childcare costs once in primary school - how much to budget for?

[Fhlneihn1345]

DD is off to school in September which means that we won't be paying for her super expensive nursery - we are in the SE. But with all the after-school clubs, holiday clubs etc - I am having a hard time budgeting for our childcare costs.

On average, how much does everyone else budget for per month (if added up across a year?). We both work FT if that makes a difference.

Thank you

It depends how much childcare you use. Dh and I work flexibly so one of us is always available to do the school runs (we just work more on the days we don’t), so don’t use and wraparound care. This is good because it doesn’t actually exist at our school, though there is one mum who does take a load of kids home with her. I don’t think she is a proper childminder though and does it a bit cash in hand.

We only use holiday club, 3 days a week (all it’s open - again not many families with 2 FT working parents around here, we’re a bit of an outlier). We balance the other 2 days between us. Costs about £90 a week for 3 days holiday club 9-5.

We’re SW London, after school club is roughly £15 per day, breakfast club I believe is £5 per day

Holiday clubs once they are 5 the price can drop - maybe £40-50 per day if sport related

Term time activities anything from £80-100 per term upwards

I budget about £100 a month per dc to allow for holidays. But they do a couple of clubs too.

But I'm p/t & get most of the school hols off so my costs are probably on the low side.

this is all so useful! Thanks guys :-)

If you need wraparound care they are approx

breakfast club £5-£10
after school club £15-20
after school activities eg ballet £60-70 per term (shorter hours usually than after school club).
holidays care - our school does a few days at £40-50. Local clubs tend to be about £50-60.

Do you get tax free childcare as you can use for all of the above.

We use after school club at £11 a day. Mine goes everyday so £55/week x 38 weeks is £2090/year.
Holiday clubs at the max are £30 a day, usually closer to £20. So average £25/day for 10 weeks a year (working on you having 4 weeks holiday from work) is £1250/year.

Our school (London) is £3.50 per day for breakfast club, £10 per day for after school club till 6. Does your child’s school offer this? If this weren’t available it would be about £28 a day for a childminder before and after school. So that x 5 x 39 weeks (term time). Then 13 weeks of school holidays (xmas, Easter, half terms, summer) which we cover about 8 weeks of from annual leave and 4 weeks using clubs. Clubs are about £30 a day x 5 x 4.

I'm in Berkshire and my childminder charges an hourly rate of £5.60. We only use her for 2 hours after school so it doesn't work out very expensive for both my children. I use a childcare voucher and my monthly bill is usually covered by the voucher and sometimes we have to top up. We just use her for term time cover and in the holidays we use a mix of holiday clubs, reciprocal play dates, grandparents and annual leave. We have a very reasonably priced club near us and we just put them in for a short day (9.30-3.30) and it works out at £40 for the day for both siblings! There are lots more expensive options of course.

I suspect it depends a bit where you are in the country. Our school club is about £250 a month if you use it full time (10 sessions/ week). Holiday clubs range from £10-£40 a day depending on what it is. You may find sports schemes are cheaper than more formal holiday clubs but the hours are usually a bit shorter (ours is £10 for 8.30-4)

Ours were £20 per day for breakfast and after school club. Lunch is £2.50 a day. The holiday club ive booked for this summer is £200 per week. School trips have been minimal cost wise as the cost is partially met by the PTA.

Last year’s lockdown really benefited us as we didn't have to pay any of this.

I pay about £16 for before and after school club. Holidays really depends on how you use your annual leave. If you as a couple want to take all your holiday together and/or take time off by yourself during term time, you need to pay extra. We split our annual leave to stretch quite a bit but of course lose out on time together.

Wow, these prices!
Our school takes £1 per day breakfast and/or after school, if you use both it’s still only £1.
There’s no school led holiday clubs, but most families work their leave around holidays & extended family help. The local childminder takes £3 per hour during the hols.
We’re in Scotland.

Our holiday clubs don’t take children until they are 5 (some 6) so it can be a nightmare for that, we pay £35 a day per child for holiday club.

For us £150-185 a week in the summer, and £150 a month term time for ASC 3-6 3 days a week, and 3-4 one day.

We are in the south west so probably cheaper than you.

We mainly use a Childminder for before and after school care and also in the holidays. She charges £3.80 an hour.

Occasionally we use the after school club which is £6 a session.

Ex-Reception teacher here. It really depends where you are but in my experience teaching in London:

• many schools don't allow Reception kids to access the after school clubs at all, or at least until they are 5.
• even if they do they are first come first served so you may not get a place
• often schools do not start their Reception-age kids at the start of September, they have a staggered entry which may include half days for a week or two.

These are all things that have caught out parents of kids I have taught so it's worth checking with the school as early as possible. Good luck!

@Chocolatebuttercream

Ex-Reception teacher here. It really depends where you are but in my experience teaching in London:

• many schools don't allow Reception kids to access the after school clubs at all, or at least until they are 5.
• even if they do they are first come first served so you may not get a place
• often schools do not start their Reception-age kids at the start of September, they have a staggered entry which may include half days for a week or two.

These are all things that have caught out parents of kids I have taught so it's worth checking with the school as early as possible. Good luck!
-

I was lucky. My afterschool club were happy to take her even when she was in the introductory half day period and not that long turned 4. It probably helped that they had also run the nursery she attended and she had an older sibling so was pretty familiar with staff / the setting.

@Chocolatebuttercream thanks for the additional info. So what do most parents do? We're in SELondon so didnt have any choice which school to we send her. With both of us FT we really need to sort this out asap

I pay £70 a week if they do full time wrap around care but some days they do clubs instead & £23-£30 per day holiday club (depends on hours) but with 10-15% discount for early booking.
Felt a lot cheaper than nursery.

Our school did 2 weeks of staggered days which required calling in favours abs annual leave. I’ve not found it as bad as I thought tbh. We’ve not needed breakfast club with wfh but that will change in September. After school club is £12 a day so for us is:

£12 x39 x4 = £1872

We’ve then split our annual leave so we’ve probably needed 5 weeks of camp, 2 weeks grandparents and then covered 6 weeks between us.

As well as the under 5s thing (was a pain for us) our school does an early finish with no wrap around on the last days of term so need to factor in extra leave for days when they are actually in school… that was an unpleasant surprise!

I’ve found more choice for Easter and summer holidays for camps so have used leave for half terms, inset days, Christmas. Also have found the odd days at the start of term in September hard to find camps for.

@Fhlneihn1345 I think some parents do struggle! Childminders who can pick up from school? I think this is why a lot of mums end up not returning to work tbh

My childminder was £5 per hour, school wrap around care similar. The benefits of choosing a childminder is that they would hopefully be on hand to do a collect in the middle of the day if the school asked you to collect due to sickness/snow, while you travelled home.

I'm in London & schools I know take reception kids for wrap around & some holiday clubs too.

The activity clubs are highly sought after & can be gone within minutes when the slots are released.

reception for my dc had a staggered start by 1-2 days. But our schools have pre schools on site so many dc already used to school day.

Most parents I know have one p/t &/or flexi hours can wfh.

Yes the schools I know always finish on the last day of term between 1-2pm with no wrap around care.