To be surprised by afterschool clubs fees

[PinkSparklyUnicorn]

Hello,
We both work full time and DD starts Reception this September. She will be in Breakfast and Afterschool club pretty much everyday. This is not ideal but this is the best we could manage.

School has just emailed, expecting the full balance for the clubs to be paid by the 1/09. That is £397. I have emailed asking if there was a possibility to pay by installments prior the start of each month. The response was "HI
Invoices are due before the first day of term.Kind regards. Finance"

AIBU to think this is a bit steep? I was not expecting to dish out that amount at once. Our childcare vouchers haven't started yet so it's coming straight out of our pockets. I will now for next term but dang.. Is that the same in your kids schools?

Blimey, some steep costs here. Our after school is £8 from end of school to 5.45. They bill it via an app but seems to be in arrears, we just pay monthly in advance via the tax free childcare and they occasionally update the app. I wouldn't be surprised if they change that soon though as they are always writing home about debts

It's a bit of a pain that they won't do monthly payments, but I assume what you'll have to pay upfront is likely to be cheaper than what you've paid every month up to now!

(Bit of an aside but I practically cried with relief when my kids started school and I was only paying wraparound care not nursery fees)

Count yourself lucky. For a full time place before and after school ours is £1625 a term.

For a term that’s not bad. Appreciate it’s still a big chunk to pay upfront.

Wow that's great. Ours is 680 per month 🤢.

We can pay ours monthly and at the end of that month - not before, so that would have been a shock to me too! Ours is run by the school though, so maybe a different set up.

Very reasonable pricing in fairness.

I think that seems on the cheap side so would be a bit wary that is just for the first half term. I’m expecting my term to be around £680 for
4 days per week after school. Morning club would add on an extra £300.

Sounds good to me, our ASC is £15 a session! Don't think I've seen one as high on here yet 😅

We pay per month in advance, I’m surprised to hear termly payment is so common (do appreciate the reasons why though). Guess I’ll count myself lucky! That said, that’s a really good price for a full term.

Its pay monthly in advance, invoice on 1st pay by 5th orelse and a similar price to yours.

Tbh after 1390pcm nursery fees, then dropping to 700 odd with 30free hrs it made a nice change.

Mine is 350ish a month.

Sounds the same as here. Money up front or no place. There is a waiting list so people make damn sure they pay on time.

It's a bargain if it's for a term

@LadyApplejack ours is £17.35 😬

I think from the school or club's point of view you are a new customer and therefore risky as you could be a non payer. If you are a reliable payer then maybe it will be possible to pay in smaller tranches in future - you can also investigate further once you are "in".

On the plus side, some schools don't let Reception use their wraparound, don't have enough capacity for everyone, or don't have wraparound at all, so there's that!

Wow, I’ve never heard of this in a state school and most parents wouldn’t be able to afford that as a lump sum. I always paid monthly when my DC went and it’s still monthly now because I’ve seen the posts about it on the school app.

@Twilightstarbright oh yikes, that's awful. I feel strangely comforted!

It sounds expensive written like that but broken down over the cost of a term of morning and afternoons it’s a really good price!

Ours is £22.50!

YABU you have to pay for childcare. It's a pain but it's not forever. Take comfort in that.

I book and pay weekly, we can pick which days we want each week which is helpful if my work shifts change for example. Obviously the later you leave it the more risk of it being full but I’ve never not been able to get the sessions I need. I pay at the weekend for the week ahead.

Yes that would just be September.

My son's school is £13 per day for after school club only (breakfast club an additional fiver)

£18 5 = £90, £90 4 = £360

This is why mothers come to Mumsnet to b*tch about childcare 🙃

You're so lucky to have after school club. It's not really done here in Ireland so I have to pay 800 euro a month for a child minder to do about 3 and a half hours of before and after school time per day. Children are very expensive.

We won't know ourselves when she's in secondary and we can keep that money!