What is After School Care?

After School care is a common arrangement where children go after normal school tuition has ended for the day. Parents often work 9 to 5 and are not home before the children get home. Many parents opt to have their child go to an after school care program for 1 - 4 hours.

The nature of After School care programmes do vary a lot. Some are simply "homework centres" where children go to do homework in a school library supervised by a teacher. Others can be purpose-run childcare facilities at a recreation centre where children are engaged in physical activities and sports. Many times children can be picked directly from school by the facility.

Traditional After school care programmes are generally only for school age children (5 years +). Most child care centres catering to under 5's do have extended hours til 5pm and some even run til 7pm in the main centres.

In the first instance contact your childs primary school for ideas on after school care programmes.