Clubs til 730pm but no dinner/tea/snacks. What do other schools do please?

[NotDonna]

As the school has a duty of care I totally understand that the students are not permitted to leave the premises during the time between school ending (4pm) and sports activities starting at 5.30pm. These sports activities end at 730pm. They attend homework club during this ‘gap’. Unfortunately homework club is in the library with no eating or drinking allowed. It’s a long time to between lunch at 1pm and pick up at 730pm to go without any food.
What do other schools do please?

At state schools the day may end before a club or match starts. It's up to the kids what they do in the gap.
If it's over half hour most go to Asda up the road.

When my DC were in Prep school, the school day finished at 4.20. A trolley was brought out loaded with sandwiches and fruit for anyone staring for clubs.

At Senior school, food is available as a breakfast service before school at break and lunchtime. If kids are staying they can buy sandwiches, biscuits etc to eat after school. They can wait in the library or there are various covered picnic spots where they can sit and eat. A food service after school was offered for a short time, but wasn’t hugely popular so doesn’t happen now. Anyone doing matched gets a match tea provided - usually hot dogs or similar.

Yeah, that's weird. Honestly, I'd contact the school and ask. If it's private, then they'll surely want you to hear from you? Because how can your kids perform well in their activity?

In my last private school- a boarding school- which kept similar hours, the school provided a light tea at 4.00 for children who were staying. Just drink, toast, fruit, cake- that sort of thing.

I couldn't have such a busy day including sports and go that long without regular food and drink! And then what, not eat your evening meal until 20.30? And get up and do it all again the next day? Plus activities outside of school and homework and music etc?

Sounds bonkers.

I usually protect school at all costs but no. It’s not acceptable. Schools I know have strict no nuts no junk snacks etc policies however after school clubs either provide food or children allowed to eat snack before sports arts or drama clubs etc start.

This is utterly bonkers. I have never heard of schools doing this ( state school teacher, experience of 4 state schools, indi school parent of 3 secondary schools, friends with loads of teachers across both sectors)

1. why on earth are they not splitting nights/ options so the kids don’t have to wait so late ( surprised the teachers are on board tbh)
2. totally unacceptable to not allow the kids to eat, school need to sort out some system that allows it you really need to push back against this madness

Lots of missing info - state or private, boarding, day or day pupils at a boarding school, how old are the children? DC waiting in the library implies it's not a mainstream thing that most students do. Do other DC get picked up and dropped off again?

I boarded and we had tea at 4pm. Bread or toast, spreads, big pots of tea, plus cakes a couple of days a week. Dinner at 7pm. This doesn't sound like a boarding school to me because there was always somewhere you could eat - bootrooms, randomly wandering corridors in your house...