Code club - what would you want to see?

[CtrlAltCode]

Hi all. We are starting a new local code club and struggling to get any interest. School ends at 3:15 and we run from 3:45 for 1.5 hours at a local community center - about a minutes walk from the school. We have run a club in the local school before but they are unable to host it any more so doing it ourselves.

However, we are not getting any sign ups at all! Even though it was pretty popular within the school itself.

Not particularly sure what we are doing wrong? Is there anything that we have just overlooked that you would expect to see as a parent?

Its a local club so in not advertising here but I'll put a link if people want to look further to comment: https://ctrl-alt-code.uk/

Hi

A few things stand out:

1. there’s a massive difference between a club on sxhool grounds where the children go straight there from the classroom and one a minute walk away where the parents still have to go to school, pick up the kids and drop them off. Especially for working parents. Do you have the credentials that would allow you to collect kids from school and walk them there yourself (like a childminder)?
2. why the 30minute gap between school finishing and the club starting? That’s a really awkward amount of time to be hanging around
3. 1.5 hours is a long time for a coding club for a 7 year old. Can you reduce to an hour?

The poster above made both points that leapt out at me from your OP.

the beauty of an after school club is buying working parents more time before pick up. If you can facilitate the transition, then I imagine numbers would rocket.

1.5 hours would be an ok length if it included the transition time and ended half an hour earlier overall.

I know pick up may be quite regulated but you previously had a relationship with the school and must have DBS so perhaps with support from the PTA or similar a suitable workaround could be found. Eg nominated parents or approved group leader to transfer children. It’s so close it should be possible.

Yeah, I was considering something like that. We were putting it a bit later to allow kids from other schools to attend - in particular kids transitioning from the junior school to the high schools being able to keep going to the club.

Other clubs such as swimming and self defense also require parents to pick up so we were hoping it would not be a blocker. Definitely something that we will have to see if is possibly though.