Parents are to be given the right to request schools offer childcare in the holidays

[rollonthesummer]

Apologies for posting this twice, but I'm not happy!

bbc

Parents in England are to be given the right to request schools provide childcare for the full working day during term time and in the holidays.

So, school just is childcare then, thanks, Nicky!?

Who is going to pay for the wages of the staff doing the childcare?
Where is it going to happen?
When will the essential maintenance and repair work that can only be done when there are no children around take place?

They can request all they like, but whose going to pay for it?

It's the right to request. Presumably the schools have the right to say sod off, for all the reasons you list.

1. it's only a request. If schools ant then they can still say no.

2. it doesn't have to take place on school grounds. They can contract an outside company to run it.

3. where does it say school is just childcare? It doesn't and you're projecting.

4. the parents will pay a fee to use the clubs and this will pay the childcare staff.

Our school runs holiday clubs but for only aa couple of weeks and it costs the going market rare.

Rate, not rare.

I imagine it will be funded by the parents paying for holiday club. Our school has an after school club and they currently do a 2 week holiday club in school hall in the summer and also do an all day club in inset days.
You aren't going to get every parent wanting to use it and it won't e using while school.

It would be great if schools could offer childcare options in addition to normal education. Lots of working parents that I know would welcome this and happily pay.

The holiday club was I underused in our area they shut it down at the end of the summer as it was no longer viable!

Several schools round here do this anyhow. Premises rented to providers, who bill the parents. It really helps working parents. It's logistically easy.

What's not to like?

Why is this such a bad idea? I wouldn't have thought teachers would be involved and I am sure parents will have to pay?
The school we're hoping to get our DC into has breakfast club and after school club and holiday club, as well as it being outstanding it's one of the main attractions for us.

It makes absolute sense to use school buildings for this purpose during the summer. Schools have many facilities that could make this a success. What it needs is a clear demarcation between staff working in the school during term and those in the holidays otherwise it is a great plan.

It makes absolute sense to use school buildings for this purpose during the summer.

Every school I have worked in over the last 15 years is falling down! IME schools need weeks in the summer to keep them propped up. The place is usually full of skips, cranes, ladders and scaffolding with chaps in hard hats wheeling rubble about. These things take time and just aren't safe to have kids near.

Perhaps I'm being too cynical though!

Is it not suppose to work the same way than the After schools clubs, ie parents are paying and its happening within the school premises?

Otherwise, that would be crazy. Crazy fir the staff that need the hols. Crazy fur the school that couldn't afford to pay said staff.

Good point about needing to do the repairs though.

The majority of buildings, ie shops, banks, hospitals etc seem to manage to operate year round without having to close for weeks on end for 'maintenance'.

I wouldn't have thought they would occupy every classroom - would imagine just in the hall or something?

Holiday clubs can provide significant income for the school.

We contract to an outside company for after school care and holiday care. They pay us a fee for use of the hall, pool and playground areas. We have nothing else to do with it, parents need to liaise with the company. They only use the hall and playground areas, classrooms are not used, so we can still go in on holidays and clean/pack/setup etc and do maintenance. If maintenance is required for any of the areas, then they just use another part of the school during that time.

I have no issues with it, as long as there is no pressure on teachers to extend their working hours to facilitate it.

Dd school has wrap around care, but there aren't enough places.

It depends what sort work is done though and how the school is organised.
Two schools I know used to be open plan and even now there is little separation between the classrooms/hall/corridors.
because everything is connected, any work done is having some impact on people using the hall fur example.
Another school my DCs have been to has very clearly defined spaces. The hall on one side is separate from the classrooms so it's much easier to do repairs etc...

Having said that, our after school club has proposed some holiday club in the summer fur the last 2 years and there has never been enough takers. One reasons was the restricted hours, the other the poor choice of activities done on site. Ok for after school. Not ok for holidays iyswim.

At my school, teaching assistants are paid extra to run the after school and breakfast club-they are generally parents at the school so it suits them to be paid whilst their children are there anyway (they can just join in and do homework etc)

I can't think of one of them who would want to work 7.30-6 in the holidays as their children wouldn't have to be there. The reason many of them accept the low pay is that they can spend holidays with their children; take that away and who would want to do it?

It's just about using the premises isn't it? We both work full time. No grandparents around to do drop off or pick up or holidays. We pay for summer camps, half term camps etc and these are usually held on school premises. Whether it's run by the school, or by a holiday camp organisation, it's got nothing to do with the school staff. Whether some of the school staff work for the camp as camp leaders, that's got nothing to do with the school as they are being paid for by the parents and the camp company.m

What's not to like? Not everyone is able to get off work at 3pm and have 12 weeks off work.

In the holidays there is more choice of play schemes/ child care. Rather than forcing schools to provide childcare in the holidays I think it would be better to look at ways of making it easier for private providers to provide wrap around care for existing holiday schemes. For example my daughter is going to do two days of gymnastics 10.30 to 2pm. Now this is totally useless for working parents, but maybe a private company could provide wrap around care for sports centre activities.

From my experience of after school clubs, I would not want my child spending a whole day in free play enviromnent. Is fine for two hours, but most school children get bored witless with endless free play. Older children like organised activities. Under labour there was extended schools and the first thing the tories did was to get rid of extended schools. Now Nicky wants to bring back extended schools with no funding.

Somewhat selfishly I'd be delighted if dd's school did a summer camp / holiday care. We already make good use of the breakfast club (no after school unfortunately, not on site anyway, there is a rubbish after school club loosely affiliated with the school).

As it stands now, we get various relatives to come and stay with us for a week, or dd goes to her old nursery (will soon be too old), dh and I rarely have time off together as we split for school holidays etc etc. It's a real pain in the arse to manage and dd often doesn't see her mates for a couple of weeks as there's no one to facilitate it during the day.

If there was a holiday club at the school, the chances are that a lot of dd's friends would use it (albeit not for as long as dd would sadly) and at least she'd get the social side of things.

I wouldn't be expecting it to be funded by anyone other than the parents that use it - as per the breakfast club we already use.

My experience of holiday clubs is that they are run by university students, not school staff.