Please Help...How much would you pay for our child to attend.......

[schneebly]

an after school drama club lasting for 1 hour and a half. A friend and I are in the process of setting one up. We are both well qualified with lots of experience working with children but are not sure what parents would pay for this. Dont want to ask too little or too much! Any ideas? (the area is not very affluent but not too deprived either) TIA.

your best bet is to ring round other groups in the area and price-check

I would've though £5 to £6.50 maybe, dependent on what is on offer

there are no other groups in the area - we are fairly rural. We were thinking of charging £2.50 per child but thought it might be too much! You have made me feel a bit better! Thanks for your help Twiglett.

£2.50 sounds like very good value for 90 minutes. Just thinking of other things my ds does - his swimming lesson is £5 for half an hour, his football coaching is £2.50 for an hour.

I think £2.50 is very reasonable and you could probably charge more and still get interest.

Our plan is to begin mostly with ice breakers and drama games to increase confidence and encourage teamwork and from there we will explore all aspects of theatre and go on to devise a show with the kids on a specific theme which will be perfored to friends/family. Also does anyone have anything specific you would want your child to do in this type of class?

thanks GDG - that is good to know!

All of that sounds fab to me. It's not something I'd particularly think about sending mine to tbh as they are active boys and tend to go for the more sporty/adrenaline charged activities. Of course I would if they showed an interest in it though (still small boys so hard to tell atm!).

However, I think people would choose drama because either their child is interested in it or because they want something to try and better social skills and boost confidence - your plans sound as though they would address both of those.

I belong to our local Little Theatre, and they have a youth group. They pay £6 a year membership, which allows them to use all of the Theatre's facilities, plus they then pay £1 subs every week for a two hour session run by a head teacher and a qualified youth worker. Because they don't have to hire the building though, they may not have as many overheads to cover as you might have.

How many children are you planning to have in the group?

This might depend on where in the country you are - a sort of cost of living type thing. For instance, I know that Twiglett is in London whereas GDG is in Manchester.

Personally I would have said about £3- £4 dependent on exactly what was on offer.

Just thought I'd let you know that my son does a drama club after school, for 50 minutes. It's lots of role-play, games etc (rather than rehearsing plays for performance etc). We pay £4 a session, which I'm happy with because my DS enjoys it so much!

Good luck with your ideas!!

Lots of children's activities insist you pay for a term in advance, or pay say half the term's fees as a 'membership' and then a weekly fee for the balance.

Although this sort of big fat sum can be offputting to some people, it does encourage commitment and reliability, and tends to result in more worthwhile use of time.