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Primary education

starting an after school club

6 replies

notimetoshop · 18/04/2017 22:14

I'd like to start an activity-based after school club - a writing club possibly a newspaper (so I think no Ofsted registration needed). Has anyone here done that? What kind of things do I need to look out for / address? I was going to set up meeting with the head - but did think possibly I should actually do some sort of survey with the kids first? (primary school)

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BackforGood · 19/04/2017 00:25

I'd ask the HT first, before getting the dc involved and then finding out that there might be some reason you can't do it.
You'd have to be DBS checked presumably.
Also, do you have any sort of qualification for being in charge of the dc? Some schools would ask that a teacher be 'around' for the club - even if it is just working in the back ground in their classroom.
You'd need an idea of the sort of thing you have in mind, the age of the dc, and the numbers you feel you could work with, as a basic start.
Do you just want to do it to encourage more dc to write, or is this as a business ?

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Wh0Kn0wsWhereTheTimeGoes · 19/04/2017 07:08

I would also consider which year groups you will work with - some clubs work well with a real range, others work better if you have one or two years at a time or are only really suitable for certain ages. How long will it be, will it be ongoing or fixed term, what materials will you need, who will provide/pay for these.

I ran a lunchtime gardening club for a few years and it was hard work!

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rollonthesummer · 19/04/2017 07:16

Lots of questions obviously-how long would each session last, how many weeks, which aged children, would you need funded resources, would you need a classroom (many teachers appreciate theirs being quiet after school so they can mark in peace/hold meetings), etc

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2014newme · 19/04/2017 10:44

Insurance
Checks for all adults involved

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ThreeLittleThings · 19/04/2017 20:52

Do you have any experience of teaching writing? If you were going to be running a newspaper writing club, you would need to know the National Curriculum very well to ensure you were teaching in a way that backed up what the school was teaching.

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notimetoshop · 19/04/2017 23:03

Thanks so much for all the comments. I am a volunteer at the school so I have a DBS check already.
I think I made a mistake in the original post. I was going to ask the head about running it as a trial at first, but then I thought I should maybe ask the head if I should ask the kids if they want it rather than he and I just announce it to them. I've asked my kid.. not sure that counts though, esp as he wants to play football instead.
These are all great ideas for questions I will need to have the answers to. I was thinking of starting it off just as a voluntary thing as a trial, but longer term would run it as an after-school business. But, I have no experience in this area (hence trial run first), and had one friend who warned me off saying that the behaviour was so bad she quit after a term. So I'm trying to be realistic too.