Breakfast Club Prices

[joserj]

Our school Breakfast Club is £2 per child for 25 minutes without breakfast, £4 for 45 minutes with breakfast. I reckon that's a bit steep - it restricts prospective working times and currently have to use sparingly - so I'm thinking about having a word. If you have a mo, please could you let me know what your school charges, the duration and whether you get breakfast included. Thanks

[BeeInYourBonnet]

Opens at 8 (1 hr), included breakfast, and its free (Wales).
However, it is crucial for my job that they go, so I would pay whatever it cost ( within reason).

[meditrina]

I cannot see any "aggressive" messages here.

[CMP69]

Ours is £5.50 open 7:30 - 8:50 and provides breakfast. Ds goes from 8 ish and rarely has breakfast as he has it at home with us. It's still 5.50
We are in the NE

[MaryPoppinsBag]

I'm a Childminder and charge £5 no breakfast from 7.30am until school at 8.30-45.

I think your schools breakfast club sounds reasonable. And would love the opportunity to send mine to Breakfast club, so I could go and get a different job.

What do you want to pay for it? People do make profit from childcare or why would they put themselves out to do it?

[ItsAllAboutSheldon]

£1 for 45 mins including breakfast.

[FreakoidOrganisoid]

Wow ours seems really cheap now. £2.50 per child per day. From 7.30 to 8.45. Includes breakfast of either cereal or toast and fruit or yoghurt.

[PatsysPyjamas]

Ours is £2 per child, which includes breakfast. Opens at 8am and school starts at 8.55. They go outside at 8.40 and the playground is supervised for all children from then, so I guess you are just paying for 40 minutes.

Ours is run by paid staff, not volunteers.

For those paying more, I agree it doesn't seem right for the school to be making a profit. Our school never looks to make any money out of parents.

[Goldendandelion]

Ours is £2 per child for 45mins including breakfast of cereal, toast or bacon sandwiches.

[ChocolateWombat]

Not sure why this thread is running twice. Hard to follow all the replies.
Clubs have to staff with 1 adult per 8 children and probably always have 2 staff present regardless of numbers. So the chances it is making a profit are pretty small. Don't forget the school has to pay for things like insurance too.
I have heard of clubs closing down because numbers were not high enough to make it viable.
The way I see it, is the 50p clubs are in no way covering their costs. They are being effectively offered as a social service. I really cannot see that £3 or £4 is unreasonable. Working does involve costs. The fact that the day at school is then free, makes me think the total childcare bill is still pretty low.

I pay £3.30 for a half hour service, with no food. It makes the difference between me arriving at work in reasonable time and not feeling panicked and stressed for the rest of the day, so worth it. For me, the fact it starts at 7.45 makes the big difference. Previous school one started at 8 and that was just too late for me.

[bamboostalks]

From 8 £3.50 including brekkie.

Other school from7.45 £2 no brekkie.

[Me23]

Ours is £2.50 for the week! Includes breakfast from 8-8:45, so very reasonably priced. Wish it started a bit earlier though 7:45 would be great.

[VeniceQueen]

Ours opens at 7.30 until school start time and charges either £4 or £4.50 (can't quite remember!) which includes breakfast of cereals, toast, waffles and pancakes with a drink.

[NotCitrus]

2 from 8.30, so only 20 minutes which is fairly useless as Id only be able to get to work 10 minutes earlier.

[ChocolateWombat]

The clubs which are free or 50p are also not particularly about aiding working parents. They are often in areas where lots of children come to school without any breakfast....so they are there to ensure children can have breakfast.....really is a social service. Where the school, not the LEA funds it, they have decided hungry children can't work well, so are willing to put the resources into the club and perhaps sacrifice other areas. Nor they may receive extra funding due to deprived area and use the money to make breakfast club free or very cheap. Many schools don't have this lack of breakfast issue and don't see providing even more heavily subsidised childcare as a bigger priority than books etc.

[FamiliesShareGerms]

£5 for an hour including breakfast; £3.50 for siblings.

I think it's too high but comparable to CM costs so no real alternative. I also think FSM pupils should have breakfast provided free, but our school lacks imagination in that regard...

[ChocolateWombat]

OP, bearing in mind the price of childminders, and the costs of staffing breakfast clubs, what do you think is a reasonable charge for say, one hour breakfast club?
Would you like the school to take resources from other areas of the school in order to subsidise the breakfast club more, at perhaps the expense of extra curricular activities or books or a visiting theatre company etc. Scarce resources =Choices have to be made.

Personally, I think it is right that schools have some flexibility to decide their priorities. Guess they just have prioritised something different to what you would.

[2cats2many]

£2.50 for 40mins including breakfast. The teachers run it.

[GarthsUncle]

CW, I don't think the 1;8 ratio applies for breakfast clubs because they are less than 2 hours long but I might be wrong.

[Newname14]

50p for an hour with breakfast

[tess73]

Ours is £8.50!!
7.30-8.50
Includes breakfast
But a flat rate even if you drop at 8am and they don't eat breakfast.

[ChocolateWombat]

Garth, at one point we were told our club could only have 16 children due to them only being able to afford to pay 2 staff. They now have 3 staff, but if you want a last minute place you have to ring and if they are already at 24 they can't take you.
Not sure if it applies everywhere. Might depend on if it is in a separate building or if there are other adults about in the close vicinity who can be counted as present adults. These ratios can add to costs though. And it is right that there should be a reasonable number of adults. If a child has an accident, there have to be enough adults to manage the accident and the rest of the children.

[Theonlyoneiknow]

£3.50 per hour incl breakfast . Holidays and in service days are £2.50 per hour

[GarthsUncle]

Yy I agree there should be enough adults for emergencies. Ours is in the hall so receptionists, teachers etc are very close by which may help.