Is it wrong to put less days for holiday month?

[sennix]

Our nursery is on holiday in Easter (1 week), summer and Christmas for 2 weeks. And the fee is calculated in a way that we pay for those too. (I guess it's normal for nursery, childminder and nanny?)

DS goes 5 days a week, and that's about 1000 monthly, approx 4 weeks in a month. But those April, August and December, we will pay same amount of money for 3 weeks or 2 weeks.

Is it wrong thing to reduce days in those holiday month, so that we save money?

Or does people do that? So that they go to family holidays etc??

I think you still have to pay even if you go on holiday or they could give your place away. Check your contract.

I don't believe you will be able to reduce days, and there is no guarantee you'll be able to increase them later as they might give the place away. They want you to pay for a specific number of days in order to keep the place

My nursery and most I looked at were only closed over Christmas. We get so many holidays a year that we don't have to pay for but that we have to pay for them.

My cm doesnt charge for her holidays! Most parents match up, so they take at the same time and so dont have to pay. Parents pay when they take holidays during cms available dates.

Im shocked your nursery closes that much, and shocked that you pay too.

I don't think that's fair or reasonable tbh.

When I first looked at nurseries I was horrified that had to pay for when they close but they said they have to pay their staff for bank hols/xmas just like I prob get paid for bank hol - and it was a fair point.

Can't go begrudging the staff a week off at Christmas either when they spend the other 51 weeks looking after me ds!

This is the same at most nurseries.

Full time places are normally offered at a discounted rate to take account of nursery closures
The nursery is a business and needs to make a profit
You are buying a service, which the nursery his providing. Presumably, you read the terms and conditions
You do have the choice of going to another nursery
Nurseries that don't charge for days they are closed normally have a higher daily rate, so it all works out around the same,Danish ever model they use
You have signed a contract and the nursery is providing a place on those days you have requested
You would have to give notice to change sessions and there is no guarantee you will be able to have the days back
How would you feel if the nursery suddenly said you couldn't have a full time place anymore? The contract protects both sides

I would imagine they work the fees out so you pay a monthly amount so yes you cover 5 weeks they are closed but it won't just be paid for in those months. So if you pay 1000 every 4 weeks some months you will effectively get 'free' days as they are longer but your fee doesn't change and other months you will pay for days you can't use as the nursery is closed. Are you paying full fees for the closed weeks? I am assuming you have signed a contract which should detail this. Our childminder doesn't charge if they can't work but we pay if we can't send the children

This is so unfair. The nursery where our Sofia goes charges as well. Didn't find a solution yet...

You have to pay if you want them to hold your place when you decide your child is not attending.

I suspect that the nursery fees are calculated as an average cost across the year, accounting for the days they are closed. the daily cost would be more (and accounting more complicated and time consuming) if they didn't charge for bank holidays/closures.

Ask them what their policy for charging is when you are on holiday. Many places still charge full or half price to keep your place open. They still have overheads.

You could try to withdraw your child for certain weeks when you are on holiday, but you'll run the risk of their place not being available when you need it later.

That's a lot of closure. Ours was just a week at Xmas but yes, we had to pay for that. Which I think is fair.

Are there other nurseries that don't close as much? That closure pattern would basically force a fair bit of leave to be used!

But no, you won't be able to say "these weeks when you are shut, we would like to make those weeks where he goes 0/2/3 or whatever days, not 5" - there will be some t&c about notice for changes, those changes being permanent etc

Mine charges for 50 weeks a year as closed for 2, but payments are split equally over the year rather than a reduction at Dec and Jan.

Before judging if its fair look at the costs and closures of alternative care often settings that charge are similar to those that don't if you compare the annual figures. You can then look at if the quality on offer is worth the fee,
I would have thought you would be aware of their closures before you signed a contact and started with them. As others have said you may find you loose the days permanently if you reduce them.

All settings that have staff have to give holiday and minimum wages which have to be covered in some way so every body using a nursery will be paying for staff time off its just different ways of charging and you need to pick what suits you....but it does seem a lot of closures.