What’s the “norm” for whole class parties in your area?

[Namechanger67]

London suburb here. DD is in reception and we have attended 2 parties so far. Both for the whole class and both in a village hall with entertainer. I looked into prices and overall cost (venue plus entertainer plus food and drinks) would be close to £700 and this is without adding the party bags. Seems quite a lot to me but now DD is really keen on having a party similar to the ones we have been to.
I don’t have much experience with bday parties so far, what is the “norm” (provided there isn’t such thing) at reception age normally? Is this a reasonable price to spend at this age or am I right to be a bit shocked?

Surely if you can afford to live in such an affluent area, then £700 on a party is a drop in ocean.

I'm with everyone else in the village hall with its own bouncy castle for 2 hours is £75 where we live.

I can see how it adds up to that OP. Surrey area here and it all depends on the hall hire cost - some are much cheaper than others but I would guess that the London suburbs aren’t going to be underestimating what they can get for hall hire.

It’s particularly hard this year because you don’t know the others well yet. Absolutely people would have joint parties for two classmates - saves on costs for hall hire / entertainment etc and also cuts down on hundreds of matching parties on every weekend!

Also in future years they may be able to just pick eg 7 of them to have a party at home. We alternated “smaller home party” with “expensive hall / entertainment party”. Then by age 8 the smaller home party was pretty hellish with noisy kids, so we went back to sharing nerf gun / activity parties with friends for a while till they got older and wanted to go and do an escape room with mates and get pizza!

Keep the food simple and cheap. Buy decorations you can reuse in future years. Don’t spend a lot of money on a cake - make one or get a supermarket one.

Hiring a bouncy castle is a lot cheaper than an entertainer. That age pretty much all the parties were whole class, village hall, bouncy castle and a sprwd of the usual chicken nuggets, cake, carrot and cucumber etc.

Used to spend maybe £300 all in.

This is a copy paste of what I wrote on another thread. I find the concept of whole class parties a bit crazy because it's not really the inclusive and "be kind" gesture that many people think. Kids will still play with the same friends and ones who left out at school also tend to be ignored at class parties. Parties should be a chance for children to enjoy something special with their closest friends outside of school. A whole class party defeats that purpose and usually ends up being chaotic and forgettable. The presents are also wasteful and generic because most people don't even know the birthday child well enough.

A party is supposed to be a unique experience and hopefully remembered for a long time down the road. I still have fond memories of a few specific birthday parties in childhood where the parents really made an effort to make it special (nothing lavish but just a lot of attention to detail and unusual activities). It's usually much easier with fewer kids so you can spend more money on decor, entertainment, food whatnot. 6-12 kids is a reasonable number where it feels like a party but you have enough resources to plan the goodie bags, games, prizes etc.

Unpopular opinion but whole class parties always tend to be a bit shit unless the family is extremely wealthy and don't care about the budget at all. A typical class party is just a grubby hall with UPF laden food, a bouncy castle and too many kids running feral. Cheap drinks out of paper cups and a few pieces of generic plastic tat in party bags that get binned very quickly. They also feel a bit impersonal because instead of the birthday child inviting a few friends they genuinely enjoy spending time with, it's just a glorified version of the school gates. It can even be more awkward because inviting everyone means you get snubbed by those who can't even be arsed to RSVP or attend.

Cutting down the budget means each child gets a more personalised experience, you can put a bit more thought into the party bags and maybe even carry a theme through. Or afford a themed birthday at a museum, bakery, zoo etc. Those tend to be amazing and kids have a better bonding experience.

Sounds crazy to me. We do softplay for 8 friends max. Costs 200 with cake and sweets and they can stay as long as they like.

A typical class party is just a grubby hall with UPF laden food, a bouncy castle and too many kids running feral.
It is indeed. And they seem to love it so I have no regrets over the few all class parties I threw that were just like that and didn't cost even half of what OP is expecting to pay.

There is no way I’d be leaving some children out age four and five, no chance.

It’s not what I want to model to my children, apart from anything else.

Well just because the area is affluent it doesn't mean every single person is ultra rich

Find out who else has a birthday in the same month and team up with them.

or hire a village hall and run the entertainment yourself.
food only needs to be sandwiches and crisps and
a piece of fruit

They’re 4 and 5

thwy dont want a unique and memorable event. They want wotsits, squash and a bouncy castle

But when and where was this? As you will have seen from other London/outer London posters here, the price I have mentioned is very much the norm sadly as this is how much stuff costs over here these days

during reception year, most kids do full class party

its a great way for the adults to get to know each other

Agree. DD is at an age where she now wants the experience of a "big" party with the whole class and a lot of mess/music/bouncing/fun.
The couple of whole class parties we went to were really nice tbh and all the kids seemed to have had a lot of fun

Yes I agree. I think parties will naturally shrink when they start going into year 2 or year 3 and become more selective

Last time was 3 years ago, SE Kent.

Your biggest expense is the entertainer. Bouncy castle much cheaper than an entertainer as a few people have said

Yes very normal. DS is in reception. All class parties. One soft play, one pizza express, one early September in the park but the rest all church halls. A third of them have been joint- if there’s a birthday list on the wall in the class that could help you identify who is around the same time as him then maybe ask the other mum(s) if you know. Sadly DS is the only one in his month so not an option for us.

Yes, in reception, whole class parties are the norm, but never spent anywhere close to £700.

Village hall hire £30
Bouncy castle £100
Party food, drinks, cake (from Tesco or packet) £60
Party bags £30

We piped in music over hall sound system from one of our phones. Never hired an entertainer.

Or soft play parties are £15 a head here including 1.5 hours play with hot meal or cold buffet plus ice cream. We just provided the cake (£16 from the shop or packet mix) plus party bags. Never had more than about 15-20 attend.

Ours is v similar area, below for comparison.

£60 for local village hall for AM or PM.
£160 for entertainer, some are £200 - put out on local FB page for recommendations. Just watch for ones who charge per child or a surcharge after x amount of kids.

£70 ish for food (make our own sandwiches / ready made cocktail sausages / crisps / chocolate fingers / biscuits / fruit platters). Don’t go to town, at this age rhey squidge most of it between their fingers and only eat the sausages and cucumber.

Look on line for party bag bits, buy a big bag of bouncy balls etc or Tesco have a good selection.

We never bother with entertainers, children are almost never interested in them and all run off for the bouncy castle instead. We did a bouncy castle and a big obstacle course one last year. Using a relatives garden, food and cake from Costco plus party bags was around £700.

There isnt a norm. Just do your own thing. Whatever you are comfortable with both personally and financially. Don't let it cause stress, enjoy it instead.

Yeah unfortunately the venue and entertainer can be close to £5-600 before you even start on food. Thankfully it calms down in year 1 or 2!

Leisure centre in London, £250 for two hours in the (big, adult-sized) soft play/ninja warrior thing. Plus a couple of bottles of squash, a couple of margarita pizzas and packets of popcorn, chop up some carrots and cucumber, plus an M&S cake. Party bags = cheap stuff from Amazon plus Celebrations/Haribo.

Probably does come to about £300-350, but definitely not £700. Not everyone does them, we do because DS absolutely loves them, but we cut back on gifts as a result (spend <£100)

Class parties are the norm here in reception, hall hire is about £80-£100, bouncy castle £130-£150 slide dependent. Then catering we did Costco as it was easy maybe £150 (including bits for the adults) supermarket cake Waitrose £30. We also did a quiet corner with colouring in and drawing etc and lots of children did this it was well received between the tearing around. We also had sun catchers in the party theme (hobby craft) and a pack of paint pens do they could take them home. Wet did pass the parcel, musical statues and musical bumps which the children loved. No entertainer. Plus party bags. Probably £450-500 all in it's not a cheap option but for 30 DC and as many parents not too bad per head. Not everyone caters for the parents but it went down well that w had wet just did a few tests of sandwiches/wraps a big platter of mini pastries and tea and coffee for the adults. We had 12 for bowling in Y1 and 14 for a spy mission this year. So they get smaller.

I live up north in York, but one upon a time I did love Surrey area and cost of living is on a whole other level so can imagine it costing around the mark you’ve said. However, I defo wouldn’t be providing nibbles for the parents, and for the kids as cheap as possible, big pizzas cut up into smaller slices, sandwich’s cut small, grapes/fruit/cheese on sticks. Cheap crisps in grab and share bowls. Cheaper version of angel cakes and chocolate slices but I often cut in half on a grab and share platter. Cordial and water in jugs. Things like that. Nothing fancy. Or look at play areas/soft play often it ca work out about the same price as hiring a hall and getting own entertainment and food but without all the hassle. Also party bags just do your own sweetie comes instead of the traditional party bags.

Good luck, I don’t is those days 🙈 xx

Village hall here - £60 for 2 hours
entertainer -£200-250

food - sandwich platter from Morrisons is great and then sort the rest yourself. Buy tin foil trays - fruit veg and crisps - done. Squash/water.

party bag tat - Temu.