mandated after school clubs

i have heard schools in the Outwood family try to force this on their students

*if she doesn"t do the clubs, I mean

I can really relate to the concerns of travelling after dark. My DD wouldn't do clubs on days I couldn't pick her up, because of the long walk back in the dark, alone. Having so many students leaving later would mitigate that though. Also if she coordinates with friends she might find she can walk with them everyday, whereas if she doesn't she will be th only one leaving early every day and end up walking home alone more often.

@jessrichmond so they are offering extra sports and music for free? And you are slagging the school off for that?

Just goes to show you can't please all the people all the time.

[quote jessrichmond]@Bellie99 Thanks. She's in Year 8 so not part of the group that has the timetabled longer day.[/quote]
Looking at your post setting out the school day, the timetabled day for all years ends at 16:15 but, up to now, they have allowed years other than Y11 and Y13 to leave early. They are now saying that Y8 can only finish early 3 days a week.

In any case, the school is allowed to change the end of the school day at any time. A 16:15 finish is not unreasonable.

You will have to take the school to court if you want certainty on whether the school can do this, but my view is that you would lose.

School is about more than being force fed information to pass exams, and your school is being lovely enough to build extracurricular enrichment into the timetable. I don't really understand why you wouldn't want your child to make the best of the education they're being provided. It also serves as another way for them to build new friendships and skills that will follow them through life bHow odd.

I’m going to go against the grain and say it’s brilliant- particularly for children from families which are unable to afford enrichment out of school, or who just aren’t providing it.

Speaking generally (because i know there’s tonnes of exceptions and lots of families on low incomes do so this stuff- mine included) but generally children from higher SEG families tend to have more access to arts and culture and sports outside or school, and this has been proven to correlate with good educational outcomes, more civic and community engagement and even better health and well-being in later life, with a strong suggestion that correlation may also be causation for some. It sounds like the school might be trying to level the playing field by making provision that some or many of the school families may not be able to.

Whilst it’s not great that the school have had to make this mandatory, they clearly see both need and reason to do so, and they must also believe strongly in the potential for good it could do- because it won’t be cheap to cover the costs of the longer day and the activities.

If you have practical concerns about travel or it clashes with a pre existing out of school enrichment then by all means talk to the school - I would expect the school to excuse a child who had an existing dance or drama class or whatever - but taking issue with it being compulsory just from an ideological perspective seems a bit... I don’t know... daft to me?

Have the school bus times been adjusted accordingly? Have the considered the impact on a child if they have an after school activity then still have to get home, eat, do homework, and go to scouts or a sport they have already made a commitment to on the same day?

I know Queenswood has compulsory after-school clubs.

We were forced to join clubs, but it was a boarding school thirty years ago.

Have they specified what the consequence is for failure to attend, if you have a note from your parents giving you their blessing? We've found quite a lot of rules that are presented as immutable, but actually suddenly become flexible once the parent writes a note.

I can imagine it could come from a good place of wanting everyone to get the "opportunity" for extracurriculars, and a rather more cynical boosting of participation so they can boast about their extracurricular offering and win more matches. However our experience is most "compulsory" things become optional if you have your parents backing you up. Maybe we're just lucky though.

So if it’s within the school day, what do they do on the other three days a week - if two days a week they have to be in a club? Do they just go home?

If its within the school day, then of course they can mandate attendance much the same as they do with all other subjects.

What was her school hours in y7?

So the school day ends at the end of this enrichment time? Is that a later finish than it used to be? 4.15 is not that late

They’re insisting that the exam years only do two extra curricular activities? That’s very strange!

My daughter school had the same expectation- they really put on a lot of choices as well! It gives opportunities to all children to experience and give things ago.

But our daughter already did dance and swimming outside of school, we were never challenged.
Once they hit year 10/11 there is then a lot of revision clubs & lessons that happen out side of the school day (drama, graphics and art especially)

@jessrichmond It sounds like you don't like the school at all from your posts, is there an alternative school you could move DD to?

Whether I'd be up in arms would also depend on what they are offering? I've told my DC I want them to do at least one extra curricular club at lunchtime or afterschool in addition to the other activities they do out of school.

Frm what you've posted it looks like its compulsory for year 11 and year 13 only?

DD's school does this in years 7 and 8. They say that school finishes at 4.30 on Mondays for those years.

The school has freedom to decide when the school day starts and ends. If these activities take place in period 5, they are not really after school clubs. They are compulsory. However, if they take place after 16:15 they are clearly outside the school day and cannot be compulsory.

Unfortunately, schools attempting to make extracurricular activities compulsory has been going on for a long time. A school near where I grew up told any pupil chosen to play for the school football team on Saturday that they would get a detention if they didn't show up. I don't know whether they ever actually did this.

Unless of course in every previous year there has not been a period 5?

Hi @jessrichmond if it's in period 5 so timetabled time, I'm not sure you can argue so much? (If I've read correctly?)

Our secondary doesn’t finish until 4:30 normally.