£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Perhaps I’m missing a factor in it all, perhaps I’m out of date?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?

Extra curricular activities are free at my DCs school, they have lots of different clubs run by school staff for an hour after school. The only thing I had to pay for was 1:1 music tuition from an external music teacher.
The actual childcare after school club is a private setting separate from the school, that was 12.50 for them to be collected from school, provided a snack and cared for until 6pm.

No charge for any after school clubs at my dc school or any school I have worked at wether they have been led by staff or an external provider. External ones usually run for 6 weeks as a 'taster' then a leaflet comes home with details of signing up for classes

It does sound steep – DD does a drawing tuition activity and a science one; £6 and £5 a session, both for an hour and 15 minutes, all materials provided and she usually comes home with more fucking crafts whatever they’ve made.

I think you are getting a bit of a hard time here OP. I agree, that compared to when my kids were at school (they are now all young adults), that seems expensive. With the exception of music lessons, I've never paid for lunchtime or after-school extra curricular activities, they were all provided free. So things like drama, orchestra, badminton, American football, chess, coding, lego, table tennis, cross country etc were all provided free of charge. They were mostly run by teachers, although my DH did run a football club at primary, as he was a volunteer football coach. Kids were limited to two a week, so that everyone had a chance to do something. This was at both primary and secondary school. Maybe things have changed now, but this wasn't that long ago, my youngest only left school last year.

I appreciate that as a cub leader, we are volunteers, but we charge less than £2.50 for 90 minutes, so yes, I think £11 for 40 minutes does seem expensive.

That sounds cheap to me. Here (state school, many kids on PP, small village) after school clubs start at £55. Theres “afterschool club” which is the generic school one, which is £30 per child per day (regardless if you need 5 mins or 40 mins) then the actual clubs; multi sports is £55, dance is £62 and art club is £60 they run from 3:30-4:30. So if you cannot collect at 4:30, you pay extra for the generic club on top.
chess club, drama, tennis and crafts clubs are all £72 and last from 3:30-5.
and you have to pay for the clubs if your child goes 1 time and decides they don’t like it, you have to pay upfront.
There are obviously out of school clubs my children attend that are much different from the school ones and I prefer my kids to not be under the schools so called “supervision” anyway, but that’s the prices. I’ve just checked on our DoJo.

In my school, clubs run by school staff are free but there are charges at my DC’s school. Only a few pounds each week at the most though. The prices you have described are ridiculous. £11 a session for a 40 minute club run by school staff. I don’t think any parents at my DC’s school would be paying that!!

Thank you, good idea.

People are referring to it as childcare because that's what it is. Would you stay willingly for 45 minutes after your work day had ended, every week, to look after other people's children for free? If your answer is no then you can't really expect teachers to do this.

My daughter's after-school clubs are all around £10+ for 40-60 minutes and the majority necessitate either myself or dh picking her up and driving her there/back or negotiating an exchange with other parents to share the responsibility as we both work full time.

I honestly think £5 per session for an after-school club, that your child enjoys, on the school site (thereby allowing for later pick up,) is an absolute steal!

I'm baffled why people think other adults should look after their child, pay insurance for their child, pay for equipment for their child, and manage the admin for that great privilege. Pupil premium can sponsor payment for some clubs, but otherwise it obviously should be paid for.

People are referring to it as childcare because that's what it is

It's not childcare, it's an extracurricular activity provided by the school (or external provider) for the enrichment of the children. Not the same as childcare at all.

My kids do an after school group which is provided by an external art club. It's 1hr long and it costs £7.50 per child. They used to do a dance club which was between £80-90 per term for 1 hr. For a little while one did a maths club run by a franchise but it was nearly £10 an hour. I don't need childcare they just go because they like the activity.

The school do a morning athletics club once a week which is free but I'm pretty certain all other activities have a cost.

Oh right. So nobody needs to ensure the kids are safe, they can wander off whenever. No insurance is needed. Nobody needs to clean up. If the adult doesn't fancy it that day, they can just go home. How very relaxed. Super.

And obviously, like other extra-curricular activities that don't include childcare, the parent is attending and within sight of their child at all times.

I'm baffled why people think other adults should look after their child, pay insurance for their child, pay for equipment for their child, and manage the admin for that great privilege

Perhaps because that's what many schools do? As do many volunteer-led clubs such as scouts, brownies, football clubs etc. I'm not saying that I automatically expect all schools do to this, but, at least in my experience, it's quite a normal thing to do,

If you aren't present for the the extracurricular activity, and your child is under 18, it is still a form of childcare.

Bonus that it's an activity they enjoy on the school site.

Oh right. So nobody needs to ensure the kids are safe, they can wander off whenever. No insurance is needed. Nobody needs to clean up. If the adult doesn't fancy it that day, they can just go home. How very relaxed. Super

Well, of course they need to do all of the above, as they have a duty of care to the children that they have attending that day. . But if the teacher/provider is ill, or have something else on that day, they can absolutely cancel it. Because it's not childcare in the same sense that a childminder/nursery/school wrap around is. It's an extra-curricular activity.

If the teachers are getting paid overtime for it then great, if not then I'd question why the fee has suddenly been introduced.

I'm in the North and after school clubs have always had a charge (normally around £45-55) per term. They are a form of childcare as they are still watching your kids!

Also not every pupil get pupil premiums - it's designed to support disadvantaged pupils, including those who are eligible for free school meals, have been eligible within the past six years, are looked after by the local authority, or are children of service personnel (according to google)

I work in a school. Staff used to give up their own time to run clubs for free. Everyone is utterly broken, totally fed up and has run out of any goodwill that was left. They are exhausted by the system and vexatious complaints that seem to occur on a daily basis now- staff are simply unwilling to do this for free. However, one of the things that schools are judged on is their extra curricular offerings. Our head has decided to offer staff a say of in lieu if they run a club for a term. This will mean a supply teacher will need paying for- so we are starting to charge for clubs that were previously free. It’s the same in other schools within our MAT and seems to be commonplace now.

tldr- the goodwill of teachers has been sucked dry.

After school sports/activity club here are about £6-8 per session of 45-60 mins

After school childcare is £15 until 6pm.
So if you want to do the club and need the later finish it’ll cost you £21-23 total depending on the club. My kids don’t do anything other than the childcare club. It’s too expensive

tldr- the goodwill of teachers has been sucked dry

Yes, I'm sure this is the case in many schools. It's such a shame, but I totally understand why teachers don't want to run clubs in the way they have done previously.

That does sound really expensive actually. Our equivalent is 1hour and something like £3 a class. It shouldn't cost as much as private classes.

Most clubs at our primary school were not free but lots are subsidised as they are run by a charitable foundation. So only £3 a session or something. They've typically ranged from £1-£7 a session outside of that.

Some of ours were paid, usually when they brought in outside companies or staff, and others were free.

I'd be surprised if the teachers were paid. They should be but I bet they aren't.

It seems quite steep for an in-house after school activity. But we live in a relatively deprived area in the midlands and our primary school only charges for external providers (gymnastics) and electronics club (as they take things home).

Separately we have wraparound care which is paid for.

However, I would like to give a huge thank you to all the school staff that give so much of their time, energy (and sometimes own money) for the benefit of our children. It's so greatly appreciated. Not just teachers but the admin and support staff too. Thank you for all you do.

Edited to add that I'd be happy to pay for after school activities, I don't expect them to come out of the school budget. But I know that many children wouldn't be able to attend if they weren't free.