Zappone’s after-school master plan ignores children’s voices

Kids want to play, they don’t want to obey rules — they have enough of that in school, writes Victoria White

THEY want to go home. That’s what Children’s Minster Katherine Zappone’s UCC-based research group on after-school childcare found when they talked to children.

Some 59% of 8 to 12-year-olds want to go home after school, while only 1% wants to go to a crèche. Other options occupy the middle ground: friends’ houses, 17%; relatives’ houses , 13%; an afterschool club, 6%; and childminder, 4%.