After School Club - post redundancy idea

[bluekangeroo]

Hi - I'm thinking of setting up an after school craft club / holiday club / parties etc... following a recent redundancy. And just wondering if there is anyone out there who has done this and knows what is involved? CRB check, insurance etc.. do you need to set up your own company, do you need anything else?

Also an idea on prices people would be willing to pay?

I was thinking along the lines of:

After school club 3.15 - 5pm = £12
Holiday club 10am-1pm and 2pm-5pm = £30 per session with option of staying on all day and having lunch (to help out working mums!) Or just lunch and one session maybe? Extra £10 for lunch including food???

Parties (max 8) = £12.50 per child.

Depends where you are tbh and I'm not certain if by "after-school" you mean a club to go to every day or a specialist class once a week. Your figures are definitely too high for round here (Birmingham).

£70 a day for a holiday club would be a very high cost I think.

We pay approx £7-10 for after school club/childminder (3:15 - 5:30) and £55 per nursery day. I think holiday clubs are around £30-40 a day.

Your prices look about right for a party. Maybe a little high if food is extra.

Y local sports club does £25 a day 8:30-17:30 for a holiday club. But that includes swimming, netball, trampolining, craft activities etc

Firstly, is there a market in your area? In my area of west London you would do well. However, 5pm is too early here, 5.45 at the earliest, cost £9. Half days in holidays are neither use nor ornament. Our local play scheme is £16 a day. If your figures don't work out then don't go there. You would need premises too I assume. You could become a childminder, £6 an hour in London. You could also do it for 2 hours unregistered but would still need dbs, insurance and probably first aid.

Thanks for getting back to me, those prices were really just a finger in the air first stab so your feedback is really helpful.

I am just intending to do a specialist after school club not a childcare arrangement - we already have a specialist after school club in place for childcare. This is more for people whose children want to learn to sew, and have fun and spend more time with their friends, and to give mums and dads an extra hour or so before pick up time. And just to help out over the hols rather than being a proper holiday club.

We have a few around here that do activities over the holidays for half days - Little Gym for example do half day holiday clubs with option of staying on which I found really useful when I worked part-time from home just to give me some headspace time and give the children something fun to do. They do 3 hour camps for £30 for non-members and £25 for members. Which is where I was getting that figure from. But I could drop the price to £20 or £25 perhaps for a half day and maybe a discount for a full day?

Will you collect from school? I am guessing so based on what you said about using them. That would make it more attractive for me.

In London I pay £18 for 3.30 - 18.30 for After School Club and c£30 for 08:00 - 18.30 holiday club...so your prices seem a little steep but it completely depends on your audience. And if it is 'just' £12 a week for once class I guess people might pay it.

Your local 'Mum' facebook group would be a good place to test ideas and will give you an idea of what people are willing to pay locally.

We pay £3 per hour for after school club on school premises - East Midlands.

Most parents who work want to pick up between 5.30 and 6 though.

Ah yes but it is not a childcare provision, it is more like an after school gym class or football class - only sewing. :-) So I am not really running it until 5pm to provide wrap around care for parents who work, more just as an additional club. We have or have had plenty of these at our primary school at the moment, gym, computer club, spanish, Imagineering, Football, Netball, Film Club, Maths Club etc... I am just planning to add a new one.

And yes it would be based at the school that your child goes to, so no need to pick up and drop off elsewhere. Ideally anyway!

The only reason I suggested until 5pm rather than 4.15pm like most of these clubs is because time flies when you are sewing and I want to make sure we have time to get something constructive done in the time! And also because as a mum I find it a bit of a pain picking up one child at 3.15 and going back an hour later for child number 2 who is doing a club. But going back at 5 at least gives you more time, and if all your children go, or if you only have one child, you have a nice long day before school pick up!

I would only pay those prices if I needed childcare (in which I would need to pick up after five), not to just give me a bit more time on my own. I don't know the going rates for those.

Otherwise the after-school session price for my local childcare place (open til 6) is £13 odd. They charge £20 or £25 per whole day for holiday club days, which are competitively priced around here as there's a few holiday clubs.

Sorry have now read op properly. I think for an afternoon craft club it is about £40 for 9 sessions of an hour per child. Maybe £8 for a 2 hour holiday session, £5 for siblings. Reasonably affluent London borough. Anything over £6 an hour would be expensive to me and not sure in primary, classes longer than that would work. Have you looked at creation station franchise?

I run two after school clubs per week. I charge £4.50 per session and the children come to me from 3.15 - 4.30. The parents pay half termly, and the school charge me £10 per session to hire the hall.

Thanks for all your advice, had a look at creation station, they do a similar model for messy crafts called create club, prices seem to vary according to location:

Wimbledon and Ealing:

After school clubs cost £10 per weekly 1 hour club

Saturday Clubs £15 per session for a weekly or monthly 2 hour club

Holiday Clubs cost £15 for the half day and £35 for the full day (including lunch)

Which makes £12 for an hour and 45 mins seem reasonable although the holiday club price maybe a bit high.

But Stevenage for example is:

After school clubs cost £6.00 per one hour session

Saturday Clubs £7.50 per weekly 90 minute session

Holiday Clubs cost £16 for a half day session

Which is almost half but the holiday club is slightly more...

I guess you have to use a bit of trial and error. Depends how appealing the club is I suppose.

We had a great club at our school recently using the Imagineering franchise but it was only an hour and cost £3 per session and there were 30 sessions in total. So I guess £4.50 or maybe £6 at a push would be ok for 1hr 45 or 2 hours.

Trouble is, I need to factor in materials as well, hire of the hall if applicable, insurances, investing in more sewing machines - need to get my head around that and what we can make each week cheaply. I am putting together a class schedule now. Any ideas or any thoughts on other things to consider very much appreciated!