how much do after school clubs cost?

sarahs999

Yes, we already use vouchers for nursery, so I'm hoping that the club will accept them. I can't really ring the school yet as we don't know which he's going to, won't find out til April. BUT to be honest, I can't believe it's going to be anywhere near as expensive as nursery has been. We currently pay £150 a week, and that's only for three days (grandad looks after him the other two days). We pay grandad £20 a day, plus £25 petrol money (well, he does get free meals and board and lots of red wine in the evening!) and so our childcare costs are roughly £860 a month!!!! God, when I look at it like that it's shocking. So quite frankly, £8.50 lunch money will seem like a walk in the park! LOL. I'm probably going to give him a packed lunch though, depnending on what the school meals are like. I'd like to try and have a bit more control over what he's eating for a little while longer.... actually, the school we want to send him to doesn't allow chocolate, sweets or fizzy drinks to be brought in, which I think is amazing and a really good policy. They also have a big organic fruit delivery every week which the parents can buy from, which is quite cool.

galvanizersbaby

sarahs999 wrote: »

Yes, we already use vouchers for nursery, so I'm hoping that the club will accept them. I can't really ring the school yet as we don't know which he's going to, won't find out til April. BUT to be honest, I can't believe it's going to be anywhere near as expensive as nursery has been. We currently pay £150 a week, and that's only for three days (grandad looks after him the other two days). We pay grandad £20 a day, plus £25 petrol money (well, he does get free meals and board and lots of red wine in the evening!) and so our childcare costs are roughly £860 a month!!!! God, when I look at it like that it's shocking. So quite frankly, £8.50 lunch money will seem like a walk in the park! LOL. I'm probably going to give him a packed lunch though, depnending on what the school meals are like. I'd like to try and have a bit more control over what he's eating for a little while longer.... actually, the school we want to send him to doesn't allow chocolate, sweets or fizzy drinks to be brought in, which I think is amazing and a really good policy. They also have a big organic fruit delivery every week which the parents can buy from, which is quite cool.

My nursery costs for the two of them were $1360 a month at one point but that was for 2 :eek:
I think as you say whichever school he goes to you will notice the difference in costs.
I think you will find that most if not all schools will not allow fizzy drinks, chocolate or sweets in lunchboxes (think this may be an LEA rule across the board)

Good luck with it all!

sarahs999

Thanks - I didn';t know that was a blanket rule. Impressive. So do they not have tuck shops any more?

Millie's_Mum

Ours has a tuck shop but they can only buy apples, raisins, fruit/cereal bars

galvanizersbaby

sarahs999 wrote: »

Thanks - I didn';t know that was a blanket rule. Impressive. So do they not have tuck shops any more?

NOOOO! not allowed tuck shops!:D well certainly never heard of one in a primary school round here.
I'm not positive it's a blanket rule but I haven't heard of a primary school that does allow sweeties, fizzy etc... in lunchboxes.

Our after school club also disallows sweeties, fizzy and chocolate bars

galvanizersbaby

Millie's_Mum wrote: »

Ours has a tuck shop but they can only buy apples, raisins, fruit/cereal bars

That's a good idea... a healthy eating shop - not sure I'll consider those items tuck though!
At our school they are not allowed to bring money in to school so even if they did have a shop they couldn't buy anything (mind you my kids are reception class and year 1 so we're talking little-uns here)

I remember when I was at high school we had a tuck shop but I'm not sure about secondary schools nowdays?!

sarahs999

This is all really fascinating to someone who hasn't had contact with the schools system for years. EWhen you read the media you get the impression that our schools are full of coke-guzzling lardy kids, but clearly there are quite a few initiatives out there to battle this. When tehy're older though, do they not all just go out at lunchtime and buy sweets from the corner shop? Or do they have to hide it - is it like smoking behind the bike sheds?

Becles

They get a free carton of milk a day. I'm not sure if it's the same in other areas, but in our area it stops on their 5th birthday, but you can pay to continue the milk if you wish. From memory it was about 15p a carton. They keep it in the fridge too, so it's not all warm and creamy like we used to have it!

Key stage 1 children (infant school years) also get a free piece of fruit or veg a day under the 5 a day thingy. My gannets often got extra as they would eat up the unwanted fruit and veg

The primary school encourage all children to have a sports bottle on their desks so they can drink fresh water all day.

My eldest has just gone to secondary school and they are not allowed off the premises at lunchtime. He prefers to take a packed lunch (so he can wolf it down quick and play football :rolleyes: ) but the prepared dinners did look nice. The meals are healthy looking in the main canteen, and they have a pasta bar and a salad bar that sells sandwiches too. There are no coke and crisp type vending machines in that school but they are less strict on what goes in lunchboxes.

galvanizersbaby

sarahs999 wrote: »

This is all really fascinating to someone who hasn't had contact with the schools system for years. EWhen you read the media you get the impression that our schools are full of coke-guzzling lardy kids, but clearly there are quite a few initiatives out there to battle this. When tehy're older though, do they not all just go out at lunchtime and buy sweets from the corner shop? Or do they have to hide it - is it like smoking behind the bike sheds?

Unfortunately Sarah I think a lot of parent's nowdays have to be told how to feed their children where as when I was at school (a long time ago ) most parents had the commonsense to provide a balanced healthy diet.
I think this approach is to combat those numpty parents who would send their kids to school with only chocolate bars and cans of coke!
This is my theory on it anyway?!

KellyWelly

There are a new set of regulations in place now that govern what primary school children can and cannot eat in school and in breakfast/after school clubs so it is pretty much across the board now, no processed food of any kind other than cereals I think. No processed meats, no baked goods other than brown bread...no crackers, croissants...no salty foods, fried foods very occasionally (once a week?) You'll find the full regulations if you google Healthy Schools Status, I am sure.

All infants school children can get a free piece of fruit or veg every day for their break time snack. YR children can get free milk and older children get it subsidised so pay less than 15p-ish for it. Your school has to apply for these schemes but I wouldn't think many (if any) heads would not bother. I think milk is given out through a European Union initiative and the fruit and veg is a UK government thing (I think).