No school holiday childcare for Summer Born

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Hello

I'm finding myself in a frustrating situation with summer holiday childcare.

All of the summer activity clubs/camps in our area (and there are only very very few of them to begin with), will only take children from age 5.

DS is an August baby.

I'm not intending on putting him in activity camps for the full time, but we could do with him using holiday clubs for about 8 days dotted across the summer holidays.

To make it worse, one of the big providers has just announced they are running a club at the local school. From the chat in the classwhatsapp, most if not all of his little mates will be attending for a few days, as they all turn 5 in May/June/July!

Has anyone else found themselves in this situation?

I assume I can't tell a white lie about his age for insurance reasons?

Have you asked them? Sometimes they say 5yo, but mean from Reception age rather than accepting 4yo preschoolers.

No you can't lie, they'll need his DOB. You could try asking them if he definitely can't attend because it might be that they're saying 5+ because they mean reception + and just haven't thought about the July/August babies!

Our one says age 5 but they will take summer borns who are 4 if you ask - they tend to go by school year.

Just ask. I run a holiday camp and I write 5 too, but i would take your son if you explain.

I had this with my youngest and just called and spoke to someone and they were fine about taking her

Definitely ask the camps! They might say 5 because they don’t want nursery age 4YOs but would be willing to take a summer born child that’s finished reception going into Y1. DD’s best friend is a late August birthday and her mum talked her into an art camp that was advertised as 5+.

Look at the website of the nearest Private School that runs from age 0-18 (ie with attached nursery that segues smoothly into Reception)

They will have a holiday club that will take any age of child from any school. They are also much better than many other holiday clubs for offering sensible hours - too many holiday clubs operate only 9:30 - 3:30 which is very difficult to combine with a day of work.

DD is a July birthday and she is eligible to go back into nursery until she turns 5 - it’s not a cheap option but works well for the odd day like today which is an inset day at school, when camps don’t run anyway. Could this be an option?

Thank you. I have asked, and I got a print out from their FAQs of no - child under 5.

Frustratingly no clubs. DH's mate sends his son there, and he confirmed, that very surprisingly for a private school, no holiday clubs

How annoying and inflexible!
Have you tried Barracudas and Junior Adventures Group to see if either have a camp near you? They’re the big national ones that I know of and do normally take 4YOs (4 and half for barracudas). Or more locally any hobbys that run camps? Some might not be advertising summer yet as they have Easter to get out of the way first.

Nursery have said that they could take him if there is space, (depending on how may of their current pre-school decide to finish at term end, rather than end of Aug). They can't confirm until June time.

Our main problem is that he will have FOMO that his mates are going to the other place and he keeps complaining because he will be the last to turn 5.

Seriously, kids that age don't get FOMO and all the others will forget about it as soon as they walk out.

He won’t get FOMO. The school holiday breaks the routine. He won’t know all his mates are at the camp if you don’t tell him and I’m sure not many, if any, of his friends will be there all 6 weeks- they’ll be breaking it up with going away, doing a mix with other camps, having time at home, staying with Grandma etc. So he really won’t be missing out in the way you think. The bigger issue is him getting upset because he considers himself too mature for nursery or worse that you wait until June only to find out they don’t have space. I feel really lucky now we have lots of options for 4YOs here and that my summer born is a June rather than an August because what a nightmare for you. Good luck and I hope you figure something out.

That's really frustrating, isn't it aged 8 where the legal ratios change? I could understand them being dogmatic about that age.

There are quite a few camps for 3-8 year olds in my area, plus ones like a pp which are run at private schools, but there's obviously a demand for it, which it sounds like there isn't where you are. For childcare you could find a childminder but he won't be able to hang out with his friends at the camp. But it's just one year and he'll have fun with them in future years.

What about a childminder who loses children during the summer who are term time only? They’ll likely also take a holiday for a week or two, but at least you are covered the other weeks.

The issue is likely that EYFS, the bit of childcare that covers small children, is birth to five. If you take 5 year olds you end up with EYFS children, as EYFS lasts until 31 August after they turn 5yo. That's why a lot of places will stick to Year 1 or older as then they don't have all the extra young child responsibilities to comply with. I'm kind of surprised they'll take any reception kids full stop!

There are various holiday club type exemptions, it all gets pretty complicated. But providers often want to be registered at least on the 5-8yo bit of the register so they can offer tax free childcare... https://www.gov.uk/guidance/registration-exemptions