Extra curricular activities in secondary

I suppose if you added all the hours DD12 does 20 hours of dance, 1.5-3 hours of netball, 2 hours of music ensembles, and 2 hours of trampolining altogether. So around 25 hours a week. DD14 does 1.5-3 hours of hockey, 1.5-3 hours of netball, 1.5-3 hours of football, 1.5 hours at Brownies and 2 hours of music ensembles, so between 8 and 12.5 hours a week. I don’t think she could take on much more, and don’t think DD12 needs to cut down any more. It’s definitely just dependent on the child!

It definitely depends on the child - let her decide choice how much she keeps up. She may lose interest and find new priorities, or decide she does want to invest all her spare time.

My DS18 is now at a conservatoire studying contemporary dance, so obviously maintained around 20 hours of dance a week, even through A levels. He managed to get all his homework done through a mix of in his frees, and around his dance classes. He didn’t do any other activities though, and crammed a lot of his dance hours on weekends.

DD12 is following in his footsteps - does dance six days a week, as well as trampolining, school music ensembles (and lessons, but they’re in school time), and being part of school’s netball team. She’s only year 8 so time will tell how much she keeps up!

DD14 (year 9) is sporty but has not developed the same degree of commitment to one sport - she just on the school netball and football teams, and does hockey locally on Sundays for about 3 hours if there’s a fixture (just 90 minutes if not). She also volunteers at Brownies and does music ensembles. You may find DD loosens her commitment to one area and branches out to lots of hobbies and activities.

It’s manageable if she wants it to be - if it starts affecting her energy levels and school work, and she loses interest in anything, then encourage her to drop activities. I’ve had to force DD12 to give up activities before by making her choose (ie dance or gymnastics, trampolining or Brownies when she was younger).

DD's yr group, the girls who got on final list for head Girl both had a track record of lots of ex-currics. I can see why. Some kids do keep it up.

Just being an extra in the school musical, along with occasional sport/ revision / school support/ DoE planning session, DD did up to 13 hrs/week of ex-Cs. Adds up fast.

Yes to the social aspect, my DCs did not go to the same secondary as their primary school friends but still see them at their various activities and that is important to them. Homework can be a juggle but they both go to homework club when they can which helps. I also find that they sornd relatively little time on screens because they are busy with other stuff.

I also agree that another problem is the growing commitment needed for the sports etc as they progress which leads to clashes, sometimes also clashes with school concerts, rehearsals, sports fixtures which tend to be after school/evening unlike the majority of primary school things. I am forever it seems weighing up whether to miss training in one sport for a fixture in another or similar.

Depends on how keen child is. dc3 spends about 11-12 hours on sport +plays 2 instruments. But she would NOT want to stop any of it. Does mean homework (and eating ) could happen in the car.

I think it depends on the child.

DD has maintained 10-14 hours of dance, plus being in 2 school sports teams with fixtures and training, throughout her time at secondary. She is now in Y10, managing coursework-heavy GCSEs (Art and Textiles) and D of E as well (though much of that is based around her dance school - so she helps with younger classes etc).

She is bright, driven, and phenomenally organised. Luckily, most of her dance hours are during the week, so she does have much of each weekend to catch up and spend longer on her art homework.

DS has had more of a portfolio of activities - sport of different types and music. He now does as many hours of music as DD does of dance, but it is condensed into fewer sessions, so he has 'nights when he works' and 'nights when he plays music'. Again, weekends are when he catches up, and it helps he no longer plays club football.

I would say that it has helped them both socially and organisationally, and it has made their potentially problematic 'teenage years' very smooth as they have simply not had time to get involved in any activities that could get them into trouble.

However, they do both find academic work fairly straightforward. A child who really really needed to work at every lesson and every homework would possibly need to cut back in terms of hours.

Agree on the friendship thing. My DD went to a secondary school where she knew no one and although she has settled in and made lots of friends her swim club are her constants and she adores them having known some of them for years. Also she goes to a girls school but swims with boys and girls

Op, my DD started at a performing arts school last September aged 16. She now has very long days, studying for for 3 A levels in the morning, then vocational studies in the afternoon then supper and prep, followed by more rehearsing if there’s a show or auditions coming up.
Plus living away from home and responsibility for her own laundry and buying own toiletries and stationery.
The 5 years of time management learned through the extra curricular drama and dance, and taking homework into dance studios or drama rehearsals has all proved extremely helpful!

More homework, longer journey to and from school, longer school days, and commitments and duties as a scholar sound very tiring already!

Unfortunately we have to make a decision fairly quickly as re-enrolment signup/payment almost always happens a way early. We've already had submitted a re-enrolment form for one of DS's activities for the next academic year as the deadline for the submission was mid March. Some activities are hard to get back once you stop so taking a break for a couple of terms is not always an option. His new school seems to set quite a lot of homework from day one (1-2 hours daily). So we are likely to try to transfer most of his activities to in-school clubs to reduce the hustle of ferrying him around after school.

I have also been wondering whether more time not doing activities would just mean more computer or phone time. DD finds some activities are good stress relievers and she definitely needs that. Some things can't be replicated at school (one is a sport not offered) but one activity is easily accessible and I am strongly encouraging that one to get the heave-ho. Perhaps we'll leave it at that and see what happens with the rest when we get there.

"With the inevitable friendship group squabbles, it was always great to have different out of school friends with shared interests."

This ^^ is so very very important.

I'm feeling quite inadequate because DD didn't do many after school activities. I did restrict it to 2 or 3 a week, and by the time she started secondary school she had absolutey zero interest in any activities other than seeing her friends.

She is currently in year 13, and apart from being a Brownie leader she is too busy with A level homework and revision (and just being too tired) to do anything else.

upsideup my eldest (now Year 9) was doing a lot of extra-curricular hours in Year 6 across several different activities, mostly sport - from memory karate, cricket, football, swimming, basketball, tennis - and he loved all of them. The biggest problem we had was that the coaching got more serious from 11+. Sports that he was doing once a week suddenly wanted him to train twice a week, and weekend fixtures became more serious and started to clash. He had to make some tough choices.

Now he is in Year 9 and plays just 2 team sports, though at top-of-national-league level. He trains four nights a week and usually has weekend fixtures - sometimes on both Saturday and Sunday and they can be up to a 2 hour drive away. On top of that he does some after-school fixtures (for school teams) and dips in and out of other after-school clubs (luckily his school is quite flexible like that).

Nevertheless he still manages to fit in an hour+ a day playing computer games, and an hour+ a day socialising, either online or face-to-face with his friends, as well as homework (he never seems to have very much of that, but still seems to do very well at school).

So, I guess what I'm saying is you have to be ready for things to evolve, but unless you're sending your DC to a homework hothouse there will be plenty of time for extra-curricular.

I wish I had done so much when I was that age. I think I spent most evenings doing homework and watching repeats of sitcoms on tv.

Mine both kept up their primary schedule from year 7 despite a longer school day (much longer journey) but were very tired for the first term or so. Each does 5-6 different things a week totalling about 8-9 hours plus some travel.

Our DS has kept up all his activities. It helps that he has Tuesday nights off so can get on top of homework then, also he often has time after sports etc to do some homework if there’s something more pressing. As he would just be spending more time on his iPad if he was home I’m pretty happy with how it’s worked out. Definitely an individual thing though, he loves his sport so is motivated to get homework done in order to be able to go to the sessions.

• life skills not life experiences (though there were some of them too!)

We've had to drop a couple of activities in y7 mainly due to days, travel and homework (about an hour a night).

But then we picked up 2 more because one was friday night and one on a Saturday so more do-able.

Our experience has been that DD was able to continue and later increase the time she spent on out of school activities, her time management, and ability to prioritise improved, and these are great life experiences.

With the inevitable friendship group squabbles, it was always great to have different out of school friends with shared interests.

It entirely depends on the child and the amount of homework the school sets

DS school set very little hw in Y7; DD school sets quite a lot.

DD however still does plenty outside school: music lessons for 2 instruments, plays in three bands, netball practice & Guides.

My yr 7 daughter swims almost everyday as well as competing which can take up a whole weekend. It's tough but we manage if we are organised.

DD does rowing training 4 times a week and Guides once a week. She could do with spending more time on her homework but she wouldn't do more if she was at home - she'd just be on her phone. I think it depends on the type of activity as well - how much do the DC enjoy it and how pressurised is it - there's a difference between someone doing high pressured competitions and someone just keeping fit in the company of their friends.

Depends how much longer the school day is compared to now, including travelling (my DC's school day actually got shorter when they started secondary) and how much homework the school gives. 14 hours would have easily fitted in around school in Y7. The DC were tired because of the unaccustomed walking round school all day, but seemed to get a new lease of life when doing something different.

I guess the other thing to bear in mind is whether she might like to drop some of her current activities in favour of picking up new ones at secondary.

We have gone the other way. DD did virtually nothing in primary, now in year 9 she does about 12 hours a week of extra-curricular stuff a week, with just rehearsals. We are coming up to a show week it will be about 23 hours a week. All her choice. I am very strict the homework has to be done or activities get dropped.

oops posted too soon

when she was at primary she had the same sort of level of activity, but Y7 to Y9 she withdrew from most - except piano - the workload at secondary demanded it.