Free childcare hours
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Teacher here. Work 3 days, nursery 2 days and one day with family. In term time only and our nursery bill is about £300/month with the 15 free hours (i’m assuming this is what you mean by free childcare). Definitely worth jt, I do work hard but also love that satisfaction that I can have a career and be a mum. I have maintained my full TLR as I didn’t want to lose my ability to progress career wise and still manage to just about balance it… hard at crunch points but worth it to have more financial freedom too. Started nursery in winter and she was sick lots but my husband and I split any days off we needed and used family. Plus work totally understand that this happens. I have only had 2 half days off to collect from nursery between Jan and now, totally expecting it to ramp up again Dec/Jan x
Almost identical circumstances to peanutter Hayley above. 2 days nursery (I still have to pay for 5 hours on top of the 15 hours free childcare to cover their opening hours for 2 days). Paying about 400 for my twins to go twice a week term time. One day with hubs at home (we call it father's day). It's tough on me because I have to get ready and drop them before I go into work a few mins up the road but it's worth the freedom they get there. There's quite a lot I can't or don't have the energy for, twin life is tough on anyone who has to parent alone a lot (hubs works shifts) and so nursery gives them lots of guaranteed free play time, outdoorsy stuff, messy play (OCD shift working husband, i know right). Calculate your outgoings, travel time and cost, fuel etc and make a little chart to decide if it'll be the best decision for you and your family. I sort of had to go back to work anyway because otherwise I'd have to pay back a hefty sum of money added to my mat pay. And we want to relocate so I'm saving.
Sorry for the essay 😹long story short, everyone's circumstances are different and mine mean that I do want to keep working and probably up it to 4 days of work once the kids get 30hrs free (so they'll do 3 days at nursery and one with hubs) because it'll allow me a tiny bit more freedom to maybe contemplate sending them to private school etc.
Sorry for the essay 😹long story short, everyone's circumstances are different and mine mean that I do want to keep working and probably up it to 4 days of work once the kids get 30hrs free (so they'll do 3 days at nursery and one with hubs) because it'll allow me a tiny bit more freedom to maybe contemplate sending them to private school etc.
@Hayley wow £300 a month! That’s for 3 full days + 15 free hours? That’s really good, I’m going to visit the nursery this Friday to discuss it all, but I think that’s what I’ll be paying a week in London
@Seeker I think both of your comments has made me realise maybe I should do two/three days for now! I wanted four days so I could have just one day to myself but don’t think I could afford it. I’ll see what they say about prices tomorrow when I visit. I’m also working with an agency for long term supply and it seems schools want more commitment, but we shall see. Thank you both!
About £300 for 2 days after the 15free hours, the 3rd day family have her. We add adhoc days here and there maybe once every 6 weeks which is why it’s £300 on average. Hopefully the nursery has space and can accommodate 🤞🏼the one we use is booked up until mid 2026 x
@Ebony this is good to know, thank you. I’m also worried about putting her nursery for the first time and then being sick every day with a school I’ve just started with, there’s always something!