Lack of extra-curricular activities at school

I think the rules have tightened up now. My own head has to pay one of our school staff to be a chaperone. Despite the external provider having DBS. Then there are the SEND children who have a one to one in school. If they want to attend an enrichment club with an external provider then it isn't the parent who pays, or the external provider. It is us as a school who has to provide member of school staff, and pay them to be there.

I'm not really sure what's changed with parents' attitudes. When my kids were young, I saw it as my responsiblity to take them to sports clubs, swimming etc myself to provide them with hobbies and enrichment. They did a couple of extra curricular things in school, but there wasn't a lot on offer and I didn't expect there to be either. The school's job was to give my children an education according to the National Curriculum.

Now parents expect all state schools to run like private schools and give a similar offering as far as enrichment goes. Where has this expectation come from? OP has already implied that she thinks schools should offer it as it makes things easier for parents. So the whole thing basically comes down to whether you think schools should cater more to the childcare needs of fulltime working parents or not. Personally I can totally understand the need for wraparound care these days to be better than it is in some areas and some schools. But enrichment activities? No, I don't see that that is a school's job. They have a big enough job as it is.

But it's not a straight forward issue, OP. Some schools just simply DO NOT have the space to operate wraparound after school childcare, sports clubs, enrichment clubs, hold fundraising events, concerts, open evenings etc etc.

At my schoo, we have ONE hall. It isn't huge either. It also operates as the indoor PE lesson space, the home for Breakfast Club, assemblies, parent meeting space, staff training space, lunchtime dining for 4 year groups, phonics intervention groups, event space eg book fairs, concerts, after school enrichment clubs. Just ONE space. For all of those things. It isn't easy to timetable all that, I can assure you.

It's often not about being willing to volunteer. It's about being able to. Is it so difficult to understand that an individual school will have a staff that might be different to the one a few streets awayay? It might be a school where a lot of the staff have their own children they need to pick up from nursery or school at 4.30 pm or 5pm on some days. Running the club session, seeing your children out, tidying up, prepping for teaching next day - where will they magic up the time to be able to get from school to their own child's school or childcare which might not be in the same area as their place of work? Older staff might have caring responsibilities towards elderly parents.

Plenty of schools will have a culture of constant staff meetings and training after school - a couple of days a week. One school might have more children with SEN or behavioural difficulties so have more reason that teachers will be tied up phoning parents or have meetings with them after school.

Sometimes TAs will offer to run a club if they have a particular skill or interest, as they are less likely to be tied up at staff meetings or having to prep for next day/phone parents. But that's only if they have no caring responsibilities.

As this is so important to you, I’m not sure why your dc attends a school with such poor extracurricular provision. Has it changed significantly since you put the application in and accepted her place?

This was in response to weekend clubs.

Absolutely. They’re much more able to cope with longer days by then.

Perhaps the reason there are no private providers could be to do with hire charges. Also many schools are iffy about other children from other schools attending clubs at their school. This means the pool of potential clients is within the school. At their own premises they can take clients from wherever.

A dance teacher for example usually works for a dance school, the dance school has premises already so isn't going to hire a school hall out. Ditto with performing arts places/ karate/judo ect. Most football clubs hire either the football field of the football club or have a pitch they rent. Many music teachers WFH and so don't need to hire a place. As a PP has said, by the time you have paid hire fees, you need to be charging each child enough to cover a wage, insurance ect. Then there are the non layers, who covers this? The school or the business? If you have a premises already, the insurance is in place, there is no transport cost, no moving equipment about as it's all at the premises. It's easier to run from your own premises.

Many schools with all these clubs are usually signed up to some LA scheme where coaches/ music/ drama teachers come into school to do these sessions. The employees are LA employees not private businesses. Perhaps you could explore if the school is open to buying into the local LA scheme. I think there are "packages" as some schools have PE lessons only taken by coaches, others seem to have P.E lessons and some after school clubs. Some have PE lessons, music lessons and ASC/ holiday clubs.

Ime, kids in reception get so knackered by a normal school day that they wouldn’t be in a position to really benefit from making the day at school any longer.

I agree with this but from Year 2/3 it is briliant.

I think if outside providers can be found it is incredibly enriching to the school community and am so thankful my DCs school thought so too.

Ime, kids in reception get so knackered by a normal school day that they wouldn’t be in a position to really benefit from making the day at school any longer.

Parents know their kids best, and if they think they can cope with more then they’re free to book activities away from the school.

i wouldn’t see it as a negative that your dc’s school don’t offer any extra curricular activities to reception aged children. You clearly do. As it’s so important to you it’s a shame that you didn’t look into this before making your application and accepting their place.

It could be the cleaners contracts are to clean at a certain time, therefore the halls cannot be used after school.

It could be the MAT doesn't do ASC as a MAT policy.

They might have a contract with the current ASC provider that they are the only one allowed in the building.

As your husband is a head teacher, why don’t you ask him? He will have more than enough knowledge to be able to answer you, and you can presumably trust him more than you can anonymous randoms on MN

There is always a possibility they had clubs and there wasn't sufficient uptake. Or there was too much uptake and it threatened the viability of the after school wraparound. Or the providers trashed the school field / hall / equipment.

It does require input from school staff, there will always be kids in the wrong place or their parents think it is football on Thursday and actually it is Tuesday.

You could ask if there is a reason they don't have external providers in, not in an accusatory way, but the answer might be bad experiences in the past.

You've already said an external provider provides afterschool care.

Why would a sports provider try to tap into the same market?
If they hold their club at 4pm in a church hall or similar it's probably cheaper rent and they'll have a bigger pool of kids to pool from maybe 3 or 4 primaries within the vicinity.

Does the school have space for both an ASC and sports clubs?

Parents who want to pay for sports clubs will do so regardless of where they are held

But the school site is already open during the hours the OP is talking about because the after school club is there.

My DDs went to a naice village school and there were a wide variety of clubs every week, these clubs fed into ASC. Some of these clubs were run by teachers, but the majority set up by outside providers.

no, you are missing the point.

You are showing such a priviledged and entitled attitude, and can't seem to take on board what you are being told.

Schools are not obliged to do any of this stuff. it is lovely when they do, but it is not any sort of entitlement. Your school offers plenty already, sport and wrap around care.

You dont seem to see that whatever else is done, whether it is by outside providers or not, will impinge heavily on school staff, who may simply not be in a position to volunteer for this, even if they want to.

You still have not given any indication that you would be prepared to be there to facilitate another activity

You could ask. We can all speculate until the cows come home, but until you've asked, you won't know.

I'd bet on something like insurance. Or having previously run clubs and not enough take up so private providers won't make a profit so don't use the hall. It could be part of a bonkers clause in a land lease somewhere. It could be because the HT has been burned before with an incident on ASC and doesn't want the risk/responsiblity.

But until you've asked, you won't know.

yes, you said how much you ferry your child around, and how much more convenient it would be if all these outside activities she does could be done at her school instead of involving you in transporting her - so you want someone else to take her to where ever in school, and cant see what an imposition this is, and how much it takes out of school staff, and that the hour of the activity itself is the least of it, but it would be more convieniant for you if someone else did it instead of you