Eleven-hour school days the reality for kids trapped by parents' working lives

YOUNGER children are spending up to 11 hours a day at school as their parents use before- and after-school care for child-minding.

PRINCIPALS have spoken out on a growing trend of younger children spending up to 11 hours a day at school, as their parents use before- and after-school care for child-minding.

The mini-baby boom and surge in demand for childcare has flowed on to the expanding number of businesses providing care out of school hours, with Australia's largest provider reporting a 9.5 per cent increase in enrolments of five- and six-year-olds this year.

In Mont Albert, in Melbourne's eastern suburbs, principal Sharon Saitlik said prep enrolments in her primary school's before- and after-hours care had soared this year. "They (the children) are caught up in this cycle of 'go, go, go' because their parents are so 'go, go, go'," she said.

"They are doing hours of before-school care, hours of after-school care, plus a full school day in the middle. They don't cope."

Another school principal who asked not to be identified said one of his prep students who had just turned five came to school at 7.30am and was not picked up until 6pm. "That's an extraordinarily long day for a five-year-old and she's really struggling, she is absolutely exhausted," the principal said. "It has the potential of really affecting the rest of their schooling if they don't have a positive start."

The national peak body for out-of-school-hours care providers confirmed the boom in demand but said young children could cope with the long day if after-school care was set up properly for their needs.

A spokeswoman for the Network of Out of School Hours Services, Robyn Monro-Miller, said: "Those five-year-olds that are coming through still have opportunities to rest and relax, they still have opportunities to play -- the same as if they went home. Most of those children have been in that lifestyle since they were born."

She said an after-school program was not an extension of the school day. "What happens in an after-school program is underpinned by free play."

Clinical psychologist Andrew Fuller said loss of family time for young children should be avoided if possible.

"By the time they get home they are exhausted and so the quality of interaction becomes about getting jobs done rather than anything else," he said.