After School Club Bookings

Dear Parents/carers,

Thank you to those parents who have contacted us regarding After School Club bookings and the exceptional demand for Wednesday places in particular. Firstly, can we assure you we understand the concerns and issues some parents are facing.

We have explored a number of different ways for our parents to book for wrap around care and we feel the current system is still the fairest for all parents. We have looked at systems which allow parents to book for longer periods or even for the whole year, as this guarantees us income, gives security of booking for parents and reduces our workload considerably. However, this would penalise parents who work shift/changing patterns and parents who cannot afford to pay upfront for bulk bookings.

Our club is extremely popular, and we are grateful for this, however, currently Wednesday is the only day of the week which is so oversubscribed. The numbers on all other days vary considerably and the monthly booking system allows us to adjust staffing levels according to demand. This efficiency enables us to continue to run the After School Club and keep costs to parents as low as possible.

To assist parents, we have sent out the booking dates and periods for the entire year, and these are regularly communicated to parents. Unfortunately, due to a technical error this month the KS1 bookings had to be reopened separately and this has resulted in a small number of issues with booking places for siblings.

We are currently finalising numbers and trying to accommodate the siblings in KS1 that need a place in March, however this will take time to work out space and staffing availability. We are aiming to complete this by the end of this week and will contact parents accordingly.

Please accept our most sincere apologies for the current situation, which was obviously exasperated this month by the KS1 booking issues.

With kind regards

Uphill Village Academy