extracurricular clubs in secondary

[cotys]

Hi all, year 7 parent here - wondering how do your children cope with so much homework and clubs in secondary school.

How many clubs do your children do every week? In primary my DD did clubs almost every day and 2 on Saturday, but she only had 2 pieces of homework every week. It looks like she will have to do homework everyday and I'm starting to feel that perhaps it's too many clubs.... here's her schedule at the moment, is this too much?

Monday - Drama club afterschool
Tuesday - Guitar group at lunchtime, Athletics afterschool
Wednesday: Football team afterschool, Girl Guides evening
Thursday - none
Friday - none
Saturday - Tennis, Musical Theatre - morning and lunch
Sunday - Athletics morning

The only one I can see being problematic is wednesday girl guides after football. She will be exhausted. She could go to homework club on thursday and probably get more done than at home and than just relax. Its also worth looking at her timetable and seeing when she has PE. They tend to be more tired on those days.

I think all children are different. My daughter has just started year 7 and last year started to cut down on activities outside of school. she does 2 evenings a week (1hr and 1.5hr) and an hour on a weekend. leaving her the rest of the week free. So far we haven't much idea how much homework there will be or how long it will take. She is hoping to do homework club after school some of the time to get it done more efficiently.

I would say looking at your list Wednesday evening looks a bit chaotic but unless homework set on Wednesday is due in on Thursday then I don't think it would be a problem.

Children who train at elite level in sports are actually often very efficient with getting their school work done because they have to be organised and get on with it so unless your daughter is particularly missing having spare/unstructured time then I think she will be fine. I wouldn't look at dropping anything yet, not until it seems like there is a problem. Sports and activities are a great way for them to unwind.

Mine kept up a similar schedule through year 7 (with a double on Weds like yours) but started running on empty in y8 so cut back a bit. She still goes to 6 sessions a week but spread over only two activities now, previously it was 7 sessions spread over 5 activities. This is better in some ways anyway as she was becoming a bit Jack of all trades, master of none.

I completely agree, it does depend on the child. I know our DD (also y7) would just sit on the Ipad or when confiscated complain of being bored. Yet when she does have activities she'd tired or cant be bothered. I think it's hormones too.

Girl guides will give her great opportunities during half terms and summer holidays so i agree to wait and see how she gets on.

Thanks all. There's nothing I can do about Wednesdays, she really wants to be on the football team at school and definitely doesn't want to drop guides, so that's that.

@malmontar she has double PE on Thursday morning, I guess that's better than Science or Maths after a long Weds :)

Good point re Homework club, I've no idea when that's on, but should find out today, as we have a meet the tutor meeting at school.

My DS has three pieces of homework a night. He does hockey on a Monday, golf on a Tuesday , rugby after school on a Tuesday, football on a Wednesday and chess on a Friday . Then rugby matches on Saturday and club rugby on Sunday. He has to do at least three clubs during school and he is in the rugby team so he has to go to training and matches. He doesn’t mind and has a good routine in keeping ontop of his work and uses library time and breaks to do some homework