Funding education

[Phoenix78]

Really sorry if there is an obvious answer to this problem. We want to send our children private but will both need to work full time to make ends meet. How does this work at the end of the school term? Aren't the children off for 6 weeks? We could cover half terms with our respective annual leave but stuck after that.

We don't have family nearby to help look after them during the holidays. How do others manage?

6 weeks?!!!!! And the rest! State schools have 6 weeks off in the summer, private usually 10, state school half terms are a week long, private are two weeks!

How do people manage? Childminders, nanny, holiday clubs, annual leave, working from home, compressed hours and family if available. Oh and leaving them on their own when they're teens.

Ds has 8.5 weeks off in the summer. Some of his friends have 7.5 and others have 9. 3 weeks at Christmas and 3.5 weeks at Easter. Half terms vary between 1 and 2 weeks.

Some private schools run holiday clubs that cover a fair bit of the holiday but there are still some weeks where there is nothing available.

*Holiday clubs
*Sending the child on a french/german/spanish exchange trip
*Reciprocal arrangement with parents of your children's friends (we'll look after them all for this week, you take them all for that week)
*you also have the right to unpaid parental leave too so long as one of the kids is still small.

Parental leave is to deal with short term childcare emergencies, so finding a childminder to look after a child off sick for a week, or shipping granny down, not for long term, foreseeable leave. Many employers are much more flexible though.

We both worked full-time as well. The solutions are all a bit of a mish-mash tbh and they vary over time. Ours were as follows:

1. After school clubs
2. Au pairs
3. My mother once a week
4. Holiday clubs (except that only worked once as the DCs hated them)
5. Tennis clubs - which ran from 10-4 so we had to cater for drop-offs and pick ups
6. Annual leave
7. Working from home - only works when they are 9+ IME otherwise you are not working, you are feeding/entertaining children

Now they are teenagers we can leave them home alone. But I still phone them to make sure they are up and washed or dressed. Otherwise I would come home to find them in their dressing gowns ....

Parental Leave can be used for anything to do with your child's welfare - the gov.uk website suggests a variety of reasons none of which are emergencies (indeed you are supposed to give 21 days notice so I can't imagine that is a main purpose at all!). I'm using some to deal with the settling in period at the beginning of reception so we don't have to use breakfast club & after-school club right away - certainly forseeable. You can take up to 18 weeks per child up to their 5th birthday so, as I said, it only works if your youngest is still small.

Thank you for all your replies.

I'm amazed that there isn't a standard solution to such a common problem.

That's one of the (many!) reasons ours are at state school - 13 weeks holiday versus nearly 20 weeks off!

I'm amazed that there isn't a standard solution to such a common problem.

A friend of mine found the ideal solution. When faced with the lack of before- and after-school care and holiday club, she set up the provision herself. She now has a thriving business.

I'm not sure why you think there would be a "standard" solution for how to plan non-school time when families, whether using private or state school, are all so different.

It's a case of what's available locally to you and what you can afford (covering the long private school holidays is sometimes called "paying for a fourth term"). But if you think there's a gap in the market for a 'standard solution' and have an idea about what it would be, then that could e a whole new opportunity for you

Always a patchwork of childcare. Twas ever thus.

The prep school dc went to had holiday care every week of long and half term breaks bar the odd day, also available to non pupils . Not cheap though, well over £100 per week. There are other providers nearby such as YMCA who are cheaper or some sports /drama/arts run by the council but they are only in the LA holidays so max 6 weeks summer break plus Christmas and Easter. Some CMs will do holiday care.

It is truly a nightmare once children of full-time parents go to school, regardless of whether state or indie, especially if the parents are commuters. It makes one wonder why one had children! I could have sent DS to the local school but it would have meant childminder from ideally before 8am and not seeing him until gone 6pm, cooking, shower then bed.

We went indie largely so I could have time with him -albeit in the car - during term (as he can come with me and go to a school close to my work), but that then gives even more problems with holidays.

We cope term-time by using the school's breakfast and after-school clubs (one paid-for, one free), some creative flexible working hours courtesy of a kind manager who allows me to do my contracted time spread over the week rather than a set number per day, and during holidays, a variety of holiday clubs (with family holiday in weeks with no clubs). Though since he's only just finished YR this is the first summer we've had to do it! But we have been planning virtually since birth.

Big problem is Christmas. No clubs! 3.5 weeks in wonderful British winter, so we are having to hoard annual leave for then, when we can't really go anywhere. Bleargh!