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Just did the maths for next summer and I feel sick. Two kids, six weeks of holiday clubs in our borough comes to nearly £2,500. And that's with grandparents doing one week.
We both work full time. How is anyone making this work? Any cheaper options in London that I'm missing?
Check whether your borough runs the Holiday Activities and Food programme. If your kids get free school meals it's free, but some places have paid places at subsidised rates too.
Tax-Free Childcare can be used for holiday clubs if they're Ofsted registered. Saves you 20%. A lot of people don't realise it works for school age kids up to 11.
I had no idea! That alone makes a big difference.
We do a swap with two other families. Each parent takes a week off and has all the kids. It means we only need about 3 weeks of paid clubs.
Some of the leisure centre camps are about half the price of the private ones. Not as fancy but the kids don't care, they just want to play football and go swimming
We stagger our annual leave. Me two weeks, my wife two weeks, so only two weeks of clubs. Means we never have a holiday together in summer which is rubbish but that's the deal.
the fact that school holidays are 13 weeks and annual leave is 5 weeks has always seemed like a design flaw in society
Signed up for Tax-Free Childcare, booked the leisure centre camp and we're talking to two families about a swap. Down to about £1,400. Still a lot but I can breathe.
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