After-school Art Club

[DrawwithD]

PARENTS of ARTY KIDS

I am a professional artist and currently working as a primary school Art and DT teacher.

I am looking to start up my own independent (from my work place) After-school art club in North/North East London.

I intend the club to be aimed at children who have a strong interest in art and to be fairly high-end - children would have in depth lessons specialising in different areas - eg printing, painting, clay etc.. and get to use materials and some equipment that is often not available in primary school art lessons.
This would be much more that an 'after-school club'

I was wondering if any parents of arty kids could help me gauge pricing and expectations?

What is the maximum you would pay?
For your answer to the above question, to what time would you expect the club to run until?
Would you have any other specific expectations for a club like this?

Any opinions you can give would help me massively with my planning. : )
Thanks.

Hmm our primary school does a good art after school club with an external artist, but she comes into school and runs it from 3.30-4.30 for about £8 per child and 12 children per class. They do similar to what you mention, printing, clay, learning techniques with something different each half term. I assume she doesn't pay for the space. She goes to a different school each day and spaces are heavily sought after.

My eldest would be your perfect audience (11), and I'd be prepared to pay probably £12 (outside London here) for a class but I'm sure those with more disposable income would pay more.

Timings, assuming parents would have to get the child there would be probably 6pm to allow for pick up, early dinner, or you could see the interest in a 4.30 one too for younger children being picked up at the end of school.

I'd also love these run longer during the holidays and on weekends as workshops and would pay £35-40 depending on the topic and length.

My daughter is 10, and she goes to a similar class here in Yorkshire, held at a village hall. The class covers several different techniques and they usually spend a few weeks on each one. The teacher provides all materials, paints etc.It’s very much billed as a professional art class, not just fun crafts. My daughter really enjoys it.

Classes are run for different age groups - Years 1-3, Years 4-6, and seniors (secondary school but I don’t know if there’s an upper limit). It costs £11 per class, with a discount for siblings, and there’s about 15 children in the class. I’d pay up to £14-15 as it’s more professional than an after school craft club.

Class times are 4pm for the youngest, then 5pm for the next group, then 6pm for the seniors (as far as I know she only does the classes on one evening per week). It’s term time only, though I wish she would run some workshops during the holidays!

One thing to think about is facilities for parents and distance they might be travelling. The class is on the outskirts of the city so most parents stay rather than go home and come back, especially with rush hour traffic, and we usually go to the nice pub down the road from the hall. Will parents be local or coming from further away?

DD went to an art club a few years back, probably around 2022. It was 4.15-6.15 and was £32 a month so approx £8 a lesson. This was up north.

Thanks all for your input.

I'm looking to find a school that will host the club, so that the club can become part of 'wrap around care' for working parents.
Wow, childcare is much cheaper outside of London, basic After-school club at my place of work is £16 per session.

Would still love to hear from London based parents, particularly around pricing

I think that, if it’s based in a school and will be part of their after school provision, then you’re going to be challenging to refuse those you don’t consider to be serious enough.
What will your timings be? At the DC’s primary, someone external came in and did an after school cookery course but that only lasted a couple of terms as the cleaner came in whilst the class was still going on and the teacher whose class it was had enough of coming in and having to start the day by cleaning her classroom. The cookery lady wanted to invite external children as well as the school’s own pupils but the school didn’t let her do that as the school was running its own clubs on site still at that time of day and decided it was too complicated to have unrelated kids on site too.

I currently pay £15 for a 90 minute session, outside London.

@WanderingWisteria has made some good points about the potential issues of basing it at a school. If the art class starts after school and is treated as part of their after school provision, I assume that means only children from that school can attend , meaning there’s a smaller pool of children for potential students.

My daughters school does hire out the hall to external providers for evening clubs (dance class, Brownies etc) but these are after 5 so any after school clubs run by the school (choir, football) have finished by then and these clubs are open to all.

Also, as a working parent I would be wary of using that type of after school club as wraparound care, simply because of the risk of cancellation at the last minute due to illness etc. I know the afterschool clubs run by DD’s school have been cancelled if the teacher is ill, or if it’s parents evening or another school event. Fine if it’s just for an activity and you can collect them after school as usual; not fine when you need the wraparound care because you’ve got a meeting until 4 that you need to attend. The after school club I use has several staff, so one person being ill wouldn’t close the setting, which is vital if you need reliable childcare.

My daughters girls school within London charges £10 for one hr for the art scholarships for 11 plus (year 5 and yr 6) obviously they do the classes every week. I supposed the cost is deduced rate as it’s a good little promotion for the school if the girls receive an art scholarship.

My other daughter went to an art class which charged £20 per hour but did 1.5 hr slots. The lady who runs it doesn’t teach art just hands out a small picture for them to copy (does it all ages and for the elderly too) she has a lot of customers (max 8 in a class) but you realise she is just giving a picture and providing the paint. So I wouldn’t go back to her after a year you realise she has no skills / not changing it up with new materials etc.

@DrawwithD I cannot help with pricing, but what you might consider is you piggy backing onto after school care. In my area, quite a lot of these are run by external providers, not school staff. You would then offer it as an extra for dc staying on the day you can be there and you won’t be letting anyone down if you are ill, because you are extra.

You are also going to make a big of a mess and do you intend to fire clay items? Price in cleaning up.

Another idea is look at private schools. What art facilities do they have and maybe they could employ you to offer the club? Many dc do love art and at prep, my DD had wonderful art. You might find linking up with preps works and some dc will be looking for art scholarships from senior schools so keen to progress. Hope that helps.