After school clubs cost

[Muminthegarden]

Hello.

I am thinking of starting an after school club from
3.30-5.00pm, the child to adult numbers would be 10:1, the cost would be £15. They would be following a curriculum learning a skill- such as painting, drama, singing, gardening.

Does this price seem reasonable? Alternatively I was thinking £10 for 1hr, but thought the extra £5 for a 5pm pick up might be useful.

London based btw! Xx

I run a club similar to what you offer OP, I charge nearly £10 for an hour after school. I am fully booked term after term, but what I offer is quite unusual (no other local providers). I’m an hour outside London and based my pricing on other clubs the school was offering (Lego club £9, football £8 etc)

Children can either go to school run wrap around after (school offer reduced rate for 4.30-6) or get picked up when I finish (this is most of them).

Have you got a school in mind? Bear in mind you may have to pay the school to hire the room (one school charges me, one doesn’t). 10 x £10 isn’t actually a huge amount of money - yes £100 for an hourly rate is great but if it’s the only hour of the day you can work, £100 a day isn’t a vast amount.

Definitely not long enough hours you need to do at least until 6pm but preferably 6:30, most people work until 5 or 5:30 and then need to travel back.

For us, a 5pm finish would have been no use at all. I've never had a job that I could leave at 4.30.

I paid £12 per day for 3.30pm - 6pm in 2018. I'd expect to pay £20 a day for those hours now.

Yes don't forget the room hire, the fact that the floor area probably defines the number of children you can take and the child:staff ratio (ideally +1 extra staff to cover absences etc). And yes earlier than 5 isn't that useful for people who work office hours.

I’m not sure if you’re running an afterschool club or wrap around care? 90 mins is a long time for an afterschool club but too short for wrap around. £15 is cheap for wrap around but on the more expensive side for a club. How much people will be willing to pay for a club will depend on the club. I can’t imagine many people will be willing to pay £15 for a club and then another £15/20 for wrap around if the club is just choir but they may for cookery.

We pay £156 per term for after school activity clubs in London (very affluent area). I think it's 10 sessions per term and 45 mins. Most sessions are full and there's always demand for them, and they are viewed as enrichment not childcare (there is separate wraparound care where dcs can go after the club if needed). I collect straight after the club and I'd say only a few dcs go on to wraparound care.
The clubs are always run by a practitioner with a lot of experience, and they usually have other sessions running elsewhere, i.e. it's an established business, not just that one session run as a side business. For the art class, it's run by an artist with their own practice and uses high quality student grade materials, the drama sessions are run by actors who have been on the West End stage etc.

The activities are perfect for mums like me who don't need it for childcare and it's much more convenient than having to take my dcs to a club on a separate site. However I do take dcs to a few clubs off site because the quality/facilities are better than the ones in school, ie for me it's more important to have a high quality activity than just to do whatever is on site. But for working parents they often don't have the option to transport them to a club elsewhere, so they will just opt for the in-school activity out of convenience.

Thanks this is really helpful. Can I ask how may y kids are there in the art and / or drama sessions?

Also are these prices at a state or private school?

thanks 💐

Sorry I really didn’t make it clear in my post, it isn’t wrap around care, just an after school club. I think you’re right, 90 mins is too long for a club!

ah amazing thanks for your reply, £10 is what i am thinking for an hour. Do you do your club in just one school or across a few? And do you deliver the club yourself? Would love any other hints or tips you’re happy to share about setting up a club! Thanks 💐

How skilled is the person or people doing the teaching in the areas they are teaching? Are they formally trained? Is it aimed at children already gifted in those areas being taught to extend their skills or for anyone wanting to give them a go? We paid £5 a week for a 2 hour Karate club where the children would have 2 hours in little groups with a high level instructor.

£15 for an hour and a half or even £10 for 1 hour sounds very expensive unless they are being taught by high level artists. Even taking into account London prices, it sounds massively expensive. Maybe £10 for an hour and a half might be more reasonable.

I am currently in 2 schools and have had to turn down multiple others as I don’t have enough days of the week (I work part time).

My biggest tip would be consider how you will take bookings. One of the clubs my daughter attends at the school you have to email the club leader who then sends you her bank details and a sign up form. For some reason my emails didn’t go through so my daughter missed out on that club for a term which was annoying. But from the club leader point of view, she must be getting and sending 30+ emails one evening, checking people have paid, checking they’ve done their form, then confirming their place at the club.

I pay to use a booking platform which takes about 1.2%. The parents click on a link, it takes payment and they enter all details. I check back the next day and the club is full without me doing anything. Much easier for both me and parents!

£10 for tea is too much even cooked children’s menu in a restaurant is usually less than that!

Breakfast and ASC comes to £10 a day at the school and that includes snacks. 8am til school start and 3pm until 5pm. X

Not sure there would be much of a need for such a short time period. After school clubs usually run to 6pm. Rare for parents to be able to collect at 4.30pm.

Don’t over think it OP. My kids are super tired after a full day at school. I wouldn’t be bothered if they weren’t developing a skill. I need the wrap around because I work.

As long as they have fun and happy to attend that’s all that matters. Games, arts / crafts and some fresh air when the weathers nice is all mine need. No pressure after a full day at school.

Yes, mine do things for an hour and are either picked up after or go to the main after school club.

They're all £4-6 though, I wouldn't even consider paying £15 for something like this. Not London but SE.

There are various clubs like this at DS' school they run 3:15-4:15 on school premises but run by private providers, there are 3 sessions for standard after school club, 3:15-5:45 with food £11, 3:15-4:30 £5 no food or after school club late which is for after an activity on the premises 4:15-5:45 £7 with food.

The activity prices vary and are charged by half term not weekly ds does two sports at the moment athletics and dodgeball and it's £40.50 for the next half term 14th April to 19th May which works out £6.75 a session, football seems to be cheaper for some reason. Drama was £7.50 a session.

His school also does teacher led clubs which is almost like a lottery at they are popular and some are free eg well being club and maths games, cookery or textiles clubs attract a £15 per half term cost for materials. So be aware there will be a lot of competition. I'm in Essex so London will be a bit more expensive.

The restaurant don’t usually give you an hour of childcare with the meal though! The £10 covers and extra hour of childcare with some food, not just the food.

There’s a lot of people saying they wouldn’t pay that for an hours club after school - I can assure you that if you find the right school you will be fine in London. As I say I’m outside London and my clubs are full with waiting lists at that price, and there are multiple other clubs on offer which are similar.

It definitely depends on the school and area though. I picked schools where I knew parents would be willing and able to pay, and big schools so there are up to 240 kids being offered a spot at the club. There are definitely areas and schools where I wouldn’t get parents to pay that much, and if you pick a school which only has say 15 kids per year group, you need a bigger % to sign up to fill your spaces.

Also our school wrap around offers a 4.30 pick up for a cheaper price and there’s LOADS of parents who pick up then. It won’t work for every working parent but lots seem to make it work.

Also lots of people are happy to pay for music lessons in school…ours are £10 for
half an hour in a group and that offers no childcare at all as it’s in school time. That’s at the cheaper end, once you are using solo lessons its £20-30 per half hour. Some parents will happily pay for enrichment.

No as in charge £10 extra for 5-6pm so they get another hours childcare plus tea

so original charge was £15 3:30-5pm which equivalatwa to £5 for 30 mins so another £10 would be to cover that hour plus some tea so it would give the option if parents finish work a bit later

Including tea in the £10 for 5-6pm
id Pay that for an hours childcare plus tea

our childminder charges £5 for tea if the kids want it

So my sons school runs an afterschool club. Five days a week. 3:15 - 5pm. Different activity every day. Could be sport, trampolining, etc. Could be arts and crafts, gardening, cooking, lego, etc. It's £3 a day. So £15 sounds a lot to me!

Oh and they get a snack and a drink. We're in the SE.

Music lessons are a totally different proposition. They have a very different going rate from an after-school gardening club.

My kids are at a large school in a very affluent area and £15 is honestly totally bonkers pricing for this sort of thing.