School holidays and working parents

[WiseKat]

Hi All -

We recently relocated back to the UK and my DD is attending school finally after a difficult period of finding a suitable school place.

I noticed that there are quite a few school holidays , including mid-term.

Here in the UK it’s just three of us: my DH, DD and me.
I am currently looking for a job following a relocation . How do working parents cope with so many school holidays ? Are there any clubs or camp type activities which children can attend or do parents just work from home and look after the kids on those days ?

Thank you very much for the insight!

How old is your child. I'm not allowed to look after primary age children while working from home, so DH and I split it using a mix of annual leave, parental leave and use holiday clubs for the rest.

My daughter is in Year 2, so yes - she requires a lot of attention during the day.

My husband will need to travel during 10-20 Feb (when the next mid-term break is) and I might just be starting my new job , so getting a holiday straight away might be difficult .

How do holiday clubs work ?

Thank you !

Do many holidays? It's only 13 weeks per year, can't imagine that's too different to other countries?

Holiday clubs, childminders, share play dates, leave them home for a bit, nanny babysitter..... lots of options depending on child's age, location and your budget.

Taking annual leave separately, holiday clubs and reciprocal play dates here gets us through. We try and keep 1 week where we are off together but that doesn't always happen so we have to have separate leave.

Holiday clubs vary in different areas but they are often offered through schools as the companies that run them use school premises. It might be worth asking parents of some of the children your dd is at school with if there’s a holiday club they could recommend. Sometimes parents put their children in for random days of holiday club even if they don’t work.

The holiday clubs near me advertise on their website/Facebook/via the school and you book your kid into the days you need and pay online.

Ours never seem to be an actual full work day, the closest is a school day (9-3), many are shorter. But we are fortunate to be flexible so can accommodate that.

We also make it work with a mix of each parent off, grandparents, swapping with friends and holiday clubs.

The local council should have info about registered childcare. Probably called something like the family information service on their website. There will be other day camps that may not be ofsted registered such as sports and dance camps.

There are also National providers like Kings camps.

Holiday clubs - many schools are hired out by other companies who run these in their buildings (often secondary schools as they have bigger halls/more space for hire). The ones round here are £50 a day 8am - 6pm. Some are more expensive, some cheaper. Will be a mixture of games and activities.

some sports clubs and camps happen but I’d they aren’t childcare focussed (so eg a tennis camp) it’s more likely to be 9-3 timings. If you are working from home that might work.

other options include if you use a childminder to do before / after school care while you work, most will do whole days in the holidays. (Childminders are self employed people who run a childcare business from their home. There are rules about how many children they can mind at one time and tend to only offer to do the school run to one particular school)

In the uk children go to school for 190 days a year. This is in line with most other countries. They just are more spaced out than in some countries, with a short summer break of 6 weeks compared to 10+ weeks in some other places.

Yep , Asian (Indian schools in particular) have a little less holidays in comparison and not such long stretches at a time .
But yes - they still do have holidays .
I was not working in Asia , so it was less noticeable for me. And now we need to devise our system.

Parents mix annual leave and holiday clubs

Holiday club provision varies quite a lot, aea to area.
We have quite a lot of clubs in my town, they advertise on thr school website and in a magazine called grapevine.

They tend to have a theme like sports, science etc. There days can be quite short though - 10-4 but some offer extended days.

When they were little we used a childminder who took them after school and during holidays ( an absolute god send). They retired so we now use flexi working ( me), holiday clubs and annual leave. Luckily as they are now getting older we need it less.

You can sign up to holiday clubs, sometimes through school but more commonly private, some are general, others are specialist activities. In year 2 I would suggest looking for a general one for February - speak to school and the council for ideas. Sign up for local parent's groups, emails, local children's centre emails, local area Facebook group etc to find out what is going on locally

Thank you all for your answers and explaining how each of you balances work with school holidays.

I will speak to DD's school and find out about holiday clubs, etc .

Yes we pay for our DC to go to day camp during the school holidays. Or we hire a babysitter. Or we use annual leave and take time off work.

Some people rely on family for childcare but we don't have that option.

We manage it by one of us taking the hit in earnings and having a term time only job. It's so bloody amazing not to have to manage the school holidays. It's worth the loss in income for us, on balance.

or do parents just work from home and look after the kids on those days?

Well, some might but it rather depends on your jobs! If you can’t work from home, that wouldn’t be an option. Most people I know either have one parent not working or working term time only, have family available to help with childcare or use childminders.

Most parents do a grab bag of annual leave, holiday clubs, grandparents (if available), sharing days with each other.

We have an after-school nanny who does a couple of full days a week in school holiday; we fill in the gaps with an 0830-1730 holiday club in their school and DPIL pick up the occasional day.

Depending on where you live - Supercamps are good. The hours work with full time jobs and if you know you are going to use them regularly you can get good discounts.

The activities are really good too.

https://www.supercamps.co.uk/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI6cqfooO-wIVumDmCh1osAizEAAYASAAEgJBMPDD_BwE

You may find that the holiday camps are not run or organised by the schools. Many are run by private companies and use local venues, sometimes school buildings but not all.

Social media searches on local area groups may be a good place to search.

Most people I know use a mix of annual leave, family/friends, week/day holiday camps and some use things like PGL residential camps too.

Some use childminders and nurseries when their children are in lower primary, as some of there providers also offer school holiday cover.

Holiday clubs see us through. It's December that's tricky as they don't run between Xmas and new year. Fair enough. But I work in retail and can't have time off. I have have to hope and pray my mum will have her for a couple of days.

When DC were at primary school the after school club went to full days during the school holidays, so for most parents there was little change.

They closed fully for the last two weeks in August so that is when most families went away.

I'd suggest asking other parents at school rather than the school per se. It's unlikely the school will run the holiday club, although a bit more likely that a club might run at school (obvious venue as it will be empty!). Leisure centres often also run clubs.
Talking to local parents will give you a better idea what is available in your area. Depending on your child's personality, they might also prefer to go to a club where they already know some children.
How are you planning to manage before/after school care? If you use a childminder or other childcare provider, they are likely to put their own provision in place for school holidays.

I second what others have said. We use a combination of sharing the days off between my DH and I, occasionally doing swap deals with other parents ie I have their kids some days they have mine others, paid holiday clubs (we use the school one, some sports ones and one at another local school) and family. Now mine are older primary they do sometimes have lazy days at home whilst I work. It helps if you know what their friends plans are as they tend to enjoy it much more if they have friends there. I tend to mix it up over the week so maybe a couple of days with a parent, a couple at clubs etc.

Our school offers before and after school care for the extra charge of around 10 pounds per day . So I will consider that , plus my DH has some flexibility .

It's just February mid term holiday I am getting concerned about as DH might need to travel , hence thinking of different options ...