Hi, I know everyone asks this but wanted to ask again! What do you charge for term time only contracts before and after school? I currently charge £4 per hour and a half rate retainer fee in the hols to keep the space open for the following term. I have spoken to parents about a slight increase in hourly rate but no fees in the hols and they wanted to keep things as they were. Do you charge more if you don't charge for the holidays?

I had someone start before the summer. I didn't do the contract and said we'd start in the September. The first morning of school in September I rang to see where they were and they'd dropped me. This has happened to me twice. I was considering starting a registration fee of £10 which includes all the paperwork (policies, permission forms etc). I'm printing all my paperwork off for parents and putting into a file then they've finished before we get started! Annoying as alot of hard work has gone into writing my paperwork, then printing it all off etc Was also going to include a usb stick in this price for files, photos etc for parents to take home daily. Does anyone else charge a registration set up? It was a thought.

I also currently charge full rate if I'm open and nothing if I'm not. I do allow parents 2 weeks free for them to take holidays. Some other childminders in the area allow 4 weeks at half rate for CM holidays and 4 weeks half rate for parent holidays. This bugs alot of people as they are paying for the Cm holidays. What holidays do you take? Tbh, I've started taking more holidays since my children have started school and give parents my holidays in January for the rest of the year. This is normally about 4-5 weeks for the year, then still giving parents 2 weeks. As most of my lo's are due for contract reviews or renewals I was considering stopping their 2 weeks for free. Alot of local childminders say I'm doing myself out of pocket, then one of my parents said she expected to pay for her holidays. Don't want to be upsetting all my parents!