Private schools, times a changing?
Discussion
z4RRSchris said:
okgo said:
I suppose the big question that I have which I’ve yet to find a suitable answer to is - what the hell do parents who have jobs (probably less of an issue in this world if one parent is stay at home) do when the kids are on endless vacations?!
live in Nanny init. 4 weeks xmas
4 weeks easter
10 weeks summer
3 x 1 week half terms
used to get pretty bored during summer hols
I think the private school arrangement now is more like 18 weeks off:
3 weeks Xmas
3 weeks Easter
8 weeks summer
1x 2 week half term (oct)
2x 1 week half terms (Feb and May)
z4RRSchris said:
okgo said:
I suppose the big question that I have which I’ve yet to find a suitable answer to is - what the hell do parents who have jobs (probably less of an issue in this world if one parent is stay at home) do when the kids are on endless vacations?!
live in Nanny init. 4 weeks xmas
4 weeks easter
10 weeks summer
3 x 1 week half terms
used to get pretty bored during summer hols
okgo said:
You wonder if one day the system will change to reflect the modern world!
I noticed around here actually a lot of the schools do camps etc which jogged my mind back to me attending a load of similar things as a kid.
We do a combination of camps, and nanny who does school pickup and dinner during the week, but also some holiday work. With young children, flexible post COVID work hours also allow a different approach. I will frequently do holiday kid stuff during the day and work late into the night to catch up. I don't actually mind this as I am an evening person and like spending time with our two. But there is a cost to the marriage in terms in how much time you actually get to spend with your partner. We talk about this a lot, to avoid drifting apart. I noticed around here actually a lot of the schools do camps etc which jogged my mind back to me attending a load of similar things as a kid.
Every school holiday feels like lurching from one day to the next, cobbling it all together.
I don't do business trips during school holidays anymore for example. I am lucky to be able to make this call - I know many can't.
Edited by Harry Flashman on Saturday 13th May 21:32
brickwall said:
z4RRSchris said:
okgo said:
I suppose the big question that I have which I’ve yet to find a suitable answer to is - what the hell do parents who have jobs (probably less of an issue in this world if one parent is stay at home) do when the kids are on endless vacations?!
live in Nanny init. 4 weeks xmas
4 weeks easter
10 weeks summer
3 x 1 week half terms
used to get pretty bored during summer hols
I think the private school arrangement now is more like 18 weeks off:
3 weeks Xmas
3 weeks Easter
8 weeks summer
1x 2 week half term (oct)
2x 1 week half terms (Feb and May)
10 weeks for Summer
4 weeks for Xmas
3 weeks for Easter
2 weeks fo October half Term
2 x 1 week for Half Term
They have 6 full days of lesson/games during Term Time hence the long holiday. Our Daughter is now boarding full time (her choice) but comes home on a Saturday afternoon and goes back Monday morning. Mrs Maroni works shifts, I'm on a zero hrs contract so I can pick and choose when I work. Hence we share the holiday child care between the 2 of us without any help from family and/or au pairs. Therefore the care is doable but takes a lot of planning i.e 3-4 months ahead.
JimmyConwayNW said:
Don’t most schools just offer holiday clubs where there are activities ?
How much is the salary for a Nanny in London? I thought people would get rid of this when the kids started at school.
More than you think. One of our babysitters works 4 days a week doing 11 hour days for a family in Balham. They pay her £45k a year to do so. That’s two kids and the older one is in nursery two days a week too. One assumes that £20 an hour or so is about right given babysitters charge 14-16. How much is the salary for a Nanny in London? I thought people would get rid of this when the kids started at school.
okgo said:
I suppose the big question that I have which I’ve yet to find a suitable answer to is - what the hell do parents who have jobs (probably less of an issue in this world if one parent is stay at home) do when the kids are on endless vacations?!
For us a combination of Mrs CGT3 working part time running her own business from home and an au-pair.You're right about the diversity point, SW pre preps and preps noticeably less diverse. Ours are both through prep and at senior school outside London which is very diverse.
Looks like our eldest - currently L5 in old money - is coming back to a London day school for A levels. Looking at options now.
okgo said:
I suppose the big question that I have which I’ve yet to find a suitable answer to is - what the hell do parents who have jobs (probably less of an issue in this world if one parent is stay at home) do when the kids are on endless vacations?!
Both of us work full time, and I do weekends still, was in 7-7 yesterday.Closest family is 150 miles away, daughter is now 7.
We manage with a mixture of annual leave, holiday club, and occasionally taking her to work. She did go and stay with grandparents for 2 days during Easter, and this summer will probably spend a week with grandparents. It's actually not that hard because of our job roles within our organisation we have plenty of flexibility and automony on when/where we do our work.
It's more the school term picks ups that we occasionally struggle with. I do 90% of drop offs and pickup these days. I have pretty bad memories of always been the last one to be picked up due to my parents work, often having to sit in the headmasters office because my parents were so late. It got to a point when occasionally I would pretend they had arrived and just wait for them sitting on a bench outside school because it became so embrassing, when my parents got to school late I would lie and tell them I've only just come out of the gate so they woudlnt worry. So pickup time is my biggest focus for time management every week.
Teams and mobile hot spot has done us a massive favour, if often easier for me to collect 3pm than try to time a 4-430pm pick up. Once she's in the car, she's now use to daddy joing a Teams meeting, taking a call, or heading into the office etc. So far in 6.5 years of nursey/school runs I've only timed it wrong once with late pick up, and that's never happening again, even if it means leaving the board room early
Edited by gangzoom on Sunday 14th May 05:55
Harry Flashman said:
MC Bodge said:
Accidentally stumbled in here and thought I'd been transferred to The Telegraph problem page.
It's mumsnet for us first world problem people.Embrace it. As I have embraced the fact that having kids is slowly bankrupting us.
Telegraph indeed!!!
It’s quite funny reading this thread. Loads of fathers worrying about private schooling, nanny or school commute choices all at the reasonable cost of £100k+ per annum.
F*** that, I live in South Wales, Barry to be precise, all kids just go to the local primary or comps and it’s all free! Check this out too…. They walk to school, walk home, let themselves in then repeat the next day. Bonus.. If they try hard and apply themselves they’ll also end up at the same universities as all those kids who’ve had millions spent on their education. On top of all this they come out as balanced teenagers who understand the world without pretence, expectation or snobbery. All free!!
It’s quite funny reading this thread. Loads of fathers worrying about private schooling, nanny or school commute choices all at the reasonable cost of £100k+ per annum.
F*** that, I live in South Wales, Barry to be precise, all kids just go to the local primary or comps and it’s all free! Check this out too…. They walk to school, walk home, let themselves in then repeat the next day. Bonus.. If they try hard and apply themselves they’ll also end up at the same universities as all those kids who’ve had millions spent on their education. On top of all this they come out as balanced teenagers who understand the world without pretence, expectation or snobbery. All free!!
Do you not feel any sympathy for these (time)poor chaps and their wives, forced to slave away for hours a day in order to arrange for people to educate, and bring up, their children at great and unnecessary expense?
Boom78 said:
Bonus.. If they try hard and apply themselves they’ll also end up at the same universities as all those kids who’ve had millions spent on their education. On top of all this they come out as balanced teenagers who understand the world without pretence, expectation or snobbery. All free!!
That was my experience. Before I went to uni I played rugby with lads who were sent to expensive schools and I met more when I got there.MC Bodge said:
Harry Flashman said:
MC Bodge said:
Accidentally stumbled in here and thought I'd been transferred to The Telegraph problem page.
It's mumsnet for us first world problem people.Embrace it. As I have embraced the fact that having kids is slowly bankrupting us.
Edited by Harry Flashman on Sunday 14th May 08:30
Boom78 said:
Telegraph indeed!!!
It’s quite funny reading this thread. Loads of fathers worrying about private schooling, nanny or school commute choices all at the reasonable cost of £100k+ per annum.
F*** that, I live in South Wales, Barry to be precise, all kids just go to the local primary or comps and it’s all free! Check this out too…. They walk to school, walk home, let themselves in then repeat the next day. Bonus.. If they try hard and apply themselves they’ll also end up at the same universities as all those kids who’ve had millions spent on their education. On top of all this they come out as balanced teenagers who understand the world without pretence, expectation or snobbery. All free!!
I would love to replicate your approach, but it would involve my children not being able to foster an innately superior arrogance. That pretence, expectation and snobbery are, after all, what the whole point of private schooling is, right? Right?It’s quite funny reading this thread. Loads of fathers worrying about private schooling, nanny or school commute choices all at the reasonable cost of £100k+ per annum.
F*** that, I live in South Wales, Barry to be precise, all kids just go to the local primary or comps and it’s all free! Check this out too…. They walk to school, walk home, let themselves in then repeat the next day. Bonus.. If they try hard and apply themselves they’ll also end up at the same universities as all those kids who’ve had millions spent on their education. On top of all this they come out as balanced teenagers who understand the world without pretence, expectation or snobbery. All free!!
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