When is Teatimers at Sandygate oversubscribed?
As shown above, 7 of our 10 sessions look to have good availability for September 2024. Based on what we currently know, we expect to give these sessions to everyone who requests them.
For the 3 after school sessions that look certain to be oversubscribed, we have to manage the allocation of sessions carefully to accommodate as many people as possible.
How are oversubscribed sessions managed?
Regular users of a particular session have been given a ‘place’ for specific days. They retain their place on that day until they give it up. Having a regular place on one day does not give any special access for different day if.
- If a family gives up their regular place, we offer it to the next person on the waiting list.
- If a family isn’t using their place on a particular day, we will offer that out to people on the waiting list.
At the start of the year, we allocate available places to families as follows
- Siblings of children who already have a place that day.
- Families who are regular users of our under subscribed sessions
- Families on the waiting list.
How can you possibly be full?
Ultimately it comes down to how many children you can have in the building – adding extra staff just makes it more crowded. Historically, Tuesday afternoons are often oversubscribed so we have, been chipping away at this problem for at least 10 years as it arises and, more importantly, subsides.
Recent trends towards hybrid working are becoming noticeable across our sector. Demand for Tuesday to Thursday afternoons has gone up, whilst Monday and Friday demand has gone down. Overall, usage of our wraparound services is about 4% lower than last year. So we do have plenty of space – which is why we currently think that 7 of our 10 sessions will routinely have spaces available next year.
Using our space effectively
- As soon as we know space has come up, we do our best to give it to someone else – even if its for that day. We incentivise parents to do this by waiving our notice period if someone else takes up the session.
- Our 3.45 pickup session is priced to attract Sandygate parents to have a short session. This frees up space for Holy Trinity children who arrive at around 3.50.
- We offer walks to / from Sandygate and Trinity. School staff (and occasionally others) get their child brought to them without taking up a place.
- With some external clubs we can manage our attendance across an afternoon to give a little extra flexibility or sometimes to create an emergency space.
- Combining these options allows us to to help more families than we have headline spaces for.