After School Club Ideas

[YasminAli]

Hi all, just wanted your feedback on:

a) whether you would send your children to an after school cookery club every week?
b) how much would you pay for an hours session?
c) if there are any clubs you know of in the West/ SW/ NW London area.

Thanks in advance :)

[AjasLipstick]

I don't think either of mine would like cookery no. If it were craft, then I'd pay up to 12-15 pounds weekly.

If you're looking for clubs which are similar, put "Cooking club" and different areas of London into Facebook's search engine.

[sirfredfredgeorge]

It's one of the options at DD's school in London.
It's less than 5 quid a session, (1 ASC a term free for pupil premium kids)

It wasn't something DD was interested in doing against the other options (alternative clubs, outside school after school activities or just playing) but I'd nothing against it.

[SenoritaViva]

It's my children's favourite club (and they're sporty). We pay £2.50 per session but that's just to cover food as staff member gives time for free. They come back with delicious things alternating between savoury and sweet.

[Pengweng]

It's an option at the school i work in. Run by two staff members (different ones each week) and i think it's £15 for the half term for an hour's lesson.

Mine do go sometimes but not every half term. I alternate with art club and a language one.

[AliMonkey]

I would - DD went to one - think it was £6 per session but I would have happily paid £10. Same person ran half day holiday courses too where they would cook a whole meal and think we paid £25 for that.

Although the kids sometimes cook at home, this helped DD cook wider variety of things that she'd never agree to cook at home (whilst still cooking lots of cakes, puddings etc) so emphasise that in your advertising whilst making it clear they will do lots of baking as well!

[user789653241]

My ds's school has it for certain year groups. It's overscribed and very popular. They only charge for the ingredients.

My ds really wanted to do it, I didn't let him, since he was allergic to many ingredients. I didn't see the point of making life difficult for the teacher/ta who give up their time to run a great club, to accommodate his special needs, so I didn't let him apply. (But they already have half termly cooking at school for every child, and he does a lot of cooking at home as well.)
If you are planning to run a paid club, that's one thing you may need to consider, imo.

[BubblesBuddy]

My DDs did cookery club at Infants school! A grandparent ran it. It was absolutely brilliant. We paid for ingredients and a small fee to cover equipment and electricity. It’s a great thing for children to do. Lots of boys joined too. One now is a senior chef at a 2* Michelin restaurant in London.

[BackforGood]

1 of mine did one when she was in Juniors - can't remember the cost, but it was run by school staff, and offered to the dc for a very small amount to cover ingredients. It was incredibly popular (dc3 never got a place).
I personally wouldn't have paid a huge amount as I was already paying for after school care.

[Stompythedinosaur]

My dds do this as an after school club run by the school cook. It is free, but I would pay for it up to about £3-4 a session. More than that would seem a bit much. It lasts an hour.

[AjasLipstick]

OP a lot of these things are heavily subsidised by local councils. Look into getting some funding.

[brilliotic]

At our school there is a cookery club but it goes 2 hours which gives the group the chance to actually cook something 'from scratch' rather than just putting together pre-prepared ingredients, or having to finish/cook/bake at home. It's about £6/2h-session.

DS has something else that day but I wouldn't want him to go anyway.

As for reasonable costs, it depends on the general 'culture' at the school, and perhaps also at similar nearby schools. At some schools all or most clubs are free (run by teachers and/or volunteers); at others, parents don't hesitate to pay £5/session for all sorts. And there are also schools where there is a mix, e.g. sports clubs are run by school PE teacher and free/very cheap, whereas everything else is offered by outside organisations and fairly expensive.

You don't want to under-charge, or you will end up with lots of disinterested kids whose parents are using the club as cheap childcare; nor do you want to over-charge or you will struggle to get sufficient numbers for the club to be worthwhile. So you really need to set the costs appropriate to what is usually charged for similar activities at this school, rather than what similar activities costs at other schools.