After School Clubs - your experiences?

getcarter

I was a childminder for a couple of years and most of the children I looked after went to OOS club at 6 or 7, in fact now I've stopped childminding mine go as well. It's a better enviroment for them, childminders are too boring unless you put a great deal of effort into it or just concentrate on the older ones and then it is not cost effective.

My kids love it (more than coming home with me) :rotfl:

Lyndsay_21

i actually worked in an after school club for about 2 1/2 years and we did lots of different activities including cooking, arts and crafts, mulit-cultural activites ie chinese new year, diwali.
We also used to go out on the field in the summer and all sorts of team games and in winter we used the hall. At the one i used to work at we used to give the children a small meal which they would often prepare somtimes it would be simple things like toast and other times it would be home made pizzas, foods from other countries, fruit salads but all of it was healthy.
They had a computer they could use (it was a very basic one) and every activity was planned and each member of staff had to plan an activity for a particular day.
As long as the club is well run and ofsted inspected i dont think that it'll be a problem as long as your child enjoys it.

Doodles

Thanks everyone for your helpful advice. I took on board what you all said and rang the club this morning to get more info. Its £9.50 per day (that's London eh! but still a bit less than the childminder) and they do include a healthy snack, drink and fruit. They have lots of emphasis on activities and will be doing things like basketball, football in the warmer months. Its an indefinite club and they said they will be increasing up to 40 places by the summer (they are refurbishing the 2nd floor of building) and hope to start an holiday scheme for school holidays from 2007. All seems good, and I felt positive after coming off the phone.

My son is really keen to go now so I've made up my mind to apply. My childminder has been on holiday for the last month and is back on Monday, so I will have to tell her of my plans next week. In a way I think I'm going to feel a little bad because she is a lovely person and has cared for my son very well over the last 5 years, but its not a personal thing, I simply feel my son has reached an age where he needs more stimulating. I'm sure she will understand. Perhaps part of my nervousness is that I've felt secure with her and part of my everyday routine for the last 5 years has been to go to her house and collect my son. So its a change in familiarity and routine that is slightly unnerving. Did anyone else feel a little like this, or am I being silly?!

Spendless

Is it £9.50 in total including both breakfast and after-school club? Ours is £3.50 for breakfast plus £6.75 for after school so £10.25 per day if we want both and I'm a lot further north than you.

What will you do about school hols if there is no holiday club till 2007? Also what age do they take them up to? With him being 10 now, will he be at secondary school this Sept. Our breakfast and after-school will only take on Primary schoolage kids.

Doodles

No its £9.50 just for the after school bit. The school is in the borough of Kingston upon Thames, an expensive area so perhaps that's why its a higher cost?

The holidays are generally covered by myself and my ex-husband although we usually rely on the childminder to have my son for a couple of weeks during the summer and the occasional inset day. My plan is to ask my childminder if she would be ok having my son in holidays still if we needed it - I am sure she will, she does that for several other kids as well anyway, she is very flexible.

Son has only just turned 10 and is in year 5, so won't go to secondary school till Sept 2007. But that's a good question you asked about what age they take them up till - I was assuming that it will be up until they leave the primary school (ie summer 2007). But I'll check that out before signing up!

Savvy_Sue

As everyone else seems to say, most 10 year olds will be happier at a Club than at a childminder's. Especially if their friends are there. BUT you do sometimes find a 'dropping off' in year 6 when children CAN start to outgrow it. This is particularly a problem if the club serves an all-through primary school and there are lots of little ones there. Excellent staff will overcome this, but it's hard. Costs: it may be quite pricey in school holidays, although still likely to be cheaper than the childminder's.

I would ask your childminder if she's willing to be kept on for emergencies, and I would also consider using her some days and the club on others. Especially if you're regularly late ...

As others have said, clubs do tend to be very strict about lateness, and it's not because they're mean, it's because they have to be strict! (I helped set up two clubs - can you tell?) The staff are paid until a certain time, and if they're not away by then, they expect overtime! Plus there is the pressure of other things going on in the premises, or the school caretaker on the warpath!

Having said that, in a geniune emergency they'll probably be very understanding. Your train being cancelled on a regular basis won't hack it, I fear!

Afterschool clubs don't provide a proper meal, usually, for all the reasons given. And also, it may just be toast and spreads. But even that is an adventure for smaller children, who may never have been allowed to spread their own toast before ...

I would go and visit once it's open. And if you like what you see, sign up. And if you can, get involved - maybe even now? If it's run by a voluntary management committee, you'll be able to help set policies etc. And there are often too few people willing to do this - good on you poly! - and a lot of work goes on behind the scenes.