School pick-ups - advice please

[tiger79]

Hi - Just had another enquiry for collecting someone's child from playgroup, then collecting another child from school. Only problem is the school is the other end of my village and my daughter and other future mindee will attend the school which is just around the corner.

How do others cope with collecting from more than one school. Do the parents have to make arrangements with the school to say their childminder will collect 10 minutes late?

We have a 7 seater so driving them all is fine, even though I wanted to walk to and from school, but I suppose we can't be picky at this stage.

[zillervalley]

yes to your question

I had the same sort of thing when my aunt had surgery and coulndnt pick up her grandchild

we made arrangement for lo to be picked up 10mins earlier rather that 10 mins later that suited the pre school better

[louised]

I only pick up from one school and I stipulate that on any advertising as i can't be in two places at once and to be honest would find it very stressful

[singlewiththree]

I thought long and hard about it and too only collect from one school. There are too many times when children come out late, due to PE, cleaning up etc or school activities that have held the day back that I didn't want to make pick up's stressful. Only you can make that decision though.

[Mrs Pootle]

I only do from the one school too. I was asked to pick up from another school nearby, and as it closes 10 mins later than the school I pick up from I was tempted to take it on. I'm really glad I didn't though, as there are all sorts of reasons why the children at the first school can be later coming out, and then we would all be running to the second school and I'd be really stressed. It only takes one child to forget their coat or lunch box & have to go back in to get it, and it throws the schedule out.

[claire'scherubs]

I pick up from 2 schools, but one is a little village school and I am the olny childminder in the village, so school is very understanding if I am late and always hold onto the child (ren). I don't find it at all stressful because the school support me, so makes life easier, might be worth talking to the teacher(s) involved x

[jadylasa]

One of the main reasons I do this job is so that I'm there for my children. I will only pick up from my children's school. I had an inquiery a while back asking if I would pick up from another local school which finishes 1/2 hour before my school. On a normal day this is totaly do-able, by car, however if it was an abnormal day (1st child late out/teacher needing to speak to me/accident causing traffic on route to my school, any thing could happen) I am just not prepared to let my own children down.
I don't think the school will keep them past time unless in to was school activity, they would have to have someone looking after the child etc. I was stuck in traffic oneday and phoned school to tell a may be late as there was traffic and they told me I'd have to call someone to collect them, as they had no one to look after them and if they wen't collected within 10 minutes of home time then they would contact the authorities to report an abandoned child! even if I'd let them know I was late. seemed a bit harsh at the time, but now I'm a childminder I can see sense in this, if you do it once the people take the p**s and do it again thinking its ok, as childminders we have late fees which puts parents off doing this, but a school can't charge you. as well you're not just asking them to do it just once, but as a regular arrangement. I would say that pre school is ok to pick up early, but they may see it as a disruption and could upset other children, esspecially if they were unsettled and they saw one child being collected and their mum wasn't there. School it would be a deffinate nono as it's eating into the child's education.
These are just my opinions and experiences, you have to really think about this one. good luck hun. xxxx

[tiger79]

Thanks for your feedback. This is actually Jon's wife posting on his behalf (as it is most days until he finishes his other job!)

I think it's too much trying to do more than one school too, but Jon thinks he can't be picky and is panicking we won't fill all the places before I go back to work after maternity leave.

Only problem is if he does take this one on, the pre-schooler will take up one of his places 3 days a week from 3 till 5.30 and we'd be gutted if he then got asked to look after a pre-schooler 9am till 5!

[jadylasa]

I don't know whether you do this (or everyone for that matter!) but I have a settling in period, where the contract can be ended without any notice period if it isn't working out for one of the parties (parent, child, you and your family, or other mindees already settled) May be if your husband thinks he can give it a go, a settling in period means he can but try, and if it's not working out then he can back out, say that he gave it go and chalk it up to experience. My settling period is 4 weeks, but it can be anything within reason. just an idea. xxx