£66 for an after school club?

If you aren't present for the the extracurricular activity, and your child is under 18, it is still a form of childcare.

Bonus that it's an activity they enjoy on the school site.

I'm baffled why people think other adults should look after their child, pay insurance for their child, pay for equipment for their child, and manage the admin for that great privilege

Perhaps because that's what many schools do? As do many volunteer-led clubs such as scouts, brownies, football clubs etc. I'm not saying that I automatically expect all schools do to this, but, at least in my experience, it's quite a normal thing to do,

Oh right. So nobody needs to ensure the kids are safe, they can wander off whenever. No insurance is needed. Nobody needs to clean up. If the adult doesn't fancy it that day, they can just go home. How very relaxed. Super.

And obviously, like other extra-curricular activities that don't include childcare, the parent is attending and within sight of their child at all times.

My kids do an after school group which is provided by an external art club. It's 1hr long and it costs £7.50 per child. They used to do a dance club which was between £80-90 per term for 1 hr. For a little while one did a maths club run by a franchise but it was nearly £10 an hour. I don't need childcare they just go because they like the activity.

The school do a morning athletics club once a week which is free but I'm pretty certain all other activities have a cost.

People are referring to it as childcare because that's what it is

It's not childcare, it's an extracurricular activity provided by the school (or external provider) for the enrichment of the children. Not the same as childcare at all.

I'm baffled why people think other adults should look after their child, pay insurance for their child, pay for equipment for their child, and manage the admin for that great privilege. Pupil premium can sponsor payment for some clubs, but otherwise it obviously should be paid for.

People are referring to it as childcare because that's what it is. Would you stay willingly for 45 minutes after your work day had ended, every week, to look after other people's children for free? If your answer is no then you can't really expect teachers to do this.

My daughter's after-school clubs are all around £10+ for 40-60 minutes and the majority necessitate either myself or dh picking her up and driving her there/back or negotiating an exchange with other parents to share the responsibility as we both work full time.

I honestly think £5 per session for an after-school club, that your child enjoys, on the school site (thereby allowing for later pick up,) is an absolute steal!

In my school, clubs run by school staff are free but there are charges at my DC’s school. Only a few pounds each week at the most though. The prices you have described are ridiculous. £11 a session for a 40 minute club run by school staff. I don’t think any parents at my DC’s school would be paying that!!

That sounds cheap to me. Here (state school, many kids on PP, small village) after school clubs start at £55. Theres “afterschool club” which is the generic school one, which is £30 per child per day (regardless if you need 5 mins or 40 mins) then the actual clubs; multi sports is £55, dance is £62 and art club is £60 they run from 3:30-4:30. So if you cannot collect at 4:30, you pay extra for the generic club on top.
chess club, drama, tennis and crafts clubs are all £72 and last from 3:30-5.
and you have to pay for the clubs if your child goes 1 time and decides they don’t like it, you have to pay upfront.
There are obviously out of school clubs my children attend that are much different from the school ones and I prefer my kids to not be under the schools so called “supervision” anyway, but that’s the prices. I’ve just checked on our DoJo.

I think you are getting a bit of a hard time here OP. I agree, that compared to when my kids were at school (they are now all young adults), that seems expensive. With the exception of music lessons, I've never paid for lunchtime or after-school extra curricular activities, they were all provided free. So things like drama, orchestra, badminton, American football, chess, coding, lego, table tennis, cross country etc were all provided free of charge. They were mostly run by teachers, although my DH did run a football club at primary, as he was a volunteer football coach. Kids were limited to two a week, so that everyone had a chance to do something. This was at both primary and secondary school. Maybe things have changed now, but this wasn't that long ago, my youngest only left school last year.

I appreciate that as a cub leader, we are volunteers, but we charge less than £2.50 for 90 minutes, so yes, I think £11 for 40 minutes does seem expensive.

It does sound steep – DD does a drawing tuition activity and a science one; £6 and £5 a session, both for an hour and 15 minutes, all materials provided and she usually comes home with more fucking crafts whatever they’ve made.

No charge for any after school clubs at my dc school or any school I have worked at wether they have been led by staff or an external provider. External ones usually run for 6 weeks as a 'taster' then a leaflet comes home with details of signing up for classes

Extra curricular activities are free at my DCs school, they have lots of different clubs run by school staff for an hour after school. The only thing I had to pay for was 1:1 music tuition from an external music teacher.
The actual childcare after school club is a private setting separate from the school, that was 12.50 for them to be collected from school, provided a snack and cared for until 6pm.

Ours were always free until after the February school holidays. They’re now charged at £13 per club for half a term.

I thought that you were going to say it was 'mad science', my DD has paid for it for two years. It's about £11 a lesson, for a block of six. That isn't bad because they do experiments and it has an educational side.

You are being massively unreasonable to expect teachers or school staff to work extra hours for free! They will have planning and meetings after school and their own homes to go to.

It might not be childcare for you but for lots of people it is as they might find it easier to balance picking up their child up at 4/4.30 with work commitments.

Pupil premium money will probably be spent on extra staffing as schools have no money and those extra TAs will focus on PP children as well as cohort as a whole. I think PP children can apply for clubs to be subsidised. There is no money to pay for clubs for all kids in this economy! At my school we are asking for donations for everything.

It used to be an expectation that primary teachers would generally run a club but that seems (rightly) to have changed now. An extra hour of running a club (plus 10 minutes for late parents and however long to organise resources) just means an extra hour of other school work for me to do at the weekend and an hour less with my own children. I suppose if the club your school is running is overpriced OP that will soon come to light if not enough sign up.

Isn't that 16.50/hr? As an hourly rate, that doesn't sound too bad?

Bottom line, it's another way for the school to bring in money, nothing to do with the value of the activity offered. It's like loads of other polls/fees/taxes: a socially positive act which is really just revenue-raising, because without the revenue they wouldn't bother.

Ours are £30 for 6 weeks. I don't think it's bad but it does add up if multiple kids/activities especially as our school gives very little notice.

Of course they charge. Who do you expect to pay?!

as a side note they’re cheap!

Ours don't have staff willing to run clubs for free. They are overworked and have their own homes to go to.

Most of the clubs are run by external providers and are charged anywhere from 40 -£90 a term.

Ours doesn’t charge (usually, I think there have been activities over the years provided by outside groups, not poor overstretched teachers, who did charge). It’s similar, like a club, not childcare, only 45 minutes long. If you need anything more, it’s the actual after school club in the village hall which is £10 per session 3:30-6pm.

I wouldn’t be opposed to paying if it was something my dc was committed to. I think it’s astonishing so many teachers do it, but it’s an academy trust, so I imagine someone on the “senior leadership team” is there cracking the whip and giving them little choice in the matter.

They are free at my DCs school. £11 per 40 min session is a lot when it’s being run by teachers, that’s more than I pay for my DCs swimming lessons.

Approach the school and say “ds would love to do X club. It would benefit him this way. Can some of his pupil premium finding cover it”.

If they say no you can ask them why not. They don’t need to provide a breakdown but it’s worthwhile asking.