Do you think this is too expensive for an after school club?

[VegTrug]

Just had an email from DC's (state) primary school offering an after school club (computer club) which lasts an entire term, but is £99! It has to be paid in full, upfront in order to book them on it and no, instalments are not accepted.
Do you think this is too much for a State primary school? My mum pointed out that when I was at school, there were never any clubs or activities which weren't accessible to everyone.

Yet again, my child is going to miss out on something she would LOVE.

Post like this really confuse me. I paid more than that for my children to do co-curriculars when they were in (state) Primary more than a decade ago. The going rate then was about £8-10 p/h. Given inflation,this seems like a really good deal to me.

How much do people think they should charge, bearing in mind the uplifts to minimum wage, the massively increased fuel costs, and the need to pay the school forcvenue hire?

Save up now for the next term. Then she can do it.

If you can afford it weekly you'll just have to save weekly for a term before she starts if she wants to do it that much.

Put it on a credit card OP and pay it off at the rate you can afford. Them agreeing to let you pay in instalments is a credit agreement of sorts anyway.

Unfortunately sounds about right if not on the cheaper end for what I see here. My kids have done school clubs that are more affordable but ones run be external companies have a ton of costs and need to know they can cover them before starting the term.

Unfortunately sounds about right or even cheaper than what I see here. My kids have done council type clubs at the school that are more affordable but anything external is around there or more. The companies have so many expenses and they need to know they can pay it all before they start the term.

I did swimming lessons in about 1984 and my mum had to pay in advance for the term-I think your mum’s memory is selective!

If you can’t afford this now, then save up for it and do it in the summer term instead.

Companies do it like this because people try to drop out after a couple of weeks and they can’t then fill the space. They need to run a viable business.

Our after school craft club was £5 a session so £35 for the term, this was an out of school company who had all of their own materials. £99 is very expensive however, if you can pay for it (and want to) there's no harm in that. It's very rude of them to laugh at you for wanting to pay in installments though, there is no need for that at all. I could afford the club but I would struggle to fit a spare hundred quid into my monthly budget as would many!

Normal they want them upfront payment unfortunately. Otherwise if a a couple of kids drop out, then they can’t fill the space mid term, they won’t be able to keep it running as can’t meet their costs like staff and school hall hire. When does the club start and when is payment due? If you can afford it weekly and there are still spaces up until the term restarts in Jan that’s 6 weeks so that combined with any other money you can come up with- would it be doable for you? Otherwise she could start in the summer term no?

I grew up in the 80s.

My mum queued for several hours each term to get me and my brother a slot at the free local authority swimming classes because they couldn't afford the normal ones.

I did brownies and my brother did cubs but any other clubs were off the table due to expense.

Lots of external providers now offer after school clubs but they are run on a for profit basis (although only just for most of them!) and they aren't free.

If you want her to learn to code, there are multiple free options.

There may be a code club near you. These are free.

codeclub.org/en/#

Code club also has online meetups and projects that you can work on through their website.

code.org

Is also good.

I guess all you can do is start saving up so that you have the money upfront for another term. Or, if she really wants to go, make it a Christmas present? If the company can sell all the spaces at this price, they're not going to offer it cheaper. They're not offering an instalment option because they might be out of pocket if people drop out part way. It's tough for your daughter but access to extracurricular activities like this isn't equal to everyone.

Sounds like they have a company coming in to teach a specific programme (coding etc) and may be bringing equipment and laptops etc, rather than the usual ‘kids hanging out in the computer lab for 30mins with a teacher who vaguely knows how to switch them on’ scenario?

I’d ask for more info to check.

It's tough to run clubs. It takes time, energy, resources. There is no reason people should do this for free. If they let people pay weekly, then people would drop out, or miss sessions due to illness and not enough money would be made for the company to run the sessions. If the sessions aren't going to be financially viable, the company need to find an alternative job. Otherwise they close. Tough, but there's no other way.

Unfortunately having the option to pay in instalments will cost them more. Someone has to be paid for that time to set up, monitor and communicate with all the parents across the classes they provide. Shame they couldn't provide advance notice to help parents put aside the funds in time but maybe they didn't have it themselves.

That's £7-8 a session, seems a normal price for extracurricular with an outside teacher.

My db teachers 2 after school coding classes and I know they pay £7.50 per session, 6 kids max, he has to pay the school rent and had to provide equipment (not cheap), travel, pay himself...

That is really expensive for an after school club! I assume it's because the school only has so many computers so they can't have many children doing it?

To be fair I didn’t say it was run by school staff, I said teaching as I assume it isn’t just there is a computer have a go you’re on your own.

is there no support for low income families, can you speak to the school? I also think that as you can afford it it’s just rhe lump sum, maybe put that away this term, which pays for next term and so on? So she only misses a term?

As far as paying weekly, the commitment to buy equipment etc needs to be paid upfront and crucially you can't have people drop out and not pay when it's too late to get different students

I would speak to school. There may be some extra funding for her from pupil premium that could be put towards this. there may not be, but it is worth asking.

Surely that's the wrong way round?
I'd expect to pay more for a session of teaching something like coding which needs some specialist knowledge than simply child care

That's ridiculously expensive. I'm surprised anyone has signed up. Out school definitely wouldn't get away with that.
Our school/PTA will help to fund trips etc for families that require extra monetary help. Could you explain to school that your child would love to attend the club & your circumstances, then ask if they would part-fund it for you?

I also grew up in the 80s and all our clubs & play schemes were free!

Thank you will look into this

(Edited to say sorry to repeat, scanned the thread too quickly!)
Is there anybody who might volunteer to run a Code Club? That would be free (the school would need some sort of equipment though, I think)

https://codeclub.org/en/

I wish! My credit card only has a £200 limit on it, with £46 available (Xmas!) and an interest rate of 43.40%! I cannot get approved for any others (for reasons I’d rather not go into)