After school club primary

[Vivalavid]

Hello, so currenly I work Fridays in after school club an hate it because I'm drained and it's boring. I only do it for the money. However, others who have done have/are going to quit. No one wants to do it myself included. If we all said no what would happen? Would parents be told it can't run and they need to come up with alternative provision, it's the 6pm finish that is mainly putting us all off.

The school my child goes to had to close the after school club (external provider) before Xmas. No alternative provided and no available child minders in the area. I now pay triple the cost to use a babysitter. To enable me to go to work, which I too do for money incidentally.

The school claim 5 families only used it, which the ladies who ran it say is not true, but the school stand firm that there is not enough demand.

So no, you all leaving does not mean they will provide an alternative.

What job do you do in addition to the after school club? It seems quite melodramatic to find it so challenging if it's only one day a week.

However, to answer your actual question then if you all said no and they couldn't find anyone to take it over so the club closed and there wasn't any alternative care it's quite likely some of the children may have to leave the school entirely. Wrap around care is an essential to many working parents when choosing a school and if other local schools provide this it may also mean less parents also choose your school moving forward.

I meant could parents get alternative provision, what they charge doesn't even cover the cost of the staff and it's poor as hell.

TA, and I do it atleast 4 days a week, but by Friday, I've had enough and I start getting agitated.

If the pay was better or we could finish at 5, more of us would want to do it, but we all literally have no energy and it's not worth the money we get.

My schools wrap around club external provision closed over Covid.
The school has had to set up its own ran by teachers/TA and support staff. They wouldn’t have got any pupils without sufficient wrap around care. Parents work, it’s essential

Same at my school. I’m a TA and there is no way I would consider doing Before/After school club. Being a TA is really physically and mentally demanding.

I literally do it for the money and that is it, it's boring, no TA wants to do it, we're all literally fed up with the crap pay and conditions, the holidays are a bonus though!

Whether they could get alternative provision depends on what is available in your area. We only have two childminders in our area so do primary age and collection from school. Both fully booked and neither one does a full mon-fri.

So I'm left with a very expensive babysitter and cobbling together flexible working hours etc instead. It's very very challenging and I'll likely move to a new area next year if this is not sorted.

To me it means that the already underperforming school will continue to only attract mainly non working families and not be suitable for full time working professionals.

Is it part of your contract? I'm guessing it's internally run by TAs? It could be that the school try to find other TAs who do it as part of their contract, it's worth considering would you be willing to lose your job by giving it up the after school club role?

Also finishing earlier isn't really a feasible idea
a 5pm finish isn't helpful for most working parents so it wouldn't be beneficial to the school to reduce the timings.

They email and ask us, they don't get people in, I've had times where it's gone 6 and we're having to tell parents to collect their kids because we don't get paid past 6, it's very annoying.

Like with any job, if you don't want to do it, you can just not do it. Don't allow yourself to feel guilt-tripped into doing the role if you just don't want to.

Is it a "fun" club or a "childcare" club?
If it's just for fun then if you quit and it closes then that's that.
If it's childcare then I think the school needs to listen to the parents need and use an outside company if needed.

I think you are of course free to not do it unless it is part of your contract.