What do you pay for toys-in-a-church-hall type toddler groups?

[GettingBackToMe]

Trying to do some benchmarking... What do you think would be reasonable to pay for an hour and a half toddler group in a church hall? Includes a hot drink for adults as well as drinks/biscuits/other random snacks for children.

Do you normally pay per family, per child, per person? And whereabouts in the country are you?

Used to pay £1 per child - Bristol area. About 8 years ago tho. I reckon £2 would be good

£1-£1.50 over here (north)

£1 here

£1 per child in our area..kitchenette set up so can make tea/coffee/water as and when. Kids get toast and then a piece of fruit. There are toys out for session and ends with around 10 mins of group songs with actions. An absolute bargain. I would happily pay a bit more tbh with the great snack the kids get.

Most of the ones I went to were £1 for babies and £2 for toddlers because toddlers would have snacks.

I used to go to two, one was free and the other was £1.50.

£2 per family for as much tea/coffee and biscuits for adults as you like, snack time with biscuits/fruit/rice cakes and water/squash for children, craft activity, its of toys including soft play and ball pool, and song time at the end.

Donations at ours. Sometimes people don’t give anything and that seems to be fine, others slip a few ££ in and it seems to cover costs.

£1 for first child, 50p for siblings. Session lasts 1.5 hours and has Fruit and drink (water or milk) for the children but nothing for adults.

We charge £1.50 per family, that includes craft, hot drinks, biscuits and snack time. We did consider raising it to £2 recently but as we're a church toddler group have decided against it.

Ours is £2.50 per family. Ask for donation in August too to buy new equipment for the next year. I think most people tend to give about £20/£25ish.

Anything from £1.00-2.00 in the South West. Most charge per family. We occasionally go to one that charges £2 for the first child and then 50p for additional children but I think that's a bit steep!

We run for 2.5 hours btw. It was 2 hours 9.30-11.30 but parents would be hanging about waiting for us to open and one of us were always there by 9 so we open earlier so parents doing the school run with older children can come straight to us.

We charge £3.50 per family at ours. A bit more expensive, I can see, but session runs for 2 hours, with as much tea / coffee / biscuits / squash / toddler snacks as anyone fancies. The craft table is ace too (if I may say so myself!). We’re in central London.

Our local church ran a group which charged per group rather than we child. It was inundated with childminders and their multiples wreaking havoc and as such wasn't particularly well attended and I assume not well financed!

When I stopped a few years ago, I was paying between £2-3 per child, including snacks drinks and some rhymes at the end. £3 one went on for longer.

They were brilliant.

I take my niece to a parent and toddler group weekly, I pay 50p and this includes juice and a snack. In rural County Durham.

I paid £1.50 and it was an extra 50p if I wanted a cup of tea and a hot roll.

Thanks everyone, interesting that it seems quite varied. HeadfirstforHalos those are the kind of discussions we are having about charging more, between some of the people involved wanting extra donations to improve church finances, and others wanting it to be a community service and just cover costs rather than make any profit.

Ours was £1.50 per child.

We had a childminder insisting we should be charging per family group/adult because it wasn't fair on those poor parents who had more than one child and of course, meaning that her 4 kids would have been £1.50 total. Thing is, we were well aware that the parents paid her the playgroup fees. She would have pocketed £13.50 extra a week for the three playgroups we ran.

Cheeky mare.

These groups are non-profit but do have costs. Buying the snacks each week, buying new toys and hall fees. Then there's the Christmas parties and ours gave small gifts to the children and had a summer trip.

We paid £2 for first child and £1 for each subsequent child in a family. Everyone helped with set up and clearing away and we had a Rota for bringing snacks and milk (although this was paid for by the kitty).

£1.50 in the sw

I think the church view it as a community service, instead of a profit making exercise. The vicar sometimes pops in with leaflets for various other church activities, so I guess it’s a way of getting the community involved with the church as well the other way round.

£1.50 for the first child, 50p for subsequent ones. Get a cup of coffee and biscuit for the adults, juice or water and a biscuit or fruit for the toddlers. That's the church hall one. There's another one held at a private school up the road which has better (cafetière) coffee and really fantastic cake and that's £3. We mostly go to that one.

Depends on your area. If it's not a wealthy area, £1 can feel like a lot.
I used to run a group like this. We asked for donations. Some have nothing, some have a £5, some brought biscuits!!

£2 per family