Lack of extra-curricular activities at school

[underboardwalk]

I could do with your advice as I'm umming and ahhhing about whether to send in an email to my daughter's school. I will provide some context first.

I'm a class PTA rep, so I tend to do all the vocal work for my daughter's Reception class. She attends an 'outstanding' school, which is always oversubscribed, and it's generally a very good school. What's really, really lacking is the provision of extra-curricular activities/after school clubs. They have an external provider for their breakfast/after-school club, and an external sports club who provides limited classes - boys and girls football and multi-sports for Y1 upwards. And that's it. I assume they use their external after school provider as an umbrella for various activities, but in my opinion, that's not good enough.

There is absolutely no provision for reception year group. I know it's the summer term now and it's too late to get something in place, but the distinct lack of well-rounded extra-curricular activities is absolutely irking me.

I've done my research into other local schools in the area and their choice of activities is fantastic. Some have external providers for their BC/ASC and some sports clubs, AND also offer a wider range of activities in addition which include provision for reception children such as performing arts, ballet, gymnastics, Spanish, maths clubs, art clubs, etc. The list goes on.

Funnily enough, I saw a FB post over the weekend asking about extra-curricular activities from a parent whose child has been accepted into the school, and as much as I wanted to shout how bad their provision is, I stayed quiet.

Obviously I'm not going to pull my daughter out of the school, I love it for her and so does she. But I suppose, naively, I never thought of this element of her education and thought the after school club will be enough.

Should I put my head about the parapet and send an enquiry as to why there is such a lack of activities? Or am I just being a pain? I just feel that they know they're such a good school in terms of academic achievements, that they've overlooked this part. I also have other major irks with them - their website is lacking in information and really dull, and I feel it links back to them probably being arrogant enough that they feel they don't need to update it. I feel there are a whole load of things lacking in that school that could be improved easily enough. I want to bring it up with them but I don't want to be 'that woman' who complains!

I understand it's not my job. I just happened to research other local schools for comparisons and the list of contacts were right there in front of me. I didn't go and gather them intentionally.

I was merely responding to a passive aggressive reply about whether I would volunteer to do their admin or set up. I didn't explicitly say I'm emailing to offer to do this, but in reply to the poster, I'd volunteer if there was a case.

Being the PTA rep, I get lots of questions thrown at me to put forward to the PTA - this is a considerable recurring theme. Hence, my original query.

I'm not agonising over the running of the school, I'm too busy for that. I'm just voicing clear areas for improvement and asking for your advice.

Thanks for telling me to concentrate on my own children...quite literally all I do, hence the original query.

OP - our school would have loved you! It seems there are different cultures across different state schools. Ours was always incredibly grateful for any parent to be involved in any shape or form and to put forward suggestions.

I've taught at a few schools and the general expectation is that teachers volunteer to run an after-school club for (half) a term. Whatever their skill or age group preference. It's a shame your school hasn't this, but hopefully the teachers are focused on making the learning excellent.

It doesn't always though. Often pay and conditions in private schools are worse than in state schools

How are the clubs run by external providers funded at these other schools?

Maybe do some research and find out how other schools do it, and then propose setting up a similar system at your school?

It's surely usually just funded by parents paying for their children to do it?

At our school, pupil premium funds children on PP

At DS2's old primary, there was a free ASC club most days, run by the teachers.

DS1 's secondary has a massive selection of ASC clubs- all free, and the kids just drop in as they wish. It is wonderful, he has got so much out of it, and as a lone parent on a low income I am so, so fucking grateful they are like this.

At DS1's new primary there is a very sparse selection of ASCs, places fill up incredibly fast, and you have to pay for nearly all clubs.

In addition, they are constantly asking for sums of money towards things that are part of the curriculum, some of these in retrospect or with no notice, with no friendly note advising that if you're struggling financially then please get in touch and they'll see what they can do to help.

It's very difficult, and they don't seem to get how some parents can't afford to pay for all these extras.

Sorry, digressed, but I just wanted to underline what a lifeline free/ cheap ASC clubs can be to more disadvantaged pupils, and I don't understand how some schools can provide them and some can't.

It's tricky for Reception, at my school we don't offer enrichment clubs until after Xmas as the school day is enough for them... then late March to May staff are doing SATs booster sessions for Y6 so we have fewer available to do other enrichment clubs.

You could raise it with school and see what they say, their priorities may be elsewhere but it wouldn't hurt to ask.

It is quite easy to understand, some schools have teachers who can and do volunteer, some don't.

It is certainly not an entitlement. And this attitude of entitlement is one of the reasons some teachers are less keen to volunteer nowadays

Clubs are run for free using staff good will. Would you be willing to run an after work club for free at your workplace?

noshadowatnoon

Yes, but why? Why do some schools have staff willing to volunteer, and some not? Are some staff more supported by senior management in doing this, and some not? I think a lot of it boils down to priorities- talking about an individual school's policies and culture, rather than the priorities of individual teachers. It's worth saying that the feel I get from DS1 's school is that it's a happy and supportive workplace culture, where each child matters. DS2 's school....not so much. Part of a MAT, executive head in place at vast expense, high staff turnover 🤔

They aren't always run this way.

At our school some are teacher run but most are run by external providers with staff who are paid a fair wage.

And who pays ?

Don't you have any council run activities for evenings or weekends? Most people send their DC to private swim lessons, gymnastics, cricket/football clubs, Art, Drama etc privately. Eg for drams Stage Coach, for cricket All Stars/Dynamos. Why should school run these clubs? Teachers are swamped with work.

I don’t think it is reasonable to expect state schools to provide every element of a well rounded education including all the extracurriculars in the current environment where many are struggling to deliver the basics for all students.

Don't make a suggestion unless you are volunteering to improve it. If this is your work place, you'll be expected to take it on as your initiative.

Ask yourself if there is space in the school for clubs? Do they have a usable sports hall or outdoor field? If there is, and they aren't being used, approach the headteacher, maybe via the PTA, and discuss if you can liaise with providers about running after school clubs. Ask what risk assessments there needs to be for a provider to be approved. Ask who in the school can liaise with you. Is it the office manager? Then approach likely candidates yourself and if they are keen, then arrange a meeting between the provider, you and the school contact.

Good luck.

The parents.

The clubs pay the school for using the premises too so it's win win

My state primary has hall hires and they also provide after school clubs to the children. It's actually a source of revenue to the school. Don't dismiss what I wrote.

With reception age there’s also the issue that as some of the children are under 5, the ratios are higher so they need more staff. I think that’s the bigger reason no one offers clubs for reception age.

why do some schools have teachers who volunteer and some don’t? Well in some, teachers may be offered a day off each term in exchange for their time running a club. Or the SLT May make an effort to reduce unnecessary admin and meetings, meaning teachers have more free time and a better work life balance, and as therefore more likely to be happy to give up their time for free to run clubs. Others may insist on unnecessary tasks meaning goodwill amongst teachers is low so they won’t volunteer. Some schools may essentially bully or guilt trip teachers in to running clubs.

I work in a private school. My contract states I must run a club each week. My pay is crap compared to the state sector, but I have other benefits (smaller classes and longer holidays for example).

They aren't free. My DC primary has multisports and football in the field. It also has gymnastics and dance in the hall. These clubs are external and they are hall hires. Parents pay normal rates for their kids to go to these clubs. The benefit to working parents are that the kids go straight from school to the clubs without you having to drive to the clubs after school. Also, if you have a space booked into the onsite afterschool childcare club, the providers can walk your kids to the afterschool club and they can stay there until 6pm.

I take DC for extra curricular music out of school and I have to stop work at 3.30 to faciliate that. And then I catch up the last hour of work in the evening.

Oh and DC2 also goes to two afterschool sports at her state school. It's really not that rare.

Yes, but why? Why do some schools have staff willing to volunteer, and some not? Are some staff more supported by senior management in doing this, and some not?

I would imagine it’s more to do with SLT forcing staff to do clubs and linking it to some arbitrary PMR target in order to go through threshold.

DS is in reception. At his school there's a choice between around six different after school classes run by external providers - ballet, gymnastics, musical theatre, football, coding etc. Then there's the normal wrap around after school club, again run by an external provider. The teachers aren't involved at all and all come with additional costs per term. They're really well attended and so I assume they're profitable for the providers offering them.

Re the other schools provisions. Do some of the other schools have more pupil premium children? Things like low cost clubs in school could be been funded by the PP money and places offered to those children first, then spaces offered to everyone else. Outside providers probably want paying before they commit and there has to be take up or else the school loses out. With tight budgets, schools can't justify the payout for the club not to be taken up.

I know our 'naice' leafy village schools hav very little in terms of wrap around and ASCs. AsC only runs until 4.30 at the 'naice' schools. One very 'naice' school has no wrap around at all. But the big 4 form "sink school" that all the middle class parents have nightmare's about their child been allocated on school allocation day has lots and lots of free or very cheap ASCs that all feed into the child care ASC which runs until 6 (dance, perfoming arts, football, judo, rugby, computer club, board game club to name a few) and lovely lunchtime clubs, loads of trips.

Whilst it is nice to have lots of cross curricular ASCs, a PP is correct in saying it's more a fun thing than any real progress due to the wide ability (and sometimes age groups) in the club.
It's likely many parents at the 'naice' schools already have children in dance schools/ football club and the like so these clubs may not be in demand. Then there are the parents who will no doubt complain that their little tarquin has once again been overlooked for the main part at the school drama club, even though he has had performing arts lessons since he was 4 months old. Completely missing the point that school clubs are more about everyone having a go rather than progressing through badges/ grades.

There are no clubs on offer at our village primary apart from lego club / running / football / drums. These are never open to both KS1 & KS2 at the same time and they tend to run only for a few weeks, not throughout the year. Currently my son can attend 1 club a week; that's all there is.