How much do you pay for each pre-school/play group session?

[SkyBluePearl]

My 2 year old is due to start play group/pre-school at Easter. The sessions will cost 7.50 each uptill the term after his third birthday when they will be 'free' except for a 1 pound 'donation' each session. Is this normal?

At ours it is 3 pounds an hour so a three hour session would be nine pounds. To pay all costs the preschool would not be viable otherwise, we only just cover costs as it is.

The pre-school at DD's future school is £10.50 for an afternoon session, which is about 12.20 - 15.05 I think, so less than 3 hours. No one has mentioned free bits even though DD will start on her third birthday.

it is fairly normal, if you don't have a state funded nursery for preschoolers in your catchment area. There is £6.50 given by the government each day towards the fee to all three year olds.

Our preschool is run as a charity and the prices are exactly the same as yours. We are going to have to pay more soon as it is not financially viable at that price.

It seems unfair when you see your friends paying nothing for their three year olds if they have a place in a school nursery.

At our pre-school non-funded children pay £11 per session and funded children pay nothing. Our sessions are 3 hours long.

I don't know if the 'donation' is normal, certainly not that i've heard of near me. Normally a 'top up' would be charged for something like a lunch club or if the sessions are 3.5 hours long or something.

Rockbird, in my area the rule are that a child is free the term after their 3rd birthday, subject to certain cut offs;

if a child is born 1st Sept to 31st Dec they will be free from 1st Jan, 1st jan to 31st March bdays are free from after Easter and 1st April to 31st August aren't free til 1st Sept.

Much to my annoyance as ds is 13th April so I had to pay til Sept

Ah ok, DD is a Jan birthday so we should get some sort of funding after Easter. Thanks, no one mentioned that.

Thanks girls. Some of our local pre schools fund raise to avoid parents paying the 1 pound donation. I'm wondering if I should try and fund raise for my pre school to cover the donations as there are alot of us that stuggle to find the extra money.

ds has his free sessions but we are asked for a £2 contribution each week to cover snacks which I dont have a problem with. £1 per session seems a bit much to me

we ask for 20p voluntary donation to cover the snack costs.

3 hr session is £10 for two yr olds