to think nursey fees are a rip off

[bigbumhole]

AIBU to think that £9 a day for pre-school nursery is too much? It's 9.30am until 12noon. Its run in a little village hall by local mothers (all passed as proper childcare givers, so all very kosher but far from anything formal). I can't help but think its a bit expensive for what you get. I'm not looking for alternatives or solutions but just wanted some feedback regarding the cost.

To add to slight insult, we have to pay an extra £8 a week for drink and a snack per child, when i questioned this, a drink and snack consists of a cup of tap water and 1 biscuit per child (per session)

Will you get the Nursery Education Funding after your child's third birthday?

moondog, pre schools and after school clubs, by us, cost £3.75 per hour, dropping down to £2.60 per hour if you book many sessions.
They charge £2.10 p/h for some sessions
Is that too cheap ?
If someone thought a meal/holiday/spa treatment was cheap, we would all be chearing, but becasue its childcare, it is cheapskate ?

I can't compare childcare to a plate of lasagne and a limp salad. I'm funny like that.

If it's run by local mothers in the village hall then it's probably a registered charity rather than a money-making business as such, and so they will not be allowed to make a significant profit anyway.

Our local pre-school is in the village hall, run by local mums. However, these mums also happen to be trained to NVQ levels 2 or 3, spend hours and hours planning the sessions, going on training days etc etc - what I'm saying is that pre-schools are actually pretty tightly regulated by OFSTED and so these 'mums' are probably trained to be providing a pre-school education (whatever that is!)

We currently charge £5.75 for a 2 1/2 hour session. The true cost is about £8 a session and we make up the shortfall through fundraising so that children of families from all backgrounds can afford it.

i thought mums net was supposed to a place for sharing info etc - the op asked a reasonble question, why the need for the bloody rude answers

it may be that this is a prohibitive amount for the op to pay, i'm sure we would all give our last penny to see our dcs safe and well-cared for, but some of us have less than others, try and have a little empathy!

My playschool was £5 for 2 3/4 hours. Sounds v £££ to me and extra for a drink and biscuit is cheeky!

My son's nursery is 12.15-3pm and costs £12.50 a session (in London).I'm pretty happy with that to be honest. When he was in full time nursery it cost £870 a month, which stung a bit! I have a friend who pays closer to £1200 a month for full time nursery for her son.

Just realised our playschool was free once she was 3 but she left before then.

I think the £8 for the snack is the problem tbh.

yes moondog. you are funny like that.
The Op posted a reasonable q. It was all being discussed. And then you took it to a totally different level.
Tiz a mystery to me.
Are you still 'all shook up' from the earthquake ?

And what is with Bree, agreeing with you.
Are you two, on something at the moment ?
I think you should both go off to the www.mumsnet.com/Talk/4/487269?fm=9832163#9832163lasagnethread
and add your soggy lettuce to that.
Plus, I don't know what kind of establishments you go to, but on my annual trip out, I don't order lasagne, becasue I make it at home, and I don't get a limp lettuce. for my today-I'm-not-going-to-theharvester-for-£9.99
cooked by Jamie or Gordon.

yeah we pay a term fee nappyadict so for a whole school year it costs us £45 plus the £5 book fee which is returned and the school sweater which is £7.50 but the school will buy them back off of you if you leave or take them back and give a discount on the primary school sweater. and this is from a school which financial is in a bad way

Sounds reasonable to me although I share your about the drink and snack charge.

We pay about £12.30 for a 3 hours (9am-12pm) but we get most of that paid by the gov't so not too bad. It is slightly more expensive than other pre-schools but DS2 loves it and it is very good. Also a lot of groups round our way don't have 3 hour sessions,only 2.5hrs.

We are in Hampshire.

bigbumhole, I think so long as your children are happy you are getting a reasonably good deal.

Thank you to those who think ive come under attack. I thought my question/topic of discussion was a perfectly reasonable question. Once again i feel that unnecessary attacks are happening on this board towards mothers who are asking genuine questions.

Thanks to all those who gave me reasonable answers, and a big YOU SUCK to those who didn't

tjacks - is that like a top up to the grant for 3 year olds though? i don't understand how anyone could run a pre-school at £45 a year per child!!

BBH - don't know if anyone's mentioned this (couldn't see it) but does your wage earner work for a company that does childcare vouchers? These allow you to pay childcare fees (including childminding etc.) from your pre-tax earnings. Obviously better for higher-rate taxpayers but still could help.

It hard to know. Depends where you are in the country and what the facilites are like.

I think £8 a week for a snack is ridculous. That is almost as much as what I pay for my son to have school dinners in year 1!

When my son was at pre school we paid £6 a session, but that was 4 years ago and I expect prices have gone up with inflation. It depends what kind of rent the pre school has to pay. Do you get governant vouchers.

Now I pay £5 a session for his after school club which provides 2 hours of care. His after school club employs two people and has a maximum of 16 children. All the children are between 4 and 11 years old. Admitally this is not a fair comparision with a pre school that has under threes, but the ratio with school children is the same as the raio with over three year olds.

The children get a snack. Unlike some pre schools, his after school does not have to pay rent for the room.

Have you looked round other pre schools and see what they offer?

BBH, £9 a day doesn't sound expensive to me though I'm new to these things, and live in London, but the snack thing does though I understand the point made about why that probably is.

As for Moondog and BreeVanDerCamp, I'm glad to hear you can afford to pay for money no object childcare. My baby's very precious but I can't afford to pay more than half my take home pay for childcare when I return to work next Monday. And that's the rate charged by the Council nurseries and is going up far more than inflation, private nurseries are between two thirds and 100% plus of my wages.

I dont know if this is too obvious but if your child is over 3 do they not get pre school ed for free??

Sounds cheap to me.

I thought that too scottishmum.

My understanding was that the govt will fund up to £8.50 of preschool fees per 2 1/2 hr session (up to 5 sessions a week) starting the term after the child turns 3.

£9 is a rip off.

DS goes to Playgroup/nursery 2 mornings a week and all day Friday 9-3 and I pay £20.50. and it's an excellent nursery, granted in a not so nice area, but it's a damn good nursery and the staff are brilliant and work for minmum wage.
Oh, and all staff are qualified to at least NVQ level 2 and the senior staff level 3-4.

I'm a pre-school Chair. We also charge £9 per session (3 hours). No extra for drink & snack because milk & fruit costs are reclaimed from various Govt. depts.

Our staff are mostly local mums but they are all trained to NVQ2 or above and most are moving towards getting their NVQ4 or 5 if they haven't already. We do follow the national curriculum and prepare rising 5s for school.

Last year we started Autumn term with less than 20 children, by the end of the year there were about 38 and overall we lost £5k. This year we started Autumn term with 27 children and already have nearly 50 (limited to 30 per session though). We've almost recouped last years losses and will turn a profit by year end. I post this to demonstrate that a Village Hall pre-school charging £9 session is not continually earning vast profits.

So if it's an Ofsted inspected pre-school then £9 is quite normal. I don't know whether it would be a lot for a playgroup because I don't know how different their runnings costs would be.

My DS's nursery is an Ofted inspected pre school and she charges £5.25 per session i.e. the morning or the afternoon. She gives the kids squash/milk mid morning and a buscuit for no extra charge.