Breakfast and after-school club assistant jobs

Breakfast and after-school club assistants look after primary-age children before and after the school day, usually on a school site. The hours are short and split: an early morning session before registration and an afternoon session that runs until parents collect. Pay is hourly. If the school employs you directly you are normally on the bottom points of the council pay spine, and if a private provider or charity runs the club you must be paid at least the National Living Wage of £12.71 an hour if you are 21 or over.

A day at breakfast and after-school club

At breakfast club you set up the room, sign children in as they arrive, serve a simple breakfast, and keep everyone occupied until you take them to their classrooms or the playground at the start of the day. After school you collect children from their classes, take a register, give them a snack, and run games, crafts, outdoor play or quiet homework time until each child is handed to an authorised adult.

Safeguarding is part of every session. You check who is collecting each child, follow the procedure when someone is late or an unexpected person turns up, keep accurate registers, and record accidents and any concerns. Children can range from reception to year 6, so you need activities that work for a mixed age group and the patience to manage the end of a long day.

Larger clubs have a club leader or supervisor, often paid a little more, who plans activities, deals with parents and bookings, and organises the staff rota.

Who employs you

Clubs are run in several ways, and the employer decides your pay, contract and terms:

• by the school itself, with staff on the same terms as other school support staff
• by the local council’s school catering or childcare service
• by a private provider or charity that rents space at the school
• by a nursery or childminder linked to the school

The DfE has published guidance for schools and councils in England on school-age childcare, and wraparound provision has been expanding in primary schools. As a result, vacancies appear on school and council job pages as well as provider websites, often with titles such as playworker, wraparound assistant or club assistant.

Split shifts, hours and pay

A school-employed post on the NJC pay spine starts at SCP 3, which is £25,614 a year full-time in 2026/27 (calculated from the 2025 values plus 3.3%), or roughly £13.28 an hour. You are paid for the hours you actually work, so a club post of a few hours a day comes to a small annual salary. See spine points explained for how this works.

Private and charity providers set their own rates. They must pay at least the legal minimum from 1 April 2026:

Age	Minimum hourly rate
21 and over	£12.71
18 to 20	£10.85
Under 18	£8.00

Some providers are accredited Real Living Wage employers, which means at least £14.10 an hour, or £15.45 in London, once the new rates announced on 15 October 2026 are brought in. More on both rates is in our National Living Wage guide.

As a hypothetical example, say you work 18.75 hours a week across both sessions at £12.71 an hour. That is £238.31 a week before tax. If you only work during term, you are paid for term weeks only unless your contract spreads the pay out.

The gap in the middle of the day is unpaid unless you are working, and time spent travelling between sessions does not normally count. Many club assistants fill it with a second job at the same school, often as a midday supervisor or teaching assistant, which can turn several small contracts into close to a full day. If those are separate contracts, check how each one handles holiday pay and pension.

Contracts and holiday

Some providers use zero-hours or casual contracts, especially for cover staff. Since 2015 exclusivity clauses in zero-hours contracts are unenforceable, so you can work for someone else too. Read our guide to zero-hours contracts for your rights.

Everyone gets paid holiday. For part-year and irregular-hours workers with leave years starting on or after 1 April 2024, holiday builds up at 12.07% of hours worked, and the employer can pay it as rolled-up holiday pay added to each payslip. School-employed staff on term-time contracts usually have their leave built into the term-time pay calculation.

If you earn more than the £10,000 a year auto-enrolment trigger with one employer and meet the age conditions, the employer must enrol you in a workplace pension. Many club posts pay less than that, in which case you can usually ask to join. School and council staff join the Local Government Pension Scheme instead.

Checks and qualifications

You will need an enhanced DBS check with a children’s barred list check, because you are looking after children without their parents. From 5 October 2026 an enhanced check costs £41.00 in England and Wales. In Scotland the equivalent is PVG scheme membership (£59 to join) and in Northern Ireland an AccessNI enhanced check (£32). Expect two references and identity and right to work checks as well.

No formal qualification is required for an assistant post. Paediatric first aid is commonly requested, and providers often pay for it. Food hygiene training helps if you serve breakfast. A Level 2 or Level 3 playwork or childcare qualification is often desirable, and may be required for a club leader. Experience counts too: babysitting, Brownies or Scouts, sports coaching or helping at a holiday scheme all show you can manage groups of children.

Getting started

Because the hours suit parents of school-age children and students, posts fill quickly, so it helps to ask your local primary schools directly as well as checking council job sites. If you want to move on to classroom work later, a club post is a common first step; see getting a school job with no experience. Current vacancies are listed under school support jobs.