Lunch clubs

[MarshaD]

This may well have been discussed before, but I had a quick look and couldn't see anything.

Who is running a lunch club? How are you running it? How much do you charge?

Be good to hear what folks are up to...

[Guest]

Our lunch club began when the 3 hour entitlement came in, because without using the extra hour for lunch we couldn't offer full days and still finish in line with the end of the school day.

 

So our morning children come in at 9 and finish at 12 (last half an hour is lunch)

The afternooners come in at 12 start with lunch and finish at 3.

 

If children stay all day they have an hour "lunch break" but really it means they get a little extra free play.

 

Obviously there is no charge for the lunch club when used like this.

 

If parents want their child to have the full hour for lunch ie stay until 12.30 or come in at 11.30 they pay £1 fort he half hour.

 

The children all bring packed lunches as our lunch time is not in sync with schools!

We do have cooked lunch at Christmas and we attend lunch in the hall in the summer term to give children a taster for starting school.

Edited February 28, 2014 by Scarlettangel

[Panders]

Our lunch club runs 3 mornings per week. We currently charge our hourly rate for it. It can be used as part of 15 hours funding, it is really for 3 years plus but I do allow younger siblings. They bring their own packed lunch with them. When we are ready to eat, the children wash, then take a place at the table, for this purpose we have all our tables pushed together. When the majority of children are finished they may play quiet games until we finish up with a story.

[finleysmaid]

we have a lunch club ...operates between sessions for half an hour. We charge £5 parents supply lunch we supply lots of encouragement! Last year it was steady but this year it is ridiculous ...we had 15 for lunch on tuesday! The staff sit with the children (on rota basis) and we have purchased a large fridge to keep lunch boxes in. It has proven to be a valuable source of extra funds...we operate it as a drop in service so parents can decide the day before if they want to ...we're staffed up anyway so why not!!

[thumperrabbit]

We do lunch club twice a week

We are a morning only group - so if parents wish to use some funding time they can (if any available) if not we charge £1 for the 30mins session.

For those who don't claim funding they pay on the day they want it.

Parents supply their child's lunch box

We have found that the 2 days we provide lunch club, are always the busiest days for attendance - I wish we could do it all mornings but our hall is hired out by other users in the afternoon.

[ShellBell]

We are a morning only pre school and we finish at 12.30. We run an optional lunch club from 12.30 to 1.15 and charge £3 per child and they supply own lunch.

They can either book as a regular or pay as you go.

In the nice weather we do it as a picnic club and take it outside which they love.

Our numbers range from 8 to 14 for lunch club.

[hopeytg]

We run lunch club - 12.00 - 12.30 - it is included in 15hrs if parents wish or is charged at our normal rate if it is over the 15hrs or they are under 3. We offer hot meals supplied by a local company who deliver them to us each day at a cost of £2.00 or parents can supply packed lunch. We are very busy at lunchtimes and hot lunches have been a big hit particularly with fussy eaters.

[Fredbear]

Hi we also have lunch clubs available 3 days a week.generally for our older children. It is an optional extra payable at £2.75 a day. They do have to sign up for the half term. Children bring their own packed lunch and it lasts an hour. So session is 9 to 12, lunch club, 12 to 1.00, then afternoon session starts 1.00 to 4.00. It is incredibly popular with 24 children each day.

[Guest]

We have had a lunch club since 2004. We used to be a 3 morning and 1 afternoon preschool and we are now all day 8am-6pm Monday - Friday. Our lunch club started small and grew. We have a 9am-12 PS session and then lunch club is 12-1pm if children want a funded afternoon session they must take lunch as part of their funding otherwise the afternoon would only be 2 hours. We used to have only 30 minutes but for very young children this wasn't long enough and some of our 3 year olds still like to take their time. Lunch club is open to all and we have some parents who send their 2 year olds for lunch 'so they learn to sit at the table and eat nicely' that is what a parent told me. It works well for us. Parents can take lunch club as part of their child's funded hours or pay the hour fee as an extra. We tend to have some children who come 5 mornings a week funded and then pay the lunch as an extra or take 3 days 9am-3pm and just pay for lunch and the Pm on 1 session. We make it flexible so parents can add on the lunch clubs to their funded or non funded sessions each half term or can take them on an adhoc basis depending on ratios. We don't have many that aren't booked for the half term.

[Guest]

I forgot to say that all of our children use the lunch bit of the day!

[Camco10]

We have been running a lunch club since September 2013 and it has proved to be very popular. We offer it to all the children who attend and it runs between 12-12.30pm. The children bring in their own packed lunches that include items that promote a healthy diet. All parents using the lunch club are given our packed lunch policy which advises them on what contents their child's packed lunch should and should not include.

The lunch club is incorporated into the children's 15 hours funding but for those children not claiming the funding we charge £2.50 per lunch club.

One thing to bare in mind is how any extension to the hours you provide affects your provision type with Ofsted. We have recently had an Ofsted inspection where they took down our details regarding our opening times. As we are now open for longer than 3 hours per session, 9-12.30pm, we are classed as offering Full-Time provision. With this incurs the higher rate of registration fee. We have also extended our provision to include 2 days out of 4 were we are open from 9-3.00pm so maybe this has made the difference.

[lynned55]

We have been open for 3.5 hours per session since the 3 hour funding came in (prior to that we were 3 hours ) and have never been charged more for our registration. Just over a year ago we also started running 3 afternoon sessions (some children do 9:15 - 3:45) as well. I notified Ofsted at the time but again it hasn't made any difference to our registration charges.

[Camco10]

We have been open for 3.5 hours per session since the 3 hour funding came in (prior to that we were 3 hours ) and have never been charged more for our registration. Just over a year ago we also started running 3 afternoon sessions (some children do 9:15 - 3:45) as well. I notified Ofsted at the time but again it hasn't made any difference to our registration charges.

That is interesting. I have just received my report this week from Oftsed and at the back it states that the definition of full time provision is one that operates for more than 3 hours per day. They are registered on the Early Years Register and pay the higher fee for registration.

[Fredbear]

Yes it does state it Camco as I have seen it too, but we have just had our renewal and its still at the cheaper rate. I'm not going to argue otherwise.

[Camco10]

Yes it does state it Camco as I have seen it too, but we have just had our renewal and its still at the cheaper rate. I'm not going to argue otherwise.

Thanks for info. When I have to send the annual payment I will see what happens.

[Guest]

I believe that you only pay the higher rate if you are open for more than 45 weeks a year. We come under the higher rate because we operate holiday clubs as well. If we were only term time then we would still be paying the lower fee.

[finleysmaid]

I pay the higher rate and we only do 38 weeks...but we take children for more than 4 hours

[blondie]

we do lunch club - our sessions run 8-30 til 11-30 then 12-10 til 3-10 the lunch is the 40 minutes in between. the children bring their own lunch and are charged 2-50 for the lunch club to cover staff .

new in for our area (southampton) is that we cannot use funded hours for the lunch club - at least i think thats what has happened as had e-mail re funding and lunch club x

[Mouseketeer]

Posted Today, 04:40 PM

 

'I pay the higher rate and we only do 38 weeks...but we take children for more than 4 hours'

 

We are term time only, but are open for 6.25hrs a day and only pay the lower rate Finleysmaid - £35

[lashes2508]

We offer lunch club , cost £3 parents supply lunch we supply water for drink, very popular and interesting !

[lynned55]

Oh my goodness me, yet another example of our wonderful Ofsted doing/telling one of us one thing and another something else!!

As I said we are open for 3.5 hours for two days a week (have been for years) and since January 2013 are also open for 6.5 hours for three days per week with no break in between morning & afternoon session. We have never paid the higher rate ( I think it's £50/£55 we pay) I did inform Ofsted in Dec 2012 what we intended to do but apart from a general acknowledgement to my email have never heard anything else about it. I thought we paid the lower rate as we are only open term time only.

Finleysmaid if you are paying more perhaps you should contact them to ask why?

[finleysmaid]

Oh my goodness me, yet another example of our wonderful Ofsted doing/telling one of us one thing and another something else!!

As I said we are open for 3.5 hours for two days a week (have been for years) and since January 2013 are also open for 6.5 hours for three days per week with no break in between morning & afternoon session. We have never paid the higher rate ( I think it's £50/£55 we pay) I did inform Ofsted in Dec 2012 what we intended to do but apart from a general acknowledgement to my email have never heard anything else about it. I thought we paid the lower rate as we are only open term time only.

Finleysmaid if you are paying more perhaps you should contact them to ask why?

Im beginning to wonder why we pay the highest rate??? i think if i remember rightly when we re-registered we put ourselves in every register as this was the advice at the time...i have a feeling that this is why ...i tried to look on the ofsted site but found the rates difficult to find...brain not working as i have the flu...so may have to find out when head's working!