expensive subs for ks2 choir!

[conistonoldwoman]

Do you think paying £20 per term a bit much to ask for what I think should be a free activity.
The letter says it's for admin costs. They employ someone from outside to help tutor them. i presume the session lasts 30 minutes of the lunch break.
there are 8 classes in ks2 so there must be a reasonable contingent in the choir. maybe 30 plus. Do the maths and that's quite a hefty amount.
I have queried the cost today and am awaiting a response.

If they are employing someone to tutor the choir I imagine they are out of pocket if there are 30 children that's £600 for 13 weeks equal to about £45 a week

We pay for clubs if they get an outside coach/tutor in. I thought it was normal to do so

It's broken down as £2 per session...DD thinks there are 40 members. He can't be asking to be paid £80 surely?

Private voice tuition is a snip compared to that!!

Are there materials like photocopied song sheets?

I don't think £2 a session is unreasonable to pay for my dc to be able to do an activity / learn a new skill.
She's (well, I have) being paying £2.20 a week for her chess club for the last 4 years - chap comes in specially to tutor them.
We pay £2 for a football coaching thing. All fairly normal I'd say.

A teacher at the school is responsible for the running of the choir and he provides some specialist input.
I am quite in favour of paying for extra curricular activities. what concerns me is whether we are overpaying.

It really depends on what the school has to pay the tutor.

My DD, aged 10, is in a 48 voice choir. The subs are £60 a term. We also pay £200 a term for private singing lessons.

You have to pay for quality.

Is that a ks2 choir knowabit about or an organised community choir?
I remember paying something like £40 a term for something similar for my other dd. But rehearsals were an hour long and employed 2 people, the choir leader plus a pianist. The membership was very modest so maybe they could have charged less if it had been more popular.

KS2 choir at DS's school is free and lasts for an hour after school.
I'd actually be happy to pay £2 for this, but think £2 for a lunchtime club (when it's limited time and your DC is likely to forget is a bit much).

There's no one willing to provide free activities these days, sadly. The big society is not free of charge or open to all. So I suppose it comes down to whether your daughter likes choir and you can afford it.

I have to say I am rather surprised that a Primary school brings in a specialist teacher. Whatever happened to normal school choir singing being taught by a teacher or in music lessons?

DS2 attends a choir in our local cathedral and we pay nothing although he has to sing in 1 service per week. His school is private school but the choir in the school is integrated into normall school life - not a separate club.

I am slightly suspicious that extra curricular clubs are becoming a bit of a money spinner.

We have loads of free activities at the school where I teach...just teaching staff providing extra curricular opportunities. The choir is free, even though a peripetetic teacher is employed to help.
Schools must be funded differently I suppose.