Do extracurricular activities need to be DfE approved when kids are taken out of class time?

[ALittleHumptyDumpty]

State school. It's a band lesson with an external coach, within the grounds of the school. My primary school child is brought out of PE each week.

Someone mentioned to me that the activity would need to be approved by the Department of Education. Is this correct?

In my opinion the teaching of this band lesson is unsatisfactory.

No but I would have thought they would need your consent for them to do it.

no, I don’t think this is the case OP. Not sure how anyone imagines the DfE has the capacity to ‘approve’ any activity a school might put on. People clearly have to be CRB checked but that’s different.

No they don't - what do you mean by 'band' lesson ?

I think she means some sort of music lesson, taught be a peripatetic teacher. Used to be quite common, now much rarer (easy "extra" to cut)

Poor practice to miss the same lesson every week - it should be on rotation.

Otherwise it all sounds normal, and I cannot think of any reason why the Department would be involved

Is this something you signed your child up for? Like a music lesson in school time? If you don’t think the lessons are worth it, you can withdraw your child?

The school are actually responsible for the quality of all providers even if they are external. The activities themselves don’t need to be DfE approved. There is no mechanism for that.

If you are unhappy with the quality, if you are paying the provider direct, contact them and explain your issue and see what they say. You can always forward on your correspondence to the head/music co-ordinator for information. You can also ask them not to miss PE each week.

Many thanks for all your responses.