£66 for an after school club?

[EmmaJane2025]

Just had some details from school about this term’s after school clubs. Two of them are £40 and the other, £66!
For context, this is a state school with a mix of a few students from comfortably-off families, many average & some Pupil Premium students. Obviously if this was an Independent school then this wouldn’t even cross my mind to be an issue but a state school? Do state schools usually charge for after school clubs? This one hasn’t done before; I’ve never been required to pay for the ones my DC attended previously.

Perhaps I’m missing a factor in it all, perhaps I’m out of date? It just seems unfair that students from lower income families will likely miss out on something I truly believe all kids should have the opportunity to attend - extra curricular activities.
AIBU?

Always had to pay here. Most are external people coming in and need to be paid. Or if staff are running them then resources need to be bought and where is the money coming from? School budgets are tight.
A long time ago staff would run these clubs for free, but workload is so much now teachers don't have the time to do that now.

That's far cheaper than wraparound care, I think that's a bargain! Are they running by external companies?

Is that per session or for the term? At DS primary (state), after school clubs run by the school or external provider (like football) for an hour works out at £5 per session. That’s not the afterschool childcare provision which is significantly more per hour!

What’s the activity?
do they still have free/cheaper after school clubs?

Is that per week? It’s much cheaper than I pay

Ours started charging £10 every term so about £1 per week which is pretty fair. Those on low incomes have it paid for.
Are they run by staff or an outside company? Ours are more from an outside company

Always had to pay here too. That's pretty good value I'd say - is it for 10 sessions?

Is that per term?

Round here you're looking at £8-£12 per after-school session.

There are no free options for ours - all the clubs are run by external providers. State school in fairly big standard town

What are they and who is running them?
If they’re being run by an external provider then of course you pay. Who else is paying the wages of the person running it?
Only clubs run by staff might be free of charge. And even then you might pay for resources. How many weeks are we talking? 10 over the term so £4 a go?
Really does depend on what you’re getting for your money but it sounds reasonable to me.
Families who are in receipt of free school meals can often ask for the pupil premium to be used for things like this.

Are you saying that the activity is £40 for a term? If that is about 12 weeks, that's about £3.30 per week. Not too dear if it's an hour..

Is it one run by outside providers? We have an external sports club using our facilities, who charge. However, as teachers we all run an after school club (eg recorder club, choir, chess) and we are not allowed to charge. They last about 45 minutes so from 3.15 until 4.00. If we ever need to cancel through illness or whatever, a text message is sent out to parents - so it’s not a childminding alternative. The sports clubs however never cancel, so I can imagine these are thought of by parents as a ‘sort of’ child minding alternative. Their staff will be getting paid to run it and they will have all kinds of insurance in place. All which will be costing them.

After school club as in childcare or a specialist activity? Either way, I don't think they were ever free?

After school clubs or wraparound? Our school has both. The former are between £75 - £120 per term depending on the type of club and provider. Children entitled to FSM get one club paid for a term.

Depends on the activity really… primary here always had a choice - £8 per session for things like karate (outside tutor coming into school) and trampolining (teachers walk them to local place) but then lots of free ones eg craft run in school by teachers.

Choice is key isn’t it? It’s not fair to have better off families limited by lower income families, equally lower income families shouldn’t be completely excluded.

£66 for 10/12 sessions? Sounds like a bargain.

You don't give specifics of the club. Is that for one session or a full term? What's the focus? How long does each session last?

My kids standard after school club it's about 18 a day. But for actual clubs like gymnastics after school it's more like 60 termly

It’s the total cost for 6 sessions but they’re only 40 mins long. I’m intrigued by some referring to it as childcare!? I don’t need childcare and I expect those who do, already have it in place. It’s run by school staff. It’s ’I can believe’ club……… I was looked at blankly when I offered it to DC 😆

Last term DD attended Running club for free for 8 sessions. The previous term was Football and the term before that was Cheerleading. All free. So these have popped up out of nowhere!

Correction, it’s ’Dare to Believe’ club. Like I said above, run by school staff whilst the boys play football

Ours is £15.40 a day for after school club and £8 for breakfast club

We pay between £120- 144 per term per after school club per week (we do netball, art and football).
Your pricing is a bargain

Our old school started charging for staff run clubs as parents were using it for childcare when kids weren’t even vaguely interested in the activities

No, an after school activity (always referred to as a club here in my locality) Always been free. This is year 5 and they’ve always been free. Not ran by a specialist provider either, by school staff for 40 mins. 6 sessions.

It’s not childcare it’s an activity

Yeah its still cheap though