Setting up a pre-school French group. How much?

[el85]

Hi everyone.

Just looking for a bit of advice as I'm thinking of starting up a baby/toddler/pre-school French group for little ones and their carers. I'm a qualified primary teacher with a degree in French and Spanish, currently working work part-time. My youngest is off to school in a couple of weeks so I'll have a couple of free mornings as of September. I've spotted that there are no pre-school language classes in my area and was thinking to set one up to start after the October half term.

The aim is to do a 30 minute class and then have a round half an hour play/social time for carers and kiddies with refreshments, so basically a 60 minute session.

It's been an age since I went to any baby classes with either of mine so I have no idea what to charge for this. Any ideas? Anybody set up anything similar and have an pearls of wisdom?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

What will your costs be?

I don't think you will be able to run a social group at the moment due to Covid restrictions? Any groups starting to run seem to be max 10 adults, wearing masks, no singing or shared resources, social distancing.

Depending on what other groups in your area charge, I would imagine it will be £5-£6 a session.

I live in a city with a large French population and there is a well established baby and toddler group for Francophone families (ie with a least one parent who is a native French speaker). They stopped running at the start of lockdown and have no plans to start again soon. This is despite having an established membership.

I think it depends where you live, the demographics and target audience - it could be a bit niche, tbh, and I'm doubtful that a French language class will be a priority for parents of 0-4yos who don't already have a strong Francophone connection. I think you might struggle at the best of times let alone during continued semi-lockdown. Sorry.

One of the best baby classes I took DS to was "sing and sign", there are lots of baby sign language classes, and they help with communication for babies whatever the language they speak (ie once you learn the sign for "milk" you can use the same sign when saying milk in different languages, that's what DH and I did).

As DS has got older the groups he enjoyed the most were the unstructured ones where he could mostly run around and play; he wouldn't really sit, listen and participate.