Independent v State and the cost of before and after School Care

[m-ah]

My husband and I are now in another dilemma. We were one of these couples that chose to put our child?s name down for an Independent school in case she did not get into Heber, our first choice(as in the case of many people - as seen by the entries dated in September in this ?Family Room?.) Since then, she was accepted into Rosemead and we felt relaxed by this. Since this, however, she has now accepted at Heber as well. A lot of the discussion in September was about whether to lose the deposit and first term?s fees, and in the long run save a lot, or whether to send her anyway. We could just about manage this. Now, however, we have found out the cost of the breakfast club and after school care as I work from 8 - 4:30pm everyday. This amounts to two thirds of the cost of the monthly payments for the actual school fees on top of the fees. Suddenly we are in a situation where although we want to send her to Rosemead, we need to find alternative before and after school care. Is there anyone out there who knows of a solution? She will be starting in Reception Class. All very confused, and tired of being a grown up who has to make these decisions, when I feel like a child inside!

[womanofdulwich]

i think you have to think about having a second child and getting the eldest to school - and taking maternity leave and still paying those fees. how many other rosemand children have working parents and what do they do. also consider an au pair for wrap around care.

oh the dilemmas

[plimsoul]

surely heber then? not sure where the confusion is. then you are only paying for the wrap around care and sending them to a great local school. maybe i have misunderstood?

[littleEDfamily]

How much money will you lose by withdrawing from Rosemead? Must be upwards of ?1500? It is a lot of cash but if you feel you will be genuinely happy with Heber, I think it's worth forfeiting, as it won't take long to make that money back. If there is a niggle in the back of your mind that you'd prefer Rosemead, perhaps better to just focus on cheaper wraparound care and try to manage the cost as best you can. The worst case scenario I guess has got to be losing all that cash and then deciding Heber isn't cutting the mustard.

Can't be an easy one......

[Saila]

Could you club together with other Rosemead parents and try and share the burden of after school care costs?

Out of interest - what are the rosemead hours? surely 8-4:30 is roughly school time?

i'm clueless but will be in your boat in about 5 yrs time

[m-ah]

Rosemead hours are 8:30 until 3:20, breakfast club starts at 8a.m. and the afterschool care, supplied by Kid City is until 6pm, even if you collect your child at 4:30pm, you still pay the full amount. Before and after school care amounts to ?17.50 a day. The ideal would be to meet other parents and work together, however I cannot do this until she starts and by then you have to have yor child's name down for the Kids City place. We would be losing just under ?4000 if we went to Heber now. Dilemma. Any Rosemead parents out there that have had to deal with this?

[m-ah]

I have a baby as well, who will then be in nursery. That is the thing, after payin nursery fees for him, school fees feel cheap..oh untilthe wrap around care!

[candj]

Is your work flexible to allow you to change your schedule to work from home 2/3 days a week? That might be an option and then you would only have to pay for wrap around care for the rest of the time. I don't mean to add to your dilemma but I think a full day of wrap around care every day of the week can be quite exhausting for a child at reception age.

Or another option is finding a child minder who is willing to collect your daughter and bring her back to her own home. Friends of ours have one who collects their child from school and gives her tea and delivers her back home by 6pm. Surely there would be other parents in this situation so it would be a matter of finding out. The school should be able to give you a list of other parents' email addresses in your daughter's class.

Very best of luck.

[womanofdulwich]

i think carers that are just doing wrap around care want at least ?10 an hour. what are you doing for childcare now? can you use that as a continuity? what will you do in the holidays?

if the school fees are ?12,000 and heber lasts 7 years- that is ?84k . ?4k does not look such a bad investment to write off to save ?84k. But of course you need to be happy about Heber. There is no right answer- thousands of people have to make a similar choice. But I bet you can move from Heber to Rosemead later and maybe not visa versa.

[Rhubarb&Custard]

Where would your daughter be happiest?

Edited to say - sorry didn't read gist of thread properly (exhaustion). Thought it was about where she should go rather than wrap around solution. Whoops. Ignore. Good luck.

[Fuschia]

There is a breakfast club and after school club at Heber (not sure about the former but the after school club is ?22 p/w I think) though when my son was small we used a childminder (hard to find though!) and now we manage with flexible working and a bit of jelp from family and one day a friend's mum picks him up with her one

Do you see youself as a private school family/parent? Wull you be able to pay for both to stay in the private system with up till 18?

[new mother]

Lateral thought, having seen the hours you work. Are you a teacher? Could you get a job in a private school (ie to get the help with fees that that involves)?

It's clear that private education is better for any number of reasons BUT is it ?4000 plus a term better? Could that money or some of that money be better spent on educational holidays/musical instruments lessons/following up your daughter's specific abilities once you know better what those are?

Regarding womanofdulwich's post, no, I'm afraid you could not guarantee getting into Rosemead after a few years at a state school unless (a) they have a place - quite likely as people move house but (b) you will need vg guidance on what is required by them at that stage. Having said all this, Rosemead is less competitive than other local private schools.

I sympathise. It isn't easy and you sound like a fantastic mother, trying very hard to do the right thing. Maybe, however, there is no absolute right thing and you should jsut make the best of all options? Just a thought...

[katgod]

and don't forget the holidays are several weeks longer at private school so you will need to factor in the extra child care costs for 3 weeks at Easter and 10 or 12 weeks over the summer, compared top 2 weeks and 6 weeks in state sector.

[new mother]

Another idea.

If you decide to go for the State school adn are at risk of losing the R deposit, I would be tempted to ask them to exercise discretion, explain exactly why, you hadn;t relaised the extra cotss and cannot cover them, and ask for it to be refunded. It does sound like you might have case, if they didn't make all the costs clear. I think they might be positively inclined as long as you keep it conifdential.

Secondly, if this fails, I think you have a strong case, to agree with them that, if you re-apply in a few years, you can get it back.

Sorry - it's a lot of money.

[new mother]

Katgod, Rosemead's summer hol is almost exactly 6 weeks long. (where did you get such extraordinary information from?)

[prdarling]

new mother not extraordinary info at all. I have friends with kids at Herne Hill, DCPS and Oakfield - some half terms are 2 weeks long and HH & DCPS finish for summer about 8 July while state schools finish 22 July

Rosemead may be an exception, but generally speaking private schools do have around 2 extra weeks in the summer

[prdarling]

m-ah

Out of curiosity why would it be as much as ?4k if you pulled out now? I was contemplating the same thing and understood that you had to pay a ?50 registration fee and ?1k non refundable deposit

What is the rest for?

Thanks PRD

[katgod]

Thanks PRD for defending my comment! My comment was indeed based on HH and DCPS children I know.

[callacc]

As a Rosemead parent, you will get to meet all the other parents at a get together meeting this term, they also sent us a list of all the other parents in our school year before the end of term. (Requires everyone to sign something that allows them to share details. Its a data protection thing.)

Each year at Rosemead is different but I would say on average 50% of the mothers at Rosemead are parents who combine work with school, so you certainly won't be alone in your dilemma. Many parents club together and have flexible share arrangements / aupairs etc.

Having been through this, expecting a child in reception to do before and after school club every day at which ever school you choose will be very tough on the child. They typically are so knackered from the whole learning experience! You also need to work out how you are going to cover child sickness at either school.

[m-ah]

fortunately, I already work in a Preparatory school...but for boys! So our holidays would be the same!

[m-ah]

It is 4K because of the 1K deposit and then you have to give a term's notice which you cannot give until now, so effectively the Autumn Term's fees have to be paid.

Hope this helps.

Thanks everyone for the advice.

[sillywoman]

new mother Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

>

> It's clear that private education is better for

> any number of reasons BUT is it ?4000 plus a term

> better?

Errrrr nope. Massive assumption alert. You may feel it's better. I most definitely do not. Please be careful with your generalisms nm.

Thanks,

particularly pedantic SW

[ThePrincessBride]

I'm a Rosemead mum, and generally the parents are very helpful and club together to help out in my child's year. Definitely go to the upcoming new parents' social evening. Great opportunity to exchange numbers and meet up during summer, and work out child care shares etc. I've also known some working mums to use Jam on Red Post Hill. I think it costs ?10 and they pick your child up from school, provide a hot cooked meal. Mums are really happy with their service. There's always a way to work these things out, and Rosemead really is a smashing school!

[womanofdulwich]

I have just looked on jam web site and ?18 a day for after school care or ?75 a week.

[bawdy-nan]

Don't forget childcare vouchers too. I'm making the assumption that at least one of you pays the higher rate of tax, in which case you can get a massive subsidy by having the cost of the vouchers taken off your pre-tax income,onlypaying tax on the remiander.