Usually there are people waiting their turn and they become disenchanted if they have to wait too long, letting my daughter know after she lands (she is 16 and an easy target).
A shame. Maybe time to find a new gliding club. I would have loved to start before 16, a few years perfecting soaring and speed flying and maybe she could look at flying in competitions and junior teams etc.
With landings it's true that you must always be flexible with your eventual touchdown point. Unexpected sink, wind gradient, another glider landing, inattentive persons at the launch point.. but it is taught from the very first circuits that you must always be willing to vary your circuit and touchdown point in response to the environment.
wrt costs- it took me about 60 flights to solo, but a 6 month gap didn't help - you could probably do it in half that if you have the right aptitude. Cost me about £1200 to get that far (all aerotow). Was then another 40 flights before my cross-country endorsement and being allowed to into 'the big world'. It is a bit of a pain to pay £40 for a 20 minute flight on a cold winters' day, but once you start soaring the cost per hour goes down a lot; it would cost me about £90 to take a club glider on a three hour flight; if my club did winch launches that would probably be closer to £60.