Extra curricular activities? how important?

[Luna9]

My dd is in a very good junior state school which offers a decent amount of interesting clubs and sports which are paid for. I have been looking at the local secondary comprehensive which is supposed to be good and don't seem to have many interesting thing; I imagine is difficult to coordinate this when there are 1,100 pupils. Are kids in secondary school too busy to do extra curricular clubs? Do people with kids in secondary find them useful.? My dd has done yoga, chess, karate, cartoons and graphics and is only the second term of her junior school; we are always excited to see what she is choosing each term . I am worried that the local secondary comprehensive does not offer much.

Do you live in the countryside with lots of children coming in on buses? At out local comp there are few after school clubs because over 80% come in on a bus. Also perhaps children at secondary might do more activities out of school including at the weekend because they are more independent in terms of getting buses etc so less reliant on parents. Thirdly secondary school children doing sport may also have progressed onto a level higher than perhaps a school can routinely offer and are members of selective (for the want if a better word) out of school clubs.
Just a few thoughts

Secondary is a lot more about the academic side of things, we used primary to help find out what they were interested in, and then went outside of school for clubs.

But... our secondary does run lunchtime clubs - manga drawing, film, music theory, jazz, choir, orchestra, various sports, chess, maths challenge etc.. After school they run a homework "club" in the library and sports team training. It is a school outside of the main towns, so buses become a problem for after school activities.

I guess you need to be a bit more focussed at secondary - DD14 is in jazz band and dips in and out of manga drawing, DD12 enjoys her lunchtime with friends, but plays badminton in a club outside of school.

Our locsl comp has tonnes of stuff from robotics to coding to many sports, cookery, duke of Edinburgh, dance etc. however I guess many kids will opt to continue with the sports clubs, choirs, dance, drama, music groups, guiding, scouts etc that they joined whilst at primary that are non school based. Cadets also becomes available at 13 and youth centre from 11.
My children do 2 school based extra curricular activities but 4 non school based I expect the non school ones will carry on into secondary school all be it may be reduced from 4.
If your secondary school doesn't offer much then it's an option to join some other extra curricular groups based outside school that she can carry on with.

Thank you; this is a school in London and most of the kids walk to school. Compared to one of the local top private ones there is a big gap in terms of clubs and societies offered; but as people suggested we can also do clubs and sports outside school to complement the kids education.

Yes in London there is likely to be a lot available locally so perhaps less organised by school. Even if you pay for this it will still cost a lot less than the private school, and at private schools you do still,have to pay for some extra curricular activities.