Reception year costs

[EdPops]

My DS starts reception in September and i'm trying to get a rough idea of what costs i might expect to pay throughout his first year so i can budget accordingly. Things like uniforms, school trips, school dinners (if not free), after school clubs (approx cost per day), obligatory though not at all cheap school photos etc. Plus any other surprises i've not thought about.

Anyone able to have a stab at what a year in reception might cost? We're in London and 2min walk from the school (so no additional transport costs needed).

Thanks.

It's completely dependent on your school. Some don't have after school clubs until the term after your child turns 5 due to insurance. Some have a blanket policy of no ASC for reception.
Your best bet is to email the school your child has been offered with those exact questions. When I worked in schools finance it was so different from even our neighbouring schools, much depends on the PTA and current staff.
Infants meals are free and uniform you should easily be able to find the costs for. In reception it'll get dirty so you'll need at least 2 of each. Utilise whatever you can get without a logo and buy that in Asda etc.

It’s true that all schools are different. School meals are free, trips are rare in this age group (you might get one in the summer term), photos once or twice a year… that’s about it. My child’s school doesn’t do after school clubs for Reception age but they are able to attend clubs from year 1.

I have a reception aged DD. It's been relatively cheap apart from the stuff we expected (wrap around care - £10 for after school, £3 for breakfast). Lunch is free, first school trip next week which will be £10. The odd little sale at school to raise money for something (optional), any little costs are max £3 really and not too regular, I'd say about once every month or two. After they turn 5 you have to pay for milk if they want it (free before 5) but it's pretty cheap, about £15 for the year or something!

As others have said though it will vary school to school. Our school have a free uniform swap so we have hardly bought any uniform except tights and a few t shirts

Uniform: we get 6 trousers, 6 shirts ( have mucky kids and no tumble drier) one branded jumper and 2 supermarket jumpers. One pair black shoes. One pair trainers, one pair shorts, one pe teeshirt. One pe bag. One school bag. One water bottle (feels like this is replaced weekly!).

Random requests for £1 for charity.
Free school lunches at that age.

I've never bought the school photos/tee towels etc. We do buy the Christmas gift tags which the kids have designed.
After-school - cost massively variable. Have I look round, but id guess somewhere between £5 and £15 a day. Breakfast ditto - tho cheaper. Anything from free upwards.
Wouldn't have thought there would be many school trips.

We bought a set of uniform for every day because I work full time and want the faff of washing. Mostly Sainsbury’s/M&S. Polos were about £5 for 3. Pinafores were £12 for 2. Cardigans were about £15 for the logo ones and about £5 for plain. PE kit was about £20 for hoody and leggings/shorts. Trainers we got for £10 and school shoes were about £40 but I’m sure you could get cheaper.

Lunches are free. Milk is free until 5.

All our trips so far have been free or a £2.50 ‘contribution’.

After school club is £6 to 4.30pm, and £12 to 6pm.

The biggest cost has been school holidays when I am working - holiday club is around £35 a day!

DS is in reception.

Costs so far -

• Breakfast club £2.50 per day
• After school club £11.50 per day
• Photos - they were optional, we paid £20
• School trip - £16

Uniform - can't remember the cost, but you should be able to check your local school shop and supermarkets

• from the supermarket we had 6 pairs trousers, 6 polo shirts, 2 pairs of joggers, 2 pairs of PE shorts (the joggers and PE shorts he will wear out of school though)
• from the school shop I got 2 branded jumpers (no non branded option available), one PE top and one PE jumper.
• shoes and trainers (and a second pair of each when he outgrew the first ones by christmas)
• a backpack, school book bag, and a good coat.
• Our school does forest school once a week so I got him some wellies as well.

Random charity things - at least once a term sometimes more,

• £1 for children in need,
• £2 for school disco,
• £1.50 for comic relief etc

Other school events

• Christmas play £2
• Christmas fair - a few pounds on cakes/tombola etc
• Book fair - DS spent his own birthday money there but about £15

Lunch is free for reception and KS1

The only thing I have to add, is whole class birthday parties, I remember both my dds got invited to at least 15 parties each in reception. So get to card factory for their 10 for £1 birthday cards, and try and get small gifts cheap for a present box. (I used to do 10 for £10 kids books from the works then get dd to choose their friends favourite sweets/chocolate to wrap up with it. Or colouring/sticker book and pencils) it was often late notice as dd would forget to give me the invite so a ready to go gift and card was so much easier!

We waited for the offers on uniform and had 5 sets. Only bought 1 logo cardigan for the photos, the others were plain from supermarkets. Despite naming everything, we lost many cardigans!! So budget for replacing uniform mid year!!

Save money for last minute dress up days (I used to keep aside a couple of plain white tshirts I could sharpie into whatever theme was needed!)

PTA events... raffle rickets, Christmas fair, Summer fair, bake sales, discos. All are spend as much or little as you want. But it can add up. I advise taking your budget in cash to the school fair and when its gone, its gone.

Contributions to raffles and tombolas as well.

Birthday parties and the inevitable presents.

Look on the school website to see if you can find the prices for before and after school club. Ours was astronomical, £10 for before school and £20 for after school.

Uniform - shoes, trousers, top, jumper x3, more if changing into PE kit at school.
Satchel
PE kit at our school worn all day twice a week.
Money to replace lost items if like at our school they are rubbish at returning! Overalls and wellies for forest school.
Water bottle - we now have a stainless steel one and getting through so many plastic ones as they smash when dropped.
The £1 here and there for endless charity/PTA collections/school disco
Presents for class parties
Costumes for charity days/nativity
Lunch is free in KS1
Ours sent a wishlist for book donations for world book day/donations for food bank at harvest festival.
After school clubs (£7) and breakfast club (£5)
Any after school sports if ran by an outside company, mine does football club at £5 per week.

Uniform - reception is one of the worst times for this as it's all new. After reception you can replace uniform as required rather than all in one go

Wrap around care - up to the school. Have a look on your choice's website to find out.

Lunch - free for all infants

School trips - depends on schools. Our school tries to keep costs very low and being in London this is easier. We've had 2 so far. One to a local museum, they went on the bus and the cost to us was £1.80 for museum entrance. Other was to the science museum and they went on the train / tube so it was totally free.

Others - various dress up days. I've had to buy tops in colours I don't usually buy to do a few of these.

Forgot to add school photos were around £25 then a picture DS drew at Christmas put onto a tea towel was around £8.

Do you mean after-school childcare, or specific clubs held at the school -art, drama etc?

My child is in reception and there has only been a couple of whole class parties so far prob due to cost of living but most parents tend to do party bags for all the kids instead (check with school of allowed to give out) so budget for that if you want to do it.

p.s. if you want a place on breakfast/after school club contact the school soon after you get your school confirmed in April to ask if you can sign up early, as they are often oversubscribed (fellow Londoner here).

All Reception and KS1 children get free school meals in England.

The cost of wraparound care varies from school to school - at my daughter’s school (Yorkshire) it’s £8 for breakfast club and £12 for ASC (3-6pm). Or are you asking about extracurricular clubs after school? If you need wraparound care, check whether the school does provide it - not every school does, and it can get booked up quickly.

I’d suggest getting a week's worth of uniform so you don’t need to be washing stuff halfway through the week. School shoes are likely to be around £40, but uniform is fairly cheap from supermarkets - have a look at prices online.

There are a few days during the year when you’re asked to make a donation, usually £1 or so - Comic Relief, Children in Need. School trips have been around £10 so far.

Do you need childcare in the holidays? That will be a significant cost - here it’s £35 per day (8-6), but I expect London costs would be higher.

It’s unexpected costs!

Like buying the PTA Xmas cards for £7 a pack.
£1 here or there for dressing up days.
Xmas and summer fair money.

Trips depend on the school. My friends child is going on a trip that costs £20!

You also have to factor in them losing things, growing out of things etc.

I keep my eye out for second hand uniform as spare if they lose their other cardigans (Facebook or PTA sell it). I look for deals for presents when it’s class parties. It tends to be gradual so not as bad as it sounds. My daughter is going into Year 3 in September and I’m dreading the extra cost of school dinners!

Please don't buy new uniform, so bad for the environment (and your wallet). Look on eBay/Facebook marketplace. Especially at Reception age masses of people are selling bundles of pinafores/trousers/polos/jumpers (assuming the tops don't have to be logoed, in which case pick them up from the second hand uniform sale).

Buy as much uniform as you can from supermarkets as it's cheap and decent enough (Sainsbury’s is my favourite) biggest cost is school shoes as kids grow!

school lunch is free

trips for us is mainly covering coach cost as we're far away from everything. £16 last time

if you have an active pta then there might be requests for things like money for Mother's Day presents, Xmas shop, cake stands, discos (all optional)

then it's £1 for children in need, comic relief, any other charity non uniform day (again optional)

wrap around cost are going to be different for each school on availability and cost so ask your school/looks at website

Sainsburys currently has 20% off uniform

Thanks everyone, this has been super helpful. Some great tips on uniforms too!

I don’t think anyone’s mentioned but presents for all the parties you get invited to. It’s been relentless during both my children’s reception years.

Uniform was a one-off but I didn’t bother with anything with a logo for reception so actually was relatively cheap. Our wraparound is £15 for 3 hours. Parties do add up but the number start to die down from year 2 where all class or larger groups seem to be less common.

The thing that I suspect adds up more is PTA stuff which seems to peak around Christmas. On a typical year, we have Christmas cards, tea towels/mugs the children have drawn, Christmas fair donations, Christmas fair entry, Christmas fair buying back the tat you’ve donated, christmas fair rides, grotto etc, Christmas gifts for teachers, some sort of charity collection at the nativity, Nativity costume etc, etc etc. Basically be prepared to be rinsed in December.

DD is in reception in the SW

Uniform
PE kit is worn to school twice a week - black joggers and white t-short from supermarket. School fleece £15. Trainers. Probably about £60.

The other 3 days are school inform. Cardigan x 2 -£15 each. Polo shirts/pinafores/socks from supermarket. Plus shoes. About £120.

Im lucky that school trips are mostly free apart from a trip to the zoo (£6) there are offer charity days with a £1 donation.

School dinners are free

afc is £9 and breakfast club is £3 per day.

DC grew over the summer so needed school shoes and new trainers at the same time! Y1 won’t be as expensive hopefully as I wasn’t need to buy everything from scratch!

Another tip on uniform: if you think 3 shirts will be enough, but are worried that very occasionally it might not be, buy a set of the next size up. You'll need them eventually, and it's not going to matter if it's a bit baggy for the odd day.

Don't feel obliged to get expensive school shoes (unless school insists), especially if you think they might be due a growth spurt. DD's first pair of school shoes were outgrown in half a term. The next year I sent her in Doodles until the weather got worse and she'd gone up another size.