i am new here and I joined because I have a few questions. Ive been childminding for 2 years but only one child during the day. I recently expanded a little and have 2 afterschoolers 2 days and 2 before school 2 days in addition. I am getting overwhelmed with after school requests some of which are not practical but I wondered what the legalities are.

I have been searching teh site and there is loads of information on ratios for rising fives, under fives, under 8s which I understand I need to understand about over 8s really. Potentially though next september I could have my8 yo plus 2 x 8 year old mindees, 2 reception children (one mine) and 1 x year one and 1 x 2 year 2 plus the two children <5 I look after (sibling joining). Technically Id have 6 under 8 but Id be walking home with 9 children and at home I'd have my two secondary school kids so 11 for tea. this would be for about 2 hours two nights a week. My school run is 5 minutes with no roads but a couple of minor hazards so relatively easy to risk assess.

I need to check my insurance but can someone more experienced tell me if I'm insane considering this number? My gut feeling is to take 2 more on and say no to two. which gives me 7 walking home (including 2 in double buggy) and potentially 9 for tea. I have just trained my current aftershoolers to walk rather than run on - this is a work in progress. With 5 walkers I feel ok but 7 walking seems more unmanageable. Also how do your children deal with the chaos of afterschoolers in their space? Ive kept it to 2 days so my kids can have downtime.