After school clubs

[scotchbroth1]

What sort of activities do your DC get at primary school apart from the timetabled classes. Mine have a small selection but not much to speak of. DD went to a dance group earlier this year but decided it wasn't her thing. Same with DS(10) and the football though he plays with friends out of school. In p6 they get music lessons in flute or clarinet - DS tried out for this and didn't get in, but DD seems more musical so she may enjoy this when she is there. DS goes to a chess club at lunchtine which he enjoys. There are other things like netball, drama, choir which a lot seem to benefit from and seems to improve school community. My DC have things outside school like swimming, brownies/cubs.

Do people think extra curricular things is a good thing or is it just a strain on resources?

At dd's there are sports clubs football, netball, tennis, running club. Orchestra, dance, gymnastics, cheerleading. Tai chi, gardening and cookery film club and Art. I think I may have forgotten some but they rotate termly and there is usually two per night running.

There are various clubs at dd's school - most of them are for Y3 upwards. They are free and I think they are a great way of giving kids extracurricular activities if they don't do much outside school. I wouldn't let dd do one this term because she does three extracurricular activities already and that feels like one too many!

We have various clubs from year 1 upwards depending on wether its the winter term or summer term. Clubs include football, music, cookery, gardening, netball, athletics, tennis, dance, art, board games, sewing, gymnastics, construction, rounders, recorder, homework etc. They are all free and are great as the children get to try out all sorts of things they might not otherwise get opportunity to.

There is football club which is run by Fulham football club, gymnastics & performing arts. You have to pay for any of the clubs you go too. My oldest goes to football club & that costs i think £24 for 6 weeks.
I wish their school did as much as all your schools did.

Every teacher in my school runs a free club, some of us run two. We also have clubs that need paying for. It is a huge effort in time, resources and general botheration but we think it is very much a worthwhile thing to do.
However, it has always been voluntary. We have several committed parents who support the clubs and come along and help every week.
OFSTED also smile on schools that offer a range of clubs.
Why not ask why the selection is so limited OP?

We have 3 or 4 different lunchtime clubs a week (things like art club, chess club, book club, wildlife watch) and at least 1 usually 2 after school clubs a night (football, cricket, choir, dance).

The clubs change every half time although some such as orchestra and choir remain.

All clubs run by school staff are free however those that are run by external people have a charge, out of the 13 clubs this half term only 4 had to be paid for and costs range from £1 a session to £3.50 per session.

half term not half time obviously, that would be confusing!

That sounds about right. The activities are a really good thing to have - of course the quality depends on the individual leading or teaching them, but on the whole children benefit a lot from these clubs and groups. It is healthy for them to do stuff with different groups of classmates and pupils from other year groups that isn't just academic work or PE.

We have a few clubs but they are none of them run by teachers.