Page 2 | Independent schools: do they charge for clubs?

Marmaladegin · 2023-03-27T09:51:37+00:00

Budgeting for sending DD to local private for secondary. Do independent schools usually charge for after school extra curricular clubs? (Such as sport, music, craft etc. i appreciate there is likely to be an extra charge for horse riding or similar) If so, roughly how much? Thanks

Hoppinggreen · 27/03/2023 21:09

NellyBarney · 27/03/2023 20:59

@Hoppinggreen Are you sure? Trips and sports tours, as well as music lessons and music tours are pretty standard at independent schools. We are at no particularly fancy/big name school. No school prospectus/website ever mentions the cost of tours and trips, and I never really thought about it/was told about it, so was really shocked at the costs! Of course you can say no, but there is a lot of peer/school pressure to go, especially if your dc has a scholarship (if they are the head chorister, it's hard to say no to going on tour). While we are at a boarding school, friends of ours are at day schools like Magdalen Oxford, St Helens and St Katherine's, and their dc all went on sports/choir tours abroad. These schools also charge separately for lunch, so do check whether lunch is included, so many schools seem to have switched to charging separately.

It’s a day school which may explain some of the differences but there no choristers or music tours or similar. There was a football trip to Barcelona a few years ago and there is a EU ski trip each year. My Y9 son is going to Edinburgh for 2 days soon.
Sounds quite different but we are happy with it.

Hoppinggreen · 27/03/2023 21:12

Mafelicent · 27/03/2023 20:55

Have a look through the social media pages and see where the kids are off to over the easter break. No matter how "minor" the school, I bet there will be at least one Geography trip to Iceland, or a cricket tour to India, or a Classics trip to Athens.....

FWIW in my experience, most group clubs and teams are included (except DofE) but individual/private coaching is usually extra.

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Our Geography lot are going to The Lake District
No cricket trips or Classics trips (or Classics lessons in fact)
I guess it explains why people think ALL Private schools are so elitist

TheClash2023 · 27/03/2023 21:15

Ours did. Absolutely everything went on the bill

NellyBarney · 27/03/2023 21:27

What schools are you at? I'm genuinely intrigued. We live in the South West and the least 'posh' school here is probably Exeter School, a selective former grammar school with fees if about 4-5k/term. From their website:
'Alongside the language exchanges, major expeditions and sports tours, Exeter School runs a number of overseas trips to complement the academic curriculum throughout the year. In recent years visits have included:

Classics to Rome
Geography to Iceland, Switzerland and Sicily
History to Ireland
Politics and History to New York and Washington DC

LIZS · 27/03/2023 21:35

Some do , some don't and some may for some activities but not others.

Hoppinggreen · 27/03/2023 21:46

NellyBarney · 27/03/2023 21:27

What schools are you at? I'm genuinely intrigued. We live in the South West and the least 'posh' school here is probably Exeter School, a selective former grammar school with fees if about 4-5k/term. From their website:
'Alongside the language exchanges, major expeditions and sports tours, Exeter School runs a number of overseas trips to complement the academic curriculum throughout the year. In recent years visits have included:

Classics to Rome
Geography to Iceland, Switzerland and Sicily
History to Ireland
Politics and History to New York and Washington DC

We are in Yorkshire
We don’t do “Posh” here - apart from in Harrogate 😁

FinallyHere · 27/03/2023 21:49

If so, roughly how much?

This really is entirely dependent on the school. Can you ask them ?

NellyBarney · 27/03/2023 22:00

Time to move to Yorkshire!

MomFromSE · 28/03/2023 16:48

Comefromaway · 27/03/2023 10:58

Sometimes. At the school ds went to there was no charge for clubs run by school staff such as hockey, choir, debating club etc but there was a charge for anything provided by an external provider such as LAMDA, ballet etc

This is our experience. Most free unless run by an external provider which was only a small minority of the clubs. Clubs finish typically by 4:30pm so if you need more wrap around care then that would be extra

twistyizzy · 30/03/2023 16:13

At DS school they have mandatory activities 4-5pm in Yrs 7+8 which are free. From Yr8 onwards they choose which activities they do but they are all free. Clubs are free and you only pay for LAMDA/ 1-2-1 music lessons + trips/outings.