why the gov is spending 10 billion ££££ patching them up.

Most working parents I know wouldn't touch it with a barge pole.