What do you think is a reasonable charge.

[bubble99]

DH and I own a nursery which is across the road from a primary school. We have been approached by the manager of the school nursery as she has a lot of parents asking for breakfast club and after school provision.

If you were to use such a service, what time would you want to drop your child at our nursey and what do you think is a reasonable charge. Breakfast during the summer would be fruit, cereal, toast and milk/orange juice and in the winter the same but with the option of porridge, scrambled egg and a hot drink. Included in the price is care both in the nursery and during the walking bus to school.

After school care would be pickup from school, help with reading etc. and a hot organic two course meal.

I need to price both services and need ideas. Age range would be four to eight

[Pinotmum]

I work for a preschool that offers the same service to two local primary schools. They take the children from 8 am and close at 6 pm. They charge £5.50 per hour. They are based in East London. HTH a little

[debs26]

our school charges 50p for breakfast and 40 mins childcare at breakfast club (7.55am til 8.35am) and £4.50 for afterschool club which finishes at 6 and includes juice/biscuits after school and a light tea like scrambled eggs on toast. at last school we used after school club which cost £5.75, finished at 5.30pm and only included juice/biscuits. that one was not in the school as the current one is so they had walking bus. can you send out flyers thru the school asking what the local parents want time-wise? i think prices might also depend on the type of area you are in (ie how much can parents afford?)

[bubble99]

debs. 50p? That would barely cover the cost of an organic egg!

[bubble99]

The nursery is in Hampton Middlesex, which is just beyond SW London.

I had in mind a figure of a flat rate £10 per day for the breakfast club. And £5 per hour for after school care. The food thing features heavily in our ethos. I could not serve a child turkey twizzlers for love nor money. Does that fee sound steep to you?

[debs26]

maybe shouldnt have posted that, it is true but school is v good about helping out parents and is in a deprived area so is run not for profit really. i did used to pay a childminder £5 for one hour plus breakfast. i seriously doubt school does organic eggs, is more cereal and toast kind of breakfast! sorry, will scuttle off now having horribly confused the whole thread.....

[bubble99]

Don't go debs! Thanks for posting I'm interested to know if the food thing interests other parents as much as it does me. I think a breakfast club fee of £10 which includes a quality meal is reasonable but I need to know what everyone else thinks.

[Pinotmum]

What time would your open the breakfst club? If it was for 1 hour then I think it's too high personally.

[KatieMac]

I run an afterschool club and Breakfast Club

B/F = £2.75 (for up to 1.5 hrs)
S/C = £4.80 until 5pm snack or until 6pm (with meal) £7.50

This is in an area where Childminding is an average about £2.80 per hour

Remember afterschool might be for as little as 20 mins - same with B/F

BTW have you looked into the regulations for a walking bus - I found them terrible onerous and difficult to meet. eg even if only 1 child you need 2 CRB checked adults etc

[Hulababy]

Have you checked out the prices of any potential competition? Childminders, other afterschool clubs, etc.


I have to say that I thnk I would find it pretty expenive. With both morning and after school (say 1 hour in morning and 2 hours in afternoon - 8am till 5pm) - that is £100 a week (£400 a month). For that here I could send DD to private schoo, which includes a breakfast and after school club, with (albeit not organic) food.

But thn we arenot down south, where I suspect things like this are much more expensive.

[KatieMac]

BTW my prices are quite high - I got a SureStart grant and they nearly didn't give it tome as my prices were so high

[Blu]

Bubble, if you are catering for parents who currently pay for childcare through the week, it probably isn't going to be too onerous - if a child needed to come for an hour before school and 2 after it would cost £100 a week at your proposed rate. For me, £5.50 per hour sounds psycholgically better than £10 for the breakfast club.
For me, the food would be a v important factor if DS needed to be in childcare before and after school. For a 2 course hot organic tea, I would find £6 per hour incl quite reasonable - esp if I lived in Hampton

[debs26]

have just found our local busy bees childcare centre charges £6 for breakfast club (from 7.30) and £7 for afterschool (til 6). late session is £5.50 (6 - 6.30). think food could be quite individual as one of my kids eats like a horse and the other hardly eats anything so i would not really want to pay a lot for something he is going to turn his nose up at. we are nowhere near london or any major city btw

[bubble99]

DH is meeting the nursery manager who approached us tomorrow and the issue of reasonable charges will be raised. We're not greedy monsters and as parents ourselves know how tight money can be. We want to help people out if we can but it is a business and if we end up just covering costs we won't be able to do it. I spoke to a single mother today who has registered her child for full day care and just doesn't have enough money to pay a deposit. I have come to a gentlemans/laydees agreement with her that she won't remove her child without giving a month's notice. Hope this doesn't come back to bite me on the bum in the not too distant.

[KatieMac]

Bubble - that's the problem I have the difference between doing something 'good' and making money.....we run the OOSC 'cos we want to contribute - but we will lose money (or at least not make any)

[roisin]

bubble99 - I don't quite understand why £10 for breakfast club, but £5 for after-school club. I would have thought it would be the other way round. What hours would each be available?

Am I missing something?

[Bozza]

When DS goes to school he will be going to a childminder before and after school. It will be £3 per hour with a minimum charge of 2 hours before and 2 hours after school. So £12 a day. This will not include meals although she will give him breakfast (cereal and toast) if I want. Thats £36 a week. With nursery grant we are only paying £52.50 a week for 3 full days (8-6) at nursery. Holiday price is £90.

[Bozza]

Roisin as I understand it - it is £10 flat rate for breakfast, but £5 per hour for after school. Personally since I would only require 1 hour before school this would make that seem more expensive to me.

[roisin]

Oh, Ok, I understand now

[roisin]

I agree about the £10 seeming very expensive if you don't need long. IMO Many parents ideally would want to drop children off at 8 am, and would not necessarily want breakfast providing. For that service £10 is quite steep.

But £5 per hr including school pick-up, help with reading, and a hot meal is very reasonable I think.

[bubble99]

So would it make sense to have two charges for the breakfast club. One with breakfast and one without?

[CountessDracula]

bubble my nursery in SW London charges £4 per session and each session is only half an hour (mind you it is for under 5's at the nursery only so I guess they need more supervision) The nursery runs 8 - 6 but they do an extra half hour at each end of day if anyone wants it for this £4 - have never used it myself but can see it would be useful.

[CountessDracula]

OH btw bubble, i said to my wonderful now p/t nanny that I would mention her photography service to you for your nursery hope that is ok! You are prob. sorted already but just in case...

[bubble99]

CD. From your previous posts I think I know your nursery as it is jointly owned/run by a woman who ran the first nursery DS1 went to.

[CountessDracula]

aha! It has changed hands though not staff recently so maybe it isn't any more?

[bubble99]

Is it run by a woman who's name begns with A. Her business partner's name began with a T and the cook's name begins with G. Not sure why I'm being cryptic BTW.