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Primary education

Join our Primary Education forum to discuss starting school and helping your child get the most out of it.

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Original poster

After school club

18 replies

Hairytoe · 21/06/2012 18:59

Re wrap-around childcare. I am a governor at a primary school and our school has a breakfast club. It is run directly by the school by a TA and a LTSA and starts at 8am. There are very limited places mind you.

Anyway we looked into providing an after school club but were told that for some reason ( which I can't remember?!) the school could not run an after school club directly. It would have to be a separate identity potentially using a school building or maybe the on-site Children Centre. The reason it never got off the ground is that we as a Governing Body were told we would have to run it ourselves. As in deal with setting it up, employing staff, insurance, finances, legal issues, day-to-day management. Obviously as a group of unpaid volunteers with no relevant experience who already give a lot of time and effort to the school we felt this was an ask too far. So no after school club, which is a real shame.

If your school has an after school club do you know how it is run? I'd be interested to find out, and grateful for any advice. Thanks

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iloveACK · 21/06/2012 19:03

Ours is run by the Pre School which is very close by. Prior to that, an outside company used to run it on the school premises but when nursery funding went to 3 hours, this could no longer happen as they used the nursery room & so there wasn't enough turnaround time.

I don't understand why an after school club is different to a before school club though??

FamiliesShareGerms · 21/06/2012 19:05

An outside company, which runs several in the local area, runs the club at DS's primary school. Maybe you can put it out to tender, which although a bit of hassle, surely less than setting up and running an after school club yourself?

veritythebrave · 21/06/2012 19:06

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 21/06/2012 19:08

Is it the fact that if it goes over two hours a day it has to be Ofsted registered in it's own right? We have after school but no breakfast club and the after school club ends two hours after normal school hours for this reason, I heard about this about 3 years ago so things may have changed. Our staff are employed by the school directly.

CharlotteBronteSaurus · 21/06/2012 19:10

ours is run separately. the chair of governors oversees it, and most of the staff are also employed by the school eg as TAs, lunch-time supervisors. i assume the council give a lot of support with the arrangements, as the cheques are payable to Borsetshire County Council.

Original poster

Hairytoe · 21/06/2012 19:20

Iloveack - I don't know what the difference is either, unless it's a time thing as WhoKnows says.

We've got a new head starting in September and I'm planning to raise the issue then. Just wanted to do a bit of info gathering first.

Thanks for all the tips so far..

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fivegomadindorset · 21/06/2012 19:22

The same TA who does the breakfast club from 3.10 until 6 so under, just, 2 hours, definitely not outside club.

sparkles281 · 21/06/2012 19:33

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Message withdrawn at poster's request.

jubilee10 · 21/06/2012 20:27

We are in Scotland and ours is run by CALA (care and learning alliance). It is in two mobile classrooms in the school grounds. They also run a holiday club 8am till 6pm.

Tiggles · 21/06/2012 20:52

A couple of governors set ours up, it was a major headache and took them loads of extra work to get everything in place to get it registered. It was then passed over to a committee who now 'run' it. They employ staff and it is separate from the school. At the moment the staff also happen to be TAs in the school but that is co-incidence iyswim.

BackforGood · 21/06/2012 21:00

Where I worked, it was an outside company. I also know of a few where pre-schools run them. However, as my dcs school, it is run by the school. I'm not sure this would be any more difficult than employing all the other staff the school do - from Head Teacher, to cleaners, Building SIte Supervisers to TAs, dinner supervisors to cleaners.

Original poster

Hairytoe · 21/06/2012 21:08

Littlemissgreen can i just ask who are on the committee? Parents?

Backforgood I don't think it would be particularly difficult for the school to run it. I was just led to believe at the time that it was not possible for them to do so, or they were not 'allowed' to ( by County?) iykwim. I was very new to the governors at the time and didn't ask the right questions. I have a sneaking suspicion we may have been if not misled then fobbed off a bit. Hoping to go in forearmed with knowledge this time!

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TheFallenMadonna · 21/06/2012 21:21

Ours is run by the school. We used to run it as a not for profit organisation by parent committee, but the school took it over.

MustStartExercising · 22/06/2012 17:16

Am answering you on this thread rather than the other one, as its more appropriate.

Ours is run by the governors, it was originally set up as a separate company with a committee overseeing it. For various reasons it was brought 'in-house' so to speak.

At present all the staff work in school as TAs and their contracts cover school and all extended services - holiday, breakfast, afterschool and nursery lunch club.

We have an extended services manager who does the rotas and ordering. Admin and payments are done by our school office and the HT has overall responsibility for it.

There is a system arranged for cover etc.

Now its up and running it doesn't take that much GB time - we did have a separate committee at one point. But it did take a lot more at first. Obviously there is more work for the school staff and admin time etc all has to be charged for, school budget is not allowed to subsidise the wrap-round care.

GB still reviews policies etc and yes it does add to the overall work load

Original poster

Hairytoe · 22/06/2012 20:19

Muststartexercising thanks very much for your reply, very helpful. I have a feeling that our school office were not keen on the idea of extra admin/ finance work. Although maybe I am doing them a disservice.

Anyway lots of info here for me to think about and plan how I bring the subject up again!

To be fair none of the schools in my town have an after school club ( ie one which runs every night all the time ) and I did hear it was kind of a 'group' decision.

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sameasyoubutdifferent · 22/06/2012 22:39

Our asc club runs as a not for profit voluntary organisation. It is run by a committee of parents (who use the club) and the day to day organisation by a paid manager. Two staff work within the school, two just do bc and asc.

Tiggles · 22/06/2012 23:00

Sorry Hairytoe, only just seen your question. I know they were looking for parents to be on the committe, not sure if they found any. I think there is probably a teacher on the committee, but that could be because they didn't have enough parents.

Original poster

Hairytoe · 27/06/2012 12:38

Thanks for all the responses and PMs to this query. Very helpful and I appreciate all the advice

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