No breakfast club or after school club

[raggybo]

DS1 starts Reception in September at our local village school. When we looked round the school in September last year, the head told us that the breakfast club and after school club would be up and running by the time DS1 joined. This has not happened. I have had several conversations with the school about this and it seems to me that for some reason they cannot be bothered to set these services up. They have told me that they cannot find anyone to run these services, which I find odd considering current unemployment levels. The school receptionist admitted that they have only advertised for someone to run the clubs on the school notice board as she said they could not afford to advertise it anywhere else.

My husband and I both work so this is significant issue for us. I have asked the local council to look into this but nothing seems to has happened. Does anyone have any ideas of what I can do to try to force the school to provide these services?

I don't necessarily agree with three blonde boys but it is legitimate to comment whether 6.00am -6.00pm outside the home for a 5 year old is optimum care. Most families have to make some trade-offs with work, care of children, economic priorities and some do choose round the clock out-sourcing.

As a teacher in a deprived area many years ago, breakfast clubs were for the hungry children who drifted in without breakfast and staffing was a voluntary roster by teachers. So I was interested to learn that it has now become a service 'entitlement', and, by the sound of it, something the middle class utilise as child care.

I think breakfast clubs and after school clubs are not usually seen as an entitlement. They are not free either as there is a charge for the child care. My son's school does not offer after school clubs but does offer a breakfast club which I use on the days I work.

Hope you get this sorted out OP - can relate to the anxiety and stress this is causing you. I would also echo the advice to look into local nurseries which might do school pick ups - most areas have at least one such nursery locally.

Maileleca - it's not just the middle classes who have to work
it's the working class too
and ours start at 7.45 not 6am
babies go to nursery from 6.30 to 6.30pm
yes it's not ideal but for some working parents they have no choice w
why do these threads end up attacking those of us who have to use childcare
lucky you if you have a lovely grandparent who does it all for free or you can find a lovely sch hours job
or you can afford to be at home all day while your kids are at school threeblondeboys

I'm certainly not attacking - I recognise how hard it is balancing competing demands on women. Just seems such a shame that women now seem to be no better off than they were 30 years ago.

Our school doesn't offer breakfast, because there is no demand.
The school in next village (much bigger) started one and had to close it as only 3 children came. So wasn't viable.

After school clubs are offered but again patchy and tend to be a specific sport (netball, football).

There is also a breakast and after school club at a village 6 miles away, you pay extra for your child to be picked up and dropped off in a taxi. By the time my child is dropped off, had breakfast and driven to school (and same in reverse), they've actually spent very little time at the club itself.

Yes the school are meant to offer something, so if they offer a couple of after school clubs, or they offer an evening class for adults etc they are meeting their obligations I understand it.

I know our headteacher has been trying to find out how the model is meant to fit for rural schools and getting nowhere fast.

If you can afford the alternative of private school then why not get a nanny instead. Seems to me that would be cheaper than private school and your child would be at home doing homework, reading etc

as someone who was on the after-school care committee as a school governor at our small rural primary school, can I just say that it is not a case of the school being deliberately obstructive - it is extrememly difficult to a) set up an after school club, and b) recruit for it.
It's taken us 4 years and we've now got some mums who will be running it on a voluntary basis initially.

It's a job nobody wants - the hours are shit for anyone with young children, the pay is poor and the responsibility is high, plus it requires mandatory qualifications.

The school is not allowed to set one up without it being financially viable from the word go - the are absolutely forbidden to put any money towards it, it has to be self-financing immediately.

Our school was unable to get any startup funding as a primary school 2 miles away has an afterschool club, thus it was considered that there was 'no need' here, yet having one became absolutely vital as numbers were falling, with people moving their children elsewhere. It was very difficult and we are incredibly grateful to the two ladies who have volunteered to run it from September.

Your school might have been over-enthusiastic when telling you they'd have one by September, but the same happened with another local school which got funding, room etc. and then eventually had to give up after trying to recruit someone to run it for over a year (using local paper etc.). I don't think anyone could have foreseen that tbh.

oh, and the 'pointing to provision'' requirement only means giving you a printout of a list of childminders in the area. Our nearest one is 8 miles away.

There's a huge waiting list for our afterschool club
I can't imagine somewhere where there would be no demand
a rural village school maybe?

our village school doesn't offer after school care. BUT the school in our nearest town does, and has a scheme to pick up kids from the local village schools. This scheme is not well publicised - I only found out about it last week. Might be worth looking into.

Our school has a breakfast club and an after school club.

The breakfast club is funded by the Welsh Assembly Government and is free, so it is very popular.

The after school club is more difficult though. It took a long time to recruit a replacement leader (the original one was a classroom assistant in the school so the hours fitted well with hers). The hours aren't attractive, who except a parent would want to work 2hrs a day? And a parent would want those hours to be during school hours and not after them.

The after school club is in a porta cabin, which is in a very bad state of repair. But raising money to buy a new one is very difficult, especially as there often aren't enough children attending to make it viable and cover staff costs.

If parents are keen to see this kind of provision in their chiildren's schools then I'm afraid the answer is to chip in and help!

raggybo
I work with someone who sends her child to the school local to our place of work becase it offers breakfast & after school club, the school local to her home did not. Are there any schools close to yours or OHs work?

Schools are there to educate children, not babysit them. Surely there are other options you could consider. I feel sorry for these schools that have to take on all these extra responsibilities - they have enough to do!

As someone has already mentioned, what are you going to do with your child during half term/school holidays/inset days/polling days/sickness? It's really not easy being a working parent, this is why there are so many SAHM or mothers who work part time (don't ask me why it's normally mothers, this annoys me), it's not through convenience, it's because someone has to care for their child. Even if they are at a private school they still have holidays (which are often longer) and still get ill.

compo no demand where I live - wealthy commuter belt. Probably because there are lots of SAHMs. At ds's nursery I was the only full time working mother out of 36 children.

But belle there are holiday clubs, people take leave to cover sickness
believe it or not some people do have to work full time and they do have children too
I'm nit saying it's easy but it's a fact of life for many people

I work full time and have a child compo

my afterschool club are in a church hall and they pick up children form more than one school - one of the other schools now has their own afterschool care, so they now longer pick up form there. they send staff out to the schools to do the pick up.

Could you see if there is a school near that is picking up form other schools - or find a school with a after school and breakast club that has spaces.

i was fortunate as the afterschool club started just as I went to work in the day - up unitl them I had worked shifts to counter against the lack of school clubs- it is difficult trying to arrange everything.

Otherwise I would suggest you lookat getting an au pair to pick up and collect form the school

Sorry Belle I thought because you were asking the op what she would do in the school holday etc implied you were a sahm! So what did you do? Use a childminder?how did you manage polling days, snow days, sch hols and child sickness then?

I have really struggled, a mixture of nanny/holiday club/time off/after school club. The majority has been time off because family are few and far between, those that are here have health problems, it doesn't make me employer friendly.
It does normally fall on the mother to organise all of the childcare or take time off when it's needed.

Yes same here
both me and dh have got in trouble for randomsnow and sick days off

It's just me so I have to have the time off with him as there's no one else. I do admin from home and am also doing a NHS bursaried course which is just term-time (thank god), this is hard enough to juggle, I don't know if I'll be employable when I finish the course.

When my DCs were at primary school, I was extremely fortunate that some enterprising and community-minded parents had already started the ball rolling to start up an out-of-hours club in my village. I was on the committee for a few years and know how much work and funding was required.

It took 2 years to set up and wouldn't have been possible without funding from Kids Club Network and various other grants. We eventually put in a joint bid with the pre-school for lottery funding to fund a purpose-built building.

Staffing was always a nightmare. As others have said, staff have to be qualified and are poorly paid for inconvenient hours. There are also all the statutory checks. It's unfair to land a small primary, whose resources will already be stretched, with the responsibility for all this.

PS. I find it amazing that the government thinks that parents are going to start loads of "free schools" when it's so difficult to set up out-of-school clubs.

In my county all extended provision money has now stopped and any money that has not yet been spent has been clawed back, nor will there be any further money available! Any school which doesn't already have a FULLY self funding breakfast or after school club will be unable to do so, there is no money available for any start up costs. All schools will be able to do now is "signpost" existing services. Welcome to the budget cuts!!!!!

daphnedill: we are in the same situation now, trying to raise money for a purpose built building for the after school club and nursery school (the after school club currently meet in a leaky portacabin, the nursery school in an asbestos filled village hall). Trying to raise money in this climate of cuts is nigh on impossible!

Ours is a village school, our BC/ASC was run by a charity and is not under a business. It only survives due to the preschool - without that we would have to go back and get another commitee together to run it. Its a shame that not all schools have them but staffing and regulations can be a nightmare.

Threeblondeboys, your comment was very off given that the OP will use the club due to having to work - those tax payers pay your benefits. If nobody worked or used childcare there would be no money to allow you to stay home at the tax payers expense.