What after school and lunchtime clubs are offered at your DC's primary school? And to what year group?

[TodayToday]

I'm currently trawling lots of school websites at the moment. Several of them seem only to offer clubs to Years 5 and above. Mostly the clubs are for Year 6s only. Only one or two clubs appear to be offered to children from Year 3 onwards.

Is this the norm? Does it matter? Do parents arrange other things for their children to do after school?

I'd like DD to do one or two things in a few years time and not have to wait until she is nearly at senior school to be given the chance. It seems like it is easier to do these things directly after school than have to attend a club after dinner or around dinnertime in the evening.

I'm obviously talking about state primaries here.

[nimnom]

My ds1 is in year1 and does French club at lunchtimes but that's it at the moment. I think they can do Art club too in year 2 and then more once they get to year 3.

[tortoiseSHELL]

My eldest 2 are still in Key Stage 1, but they are both doing choir in lunchtimes (open to Reception-Year 2), there is also drama after school, tennis, football, rugby, science (I think!).

Further up the school there is senior choir, gymnastics, loads of other sports ones that I'm not clued into yet, orchestra, dance.

They all do swimming from Year 1 upwards, and they also have extra stuff every Wed pm when they all do enrichment (Year 1 upwards) - they have a rotation of 6 activities - ds1 last year had Spanish, Drama, Art, Gymnastics, Cookery, Sewing. This year I think they are not doing Art but are doing something else instead.

[dayofftomorrow]

Ours do practically no clubs, apart from the chosen few who do football or netball in year 6 (god knows how they were chosen they keep losing, play badly and spend most of the time rolling around pretending to be injured but if you read the school newsletter match reports you would think they were Arsenal) and one or two clubs run by outside organisations which you have to pay for.

We have no music, drama, art or anything else on offer as clubs.

At least the schools you are looking at have websites - ours doesn't (am considering moving DC's when they can get a place elsewhere)

[throckenholt]

we don't have regular clubs at ours. Periodically something like a sports course is run - age group varies - sometimes the older ones, sometimes the younger ones.

The only other thing is bell ringers club - run by one of the parents - not sure how regularly they meet.

At lunchtime they eat and then play outside in the playground.

To be honest mine are tired enough by school - we don't miss not having hundreds of clubs to go to. With a bit of visiting friends after school it seems fine for them at the moment (oldest is only 6 though).

[aintnomountainhighenough]

Ours is a small local state primary. They have football club, cookery club, karate and tennis available. The starting age seems to vary and isn't always adhered to. They can also learn a musical instrument but this is in school time.

We do extra stuff with our DD (age 5) out of school such as swimming and gymnastics. I think you do have to be careful how much they do though and monitor how they are coping. I like doing things away from school so that my DD is mixing making different friends. Sticking to things only run in the village or after school means she would be mixing with the same people all the time which I don't want.

That said I do think the school offering clubs etc is a good thing and I wouldn't be keen on a school that didn't offer extra activies.

[RosaLuxOnTheBrightSideOfLife]

Loads of clubs at ours. Reception can do choir, then there are quite a few KS1 clubs such as Art, Construction, Cookery, Travel and French. Loads more for KS2 and a few exclusively for Yr 5 and 6. But they all rely on the goodwill of teachers, TAs and the odd parent to run them. Nobody gets paid for it.

[Twiglett]

From reception
french
football
art (from nursery age)

free ones (run by grant accessed by PTA)
recorder (now over)
keep fit
dance

[Fimbo]

Year 3-6 Nature Club (names get picked out of hat once a term as so many want to do it).

All years - variety of musical instruments.

Year 3 & 4 - Tag rugby

Year 5 & 6 - football & netball

Year 3 - French club

There is also breakfast club and after school club, which costs £5 per day for each.

[florenceuk]

DS1 in year 1, does French at lunchtime, judo after school. Could also choose to do playball and tag rugby. Older years (not sure when) do netball and football.

[mummypig]

Ds1 goes to an infant school that is next to but run separately from a junior school. French and music from reception onwards, tennis from yr 1 onwards (I think), dance club and computer club are for yr 2 only. I'm planning to start a science club soon, I suspect the teachers want it to be just Yr 2 but I'd like to open it to Yr 1 as well. You have to pay for all of them, although the price varies depending on whether it's a commercial thing run by someone out of school, or just done by one of the staff/parents. There are also loads of out-of-school clubs running in our area and a few parents seem to be taking their children to a different thing every evening.

I have found the same as other parents in that the kids are actually quite tired after school. Last term ds1 had drama one afternoon and swimming another, and then what with having his friends round or swapping teatimes with our neighbour, there wasn't much time for just lazing around and relaxing at home, or playing with his little brother. This term he's doing swimming at the weekends and I'm not sending him to any other timetabled activities unless he specifically asks for them.

[dayofftomorrow]

I would be happier with our school if there were clubs for all to try for especially from year 3 upwards when the workload within school (IMHO)goes down rapidly after SATs are over.

The lack of instrument and music is my major problem as when they get to the secondary school the kids from all the other feeder primaries have had decent music tuition via clubs.

[pooka]

DD (reception) can do tennis after school on a monday and french after school on a wednesday. I think she can also do mandarin chinese at lunchtime, and there's also a computer club that is for all years. Is a pretty average (not brill in terms of league tables/ofsted) state primary school.
But since she's only starting reception on Thursday, I think I'll be holding well back on the school clubs until she's settled in and not knackered in the afternoons, whenever that may be!

[Blu]

Reception and Yr 1
Arts and crafts
Football
Gym
(but only half a term each, due to clamour)

Yr2
Drama
music /choir
arts and crafts
gym
football

From yr3 onwards - lots more, but I'm not sure what - those above plus guitar, French and chess anyway.

[TheDuchessOfNorksBride]

Reception & Yr 1 have music & football LUNCH CLUBS run by Yr 5 & 6 pupils.

From Yr 2 the following AFTER-SCH are available to all & are free;
Needlework
Gardening
Chess
IT
Tag Rugby
Football
Kwik Cricket (summer only I think)
Gymnastics
Netball

Swimming is during school hours every week from Yr 2 to Yr 6. Contribute costs.

Music, choir, drama & French are during school hours. Specialist teaching of a musical instrument are by arrangement and costs £70-£100 per term. If your child hasn't learned an instrument by Year 5 then recorder is compulsory but free & during school hours.

[nooonit]

Thank you Rosa for remembering that lunch time and after school clubs do rely on the good will of teachers! As a teacher who has run (and enjoyed running!) various clubs (art, drama, french, chess etc.) it would be good if parents occasionally did appreciate the clubs run in schools. With a planning meeting one night after school, staff meeting another, running clubs leaves little time for marking, preparation etc. Having said that, they are often the most enjoyable times as a teacher and a great way to get to know pupils in a more informal manner! Don't think there are many professions where people would freely work an unpaid hour or two on top of their working day on a weekly basis!

[dayofftomorrow]

We have had many suggestions about clubs but the head teacher asks for parental help but then goes out of way to make parents feel unwelcome (recently had high fence put round school give the impression that it is to keep parents away).
The football club is run by one father but no other parent will help more than once!!

Calling the first hour after school "night" is a little extreme and schools have introduced PPA time for marking etc.

I am not a teacher but I frequently work extra hours without pay - that is what being a professional is about

[southeastastra]

i find there is a big divide in a/s clubs. my son's school runs one only one day a week which is run by teachers. in the next town the amount of clubs is huge. though these are run by outside agencies and are paid for by term.

seems the more affluent the area, the more choice.

[TodayToday]

Thank you. These responses have been interesting to me. I don;t necessarily want my daughter to participate in lots of after school activities but I'd like the school to which she goes to have a culture of encouraging children to participate in something extra curricular. That seems less likely to be the case in a school with only 2 or 3 clubs offered to Year 5 and Year 6 (as I have seen on some school websites)

These will be questions I ask when I visit the schools. That's if any of them have places when we move to this new area. I'm not sure I'll even have the privilege of choice. And it seems to be an area where few of the schools offer many extra curricular activities for infants.

[ChasingSquirrels]

From the letter last week (all 3-4pm after school apart from library club);

• MFL (no idea what this is!) - years 3-6
• Dance - all years
• Multi Skills (throwing and stuff) - years R-4
• Touch Typing - years 3-6
• Nature - all years
• Library (1/2 hour one lunchtime) - all years

Additionally mentioned on the letter but further details to come;

• Challenge Club (invite only - ??)
• French
• Football
• Basketball

Small state primary, 100 pupils, 4 mixed classes.

[RosaLuxOnTheBrightSideOfLife]

MFL - Modern Foreign Languages

Challenge Club - ususally for pupils who have been identified has having a particular need - eg physical activities aimed at children with co-ordination probs.

[ingles2]

state village primary,,about 70 pupils total
Free:
Football Ks2
Art / Craft All
Computer Ks2
Newspaper club All
Recorder Ks2
Choir All
Netball ks2
Swimming (we've got a pool)

cost
Cookery £1
Karate £4
Drama £4
Guitar £?

[ChasingSquirrels]

ah, thanks Rosa, I thought the challange one might be G&T.

[Podmog]

Message withdrawn

[peanutbutterkid]

Ooh... this is a bugbear for me. Mostly because it's impossible to find out, I keep asking for a list and still there's no list of what's available! You just hear about it sporadically. So as far as I have been able to find out (320+ pupils, reception-Y6):

Elected from all years: School council, after hours.

KS1: nothing except violin lessons (paid for, and during last hour on a Thursday).

KS2: violin, after hours eco-and music clubs. In theory there's also a guitar club & a school choir that might meet at lunch times, and in the past there has been short-term football coaching sessions, recorder, chess and cross-country running.

To be fair, I think the main problem at our school is lack of parental involvement & interest. I would like to do a lunchtime languages club some day, but it's a big pipedream given my other commitments.