Summer holiday clubs costs

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Ds is going to reception in September and I read this piece in the guardian about the price of an average summer holiday club www.theguardian.com/money/2022/jul/19/charity-criticises-lack-of-uk-summer-childcare-as-cost-rises-to-nearly-900. We are in London so it says average is 161 a week, I've also seen lots of clubs at 50 pounds a day around here. How much does everyone pay and how do you afford it?

Our school holiday club is £26 and the forest school one is £35 we only send him to those two because they are both 7.30 - 6pm. The others local to us are only 9-3 which is useless to us.

London here. There are a few things. Football camp is £24 for the day (but 9 am until 3 pm so not exactly a full day) and they need to bring a packed lunch.

There is a multi activity camp thing which is around £49 a day 8.30 ish until about 4.30- with an option to pay £6 for a late pick up of 6.00 pm…

Also popular are morning camps, which are 9-1, around £25 which is not a huge help if you’re working. The juggle is hard- I am very lucky in that I work term times (school).

We’re in London and the big sports one DD is doing is almost £300, the cheapest I’ve found for £200 is arts/crafts in a church hall. It is very expensive!

@Mally100 seriously, wow that's a lot. what is it? I've only seen £50 per day ones but i bet by next summer they would have gone up. i also get annoyed with the 5 days booking policy, i wouldnt need him to go in for the whole week - but otherwise you cant get a place

Thinking about this I am so thankful that DS's school (and most of the local primaries) run reasonably priced and very popular 8-6 camps. And also hooray for the short summer holidays here! If you book a week or so annual leave, which you would need for a holiday anyway it's really not too bad.

If I was still living in Ireland it would be tougher.

Best one I ever had it was a long time ago though, was a week for ten pounds and they did activities.

I know it's crazy. I think its just London prices unfortunately.

I think ours is £25 a day (includes snacks but not lunch). In the Southwest. We can afford it because it makes sense for dh and I to pay £25 a day for childcare (which is actually more like £20 with tax free childcare) than to not work as we make more than £25 a day.

London, £50 a day, 9am-5pm. The cost has gone up since last year.

Its harder now dd is 10 than it was when she was younger. MiL was more physically able to have her to stay when she was younger. Dd was more willing to go to clubs even if she didn't know anyone, even if they didn't do much.

On the face of it you'd think you could shop around in London but the reality is very different.

We need a full day in order to work - 10am-3pm with a 45 min journey both ways doesn't work.

A specialist club (eg playing football/gymnastics etc) doesn't work for a 10 yr old who doesn't do those sports when the other 10 yr olds have been doing them for years.
Same with drama/music based clubs. Fine when they're younger but less so when they're older and some kids seem to have been auditioning for Sylvia Young for years (or something).

Location is everything in London when a 5 mile distance can mean an hour long bus trip or 45 mins in the car. If it isn't walking (or easy tube) distance, it eats into the working day.

And this is why many of the clubs can charge what they do.

Still cheaper than us taking unpaid leave though and worth it to have family holidays together, rather than having to take most of our a/l separately.

I can see how women are locked out of work though (as the article says).

They don't exist for children like mine. No day activities either.

@dameofdilemma thats really useful to know. Ours is only four so am still hoping to be able to dump them in a random club. But I was wondering what people were doing with 10 or 12 year olds. As we're in London and going by this thread, I guess we'll be forking out quite a lot next summer

south east london. There's free ones eg local football club runs some multi sports ones funded by local councils including a meal (some longer days some part days).
There's a couple of low cost local multi sports / adventure ones run out of parks etc which are more like 9/10 to 3/4 (or you can pay for extended day) at £15-18 for a short day, plus sibling discount.
There's some local school ones around £20-25 per day.
There's some chains running out of schools which are around £25-30 plus extended day added cost.
There's sports chains which are around £25 per day, sometimes in leisure centres so including swimming.
There's much more expensive ones too - science clubs at 50-80 per day, arts clubs at 30-64 per day, posher sports clubs in south london private schools with swimming lessons etc which are £40-60 per day, music clubs and theatre clubs etc etc. Further west I know there's coding clubs but they cost a fortune - 80pd.

Nearly all the above take vouchers or tax free childcare which knocks 20% off the price. We do a mix of very cheap, one standard, one expensive (or that's what we're doing this summer)

Just to add - I've say the majority of club spaces round here are £30 or under. But the others are so much more it raises the ave price

Can anyone give tips on where to find the holiday clubs?

Full day from 8am to 6pm is between 30 and 39 pounds, the more expensive providing all food.

To be fair after 100+ quid a day nursery i feel positively rich. This is west berks.

There are cheaper ones but they are all 9 to 3 so not great if full time at work.

Oh and i forgot to mention the local sailing club. 450 for the week.

Can anyone give tips on where to find the holiday clubs?

For schools (state and private) you check the individual local schools' websites - they don't publicise their summer clubs much, but many take children from other schools.

The council will have a list of non-school camps, which may or may not be up to date. Check leisure centres, sports centres, cricket and tennis clubs etc, but above all ask the other parents which clubs/camps they are using.

We use childcare vouchers and they got saved up during Covid which was good. Holiday club is about £20 a day here in Solihull

Re older kids, my eldest stopped entertaining the idea of clubs when she was about 10/11, and luckily living in London she was able to meet up with friends very locally, (loads of friends within a couple of minutes walk), local shops and cafes similar so she could go out for an ice cream or something independently, hang out at each other’s houses etc then. Now she’s 13 I barely see her in the holidays to be honest.

We also send her to my sil in London for a week. She's a nanny and dd knows the kids she looks after so it is like a holiday for her where she gets to catch up with old friends. She also goes to mil for a week.

I don’t know where you’re looking OP but there are plenty that are less than £50 per day. £50 would be considered extremely expensive where I am in London. I’ve actually never seen any that expensive.

I’d start with asking other parents at school. If you can coordinate so they have friends at camp then in my experience they have a better time. Plus it’s always good to get recommendations.

"£50 would be considered extremely expensive where I am in London. I’ve actually never seen any that expensive."

A well known national chain that does holiday camps (named after a fish) - daily rates are £44-54 (so average £50, depending which day you book). A full week works out around £43 daily so bit cheaper.
And that's not just their London rates.

I've always been happy to help out friends over holidays, but appreciate not everyone is able to or wants to. From about yr 1 we regularly had our neighbours daughter (was at school with our youngest), we didn't need her to return the favour so instead she used to take DS (and sometimes me!) on nice day trips to say thanks