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Ds aged 9 has been invited to attend a morning writing workshop at a local school. They also get to meet an author. (Can't remember name)
Would yo ber happy to pay this?

Come on - on what can we base that decision, with how little information you have given us?

in school time? no
out of school time- maybe, if it was a particular favourite author- bit would be expecting something v special for £25!

Sounds ridiculously expensive for half a day's activity on school premises - I'd like to earn £750 for half a days work.

DD recently had a half day ballet workshop at school (a member of the ballet company came to the school), followed the next day by a trip to see the ballet (tickets and coach travel to central london) for less than the cost of your DS's activity.

It does seem a lot if there is no transport involved. Can you ask the school for a breakdown of the costs?

It would have to be Julia Donaldson or Michael Morpurgo at that price!

Ooh I'm all intrigued now - come on, find out who it is!

Will need to check with school. Definately not anyone really famous.

When dd1 was in Yr6, they got invited to a local Grammar School to hear an author speak, meet him, etc., but it was free (did ask parents to help transport them).

So, no!

For a writing workshop. In school. Absolutely not. The author should be ashamed of themselves charging for this. My dc's schools have the workshops and couple of times a year, author donates their time for free.

No.

Our school did a writing workshop with an author and illustrator and it was £2.00 contribution. School did put in money making it £4.00 a child. It was held in school.

Yes if they love or have an affinity for writing (and reading.) No otherwise. Agree 25 pounds each seems steep for one morning.

It is a lot of money but please don't blame the school. They are charging only what is necessary, I am sure.

No, dd1 did one at another school for free. Are they getting a coach? Even so seems steep. For less than that we got return travel to London, tour of Globe and a drama workshop, I would also be asking for a breakdown of costs. Maybe they got the '.' in the wrong place! What do the other parents say?

Is it a G&T type thing? Ds2 did one in maths and the details sheet we were given had a £20 per pupil charge, but we were told that the school covered that and were just asked to help with transport by lift sharing with the other patents.

I don't think £25 for half a day for a small number of children is excessive, since presumably there will also be a teacher present, and a supply may need to be used to cover their normal teaching but don't think you should pay.

No I wouldn't be up for that at all. But then I'm somewhat cynical about the visiting author thing.

It usually means someone self published that you've never heard of coming round the school flogging their hugely £ book to a schoolful of children who have been hyped up to believe the must have the book at any cost.

Now a writing course?? What an English lesson? Well they come free as part of the curriculum don't they?

That sort of thing should be done in lesson time and be subsidised by school funds/ PTA fund IMO. We've had visiting authors but parents have never been asked to pay.

My dcs have got to meet Anne Digby and Malcolm Rose through school and neither cost anything.
We have never been charged anything for g&t stuff other than travel costs.

In school time we've never been asked to pay for a visiting author. I always assumed they did it for the publicity in most cases anyway. If it's a weekend or holiday event then maybe - depends how good it looks (and it would have to look pretty good ).

If she got a boxed set of books, a hot meal and a taxi home all included, then fine.

No way! Even if travel to/from the local school was involved, it shouldn't cost that much!

No.

But if the school was seriously short of funds and I had quite enough spare money I wouldn't. But, the chances of most parents having plenty of spare cash are pretty slim!

Sounds steep. We've had two author visits at school both free, but they do flog signed copies of their books at school pickup - and make a small fortune going by the size of the queues.

our primary had a whole school visit from an author last week -free but you could buy a signed copy of the latest book if you were badgered enough by your children wanted too

Tony Robinson aka baldrick is doing a Time Team workshop at the local high school this afternoon -again free

£25 would be staying firmly in my purse!

I'm an author, I do school visits. Yes, we charge. We're working like anyone else and we rely on these payments to bolster our meagre incomes. If I'm visiting a school I charge £350 for a full day of talks and workshops - at one recent visit I did two assemblies, two workshops and a session with a smaller group of Y8s. BUT I have never heard of children being asked to pay. Usually the school will have a budget for author visits, and this cost is not passed on to parents. Some authors do free promotional visits, but they won't include workshops.

Oh and the 'small fortune' from selling books. Very small indeed. About 50p a book. So if I did it all for free and relied on book sales to cover my expenses and time I'd have to sell about 800 books per school. At many schools the kids can't afford to buy books, but I see them lining up in the library to borrow my books.