How much would you pay for a creative writing class?

[writinglady]

Hope this is a good place to put this. I was an English teacher but am also an author and am thinking of setting up some creative writing classes for children after school. I've tutored 1:1 for years and years. This would be for children aged 9,10 and 11 approximately (Year 5,6 and maybe 7.) I have a good idea of how much 1:1 tutoring is but not so sure about fees for group tuition. I was thinking of something like £20 each for a group of no more than 6. How does that sound?

I think if you wouldn't consider it at less than £15 per child per hour, we would never agree a price. My children can choose from a whole host of extra-curricular activities at less than £10 per hour. I wouldn't pay a premium for creative writing over, say, an instrument, or drama with the opportunity to be in big productions.

It's a completely different market to 11+ tutoring. I suggest you stick with your current lucrative work.

My dd is also in your target age group. She is a talented writer and does loads of creative writing in her free time, wants to be an author etc. I have actually thought previously that she would love a creative writing class if only I could find one.

£40 per hour for 1:1 tuition sounds rather steep for my area, but if you were a published author and qualified teacher, I'd probably consider a few sessions at that rate. However, I definitely wouldn't pay £20 per hour for a group session - unless you were a really big name children's author. For someone I'd never heard of, I probably wouldn't spend more than £5/6 on a group lesson. My reasoning is that it would be better to pay for fewer 1:1 sessions at £40 than for double the amount of group sessions at £20.

Sorry but £20 an hour for a group session doesn't remotely compare with what you'd pay for someone in any other field at that sort of level with similar overheads, so I wouldn't even consider it.

With creative writing being squeezed out of the curriculum it might not appeal to parents in the way that 11+ tutoring does.

There is no way on this earth that you'll get £20ph for a group lesson. £8 maybe.

I think there is a huge difference between teaching the creative writing element of the 11+ of common entrance (both of which are quite prescriptive) and the sort of creative writing that opens minds.

I would pay for creative writing for Ds because as a child with AS this is something he really struggles with.

I'd expect (for a qualified primary teacher with knowledge of SEN) to pay around £20-25 per hour for 1:1 & around £10 per hour for a small group class.

A popular tuition/education centre in South West London runs a 3 hour creative writing workshop for £60 aimed at this age group. One hour seems too short for teaching, writing and feedback on the previous week's work though - not as long as a timetabled 'double lesson' in my ds' schools.

20 quid an hour for a group lesson is too expensive unless you are a famous author.

My son in y5 struggles with writing so I'd love a writing tutor. I wouldn't limit it to creative writing though.

I too have considered starting a creative writing workshops / holiday school. However, I love tutoring on a 1:1 basis and feel strongly that although a group would help those who need the stimulation and motivation to write through exciting group-based and independent-then-shared writing activities, the very nature of teaching a group would mean that I'd be led by general group based objectives vs tailor my lessons to the individual, at the pitch and pace that they need. This is a less effective approach. I'm not going to bother.