SchoolsMount Banyan Global School

Mount Banyan is our first choice for our daughter, but nobody can do the afternoon pickup

jade_sandal_6139

We have more or less settled on Mount Banyan Global School in Somajiguda for our 5 year old. It is close, and she was happy at the visit. The problem is the afternoon. Whatever the exact timing turns out to be, neither of us can get there before evening. I work rotating hospital shifts, my partner rarely finishes before evening, and family nearby can help sometimes but not daily. For parents around Somajiguda who had a similar gap, what did you set up? Daycare with pickup, a caregiver, an arrangement with another family? I want this answered before we pay the admission fee, because if the afternoons do not work, the school does not work for us either.

12 comments

  • plum_badminton_6945

    Same situation here, only in Attapur and a different preschool. I posted about it last night actually. One thing I have learnt so far is to ask the daycare whether they collect from that particular school, not just whether they do pickups ❤️

  • dusk_sketch_717

    We did an after-school daycare for 2 years, they collected from school by van. Worked fine mostly. Only issue was half days, nobody told the daycare and the van came at the usual time

  • peach_spoon_7993

    we have a caregiver who picks up and stays till one of us is back. costs more than daycare but she comes home and naps in her own bed. that mattered more to us at 5

  • cinnamon_drum_5065

    what does your roster look like across a month? if it's known a few days ahead, a mix of family days and a paid pickup can work. if it changes last minute you need someone who's on every single day regardless

    • jade_sandal_6139

      It is published two weeks in advance, but swaps happen at short notice, maybe twice a month. My partner's evenings are more predictable than mine. So honestly it is somewhere in between.

    • cinnamon_drum_5065

      Replying to @jade_sandal_6139

      then i'd plan for someone every day and treat the family help as a bonus 👍

  • amber_wave_7648

    No extended family here so we went with a paid nanny from the start. The hardest part wasn't the money, it was finding someone reliable for just 4 hours a day 🥲 took us three tries

  • peach_fern_4745

    Before deciding, we asked the school directly whether they had any after-hours arrangement or a list of daycares that parents commonly use. I would keep what the school itself offers separate from what parents tell you informally, because in our case the two were not the same. Did you ask them at the visit?

    • jade_sandal_6139

      Called the admissions office this morning. They said they would email the details, so I will wait and see what that actually contains before assuming anything.

  • cinnamon_pebble_3730

    When someone recommends a daycare with school pickup, ask what an ordinary Tuesday looks like there. How many children are in the van, how long the last child waits, what they eat at one o'clock. The brochure version and the normal day were quite different for my younger one.

    • jade_sandal_6139

      That is a useful list. The waiting time is the one I would not have thought to ask about, and at 5 it matters a lot.

  • indigo_bookmark_1392

    we tried the arrangement with another family, worked for 4 months then their timings changed and we were back to zero 🤷‍♀️ keep a backup even if the main plan looks solid

  • ochre_chai_4480

    Does your daughter still nap? That changed what we picked for my younger one.

  • pebble_notebook_5644

    One thing I would check early is how the handover is recorded when someone other than a parent collects. Our school needed a signed authorisation for each person, and sorting that out took a week. Better to confirm it now than in the first week of term.

    • jade_sandal_6139

      Good point. We would likely have two or three different people collecting on different days, so that paperwork could easily become the bottleneck.

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