After School Clubs fees doubled

[the-e-dealer]

Following the wonderful news that some Primary School Children will get free school meals we are now hit by the bombshell

that Southwark will no longer subsidise Breakfast and After School Clubs. This means we have to find an extra ?200 a month. Has anyone found a cheaper alternative?

[EDmummy]

Ours is potentially going up 20% but I have done a bit of a survey and the price they are proposing to charge is higher than at other schools (who have already had Council provision removed or never had Council provision). Heber is proposing to buy in the Council service without the subsidy but if they are planning to charge more than other local provision then I think the school should shop around or negotiate the price.

[Coach Beth]

What happenend at Goose Green Primary School is that last year, the school decided to take over the service (which had been provided by Southwark on the school premises) and directly runs the after-school club (i.e. they directly employ the after-school staff and directly manage the club). The Head and the Governors decided to maintain the cost at the same price as before as they worked out that they could break even on the club if they ran it themselves with the same cost to the parents. It's working well - and it's great to have the same staff who ran the club before run it via the school. It's also great that the fees have stayed the same!! (a big sigh of relief from me!)