How Can We Encourage Students To Make The Most Out of Extracurricular Activities?

By Rebekah Edwards

Can you think back to when you were a student at school...all those fun and amazing clubs that you might have attended as an extracurricular activity? Did you uncover a passion? Did you learn new skills or gain confidence? What memories do you carry into adulthood from those experiences? It's those feelings and energy that we can use to encourage our students to attend as many extracurricular activities as possible, whether it be a sporting activity, creative or academic opportunity. Extracurricular activities are important to young people and result in a range of positive outcomes. Now more than ever extracurricular activities are important as students have not had the opportunity to do any regular extracurricular activities due to the times that we are in. To get more students involved in these opportunities we, as teachers, have a big role to play in encouraging our students to get involved. One of the best ways is to listen to our students and their ideas on what they would like to see on the Extracurricular Activities (ECA) timetable. If we are able to get activities and clubs that they are passionate about then it will only give them more opportunity to develop themselves as well-rounded students.

Extracurricular activities can boost young people’s confidence to interact socially with others outside of their friendship groups and extend their social networks to other students in higher or lower years and provide them with new skills and abilities. Above all, they offer an important space to have fun and relax away from the pressures of school work. Here at Westminster Academy, we have a wide variety of activities available designed to cater to our students’ diverse interests and needs. In providing a platform from which students can select a variety of ECA, either from an Arts, Sport, Community, or Academic thread, they are able to carry on learning and gaining experience in a safe, nurturing, and accommodating environment. It is our intention as a school to provide a varied ECA program in which students will want to participate and learn. It is important that we as staff members continue to encourage students to be proactive in extracurricular activities, getting them to step out of their comfort zones and try new skills. We have the potential to have the most amazing ECA timetable and offer our students clubs that they thought they would never get to have at school.

So be encouraging, be positive, and listen to your students!

Questions to think about:

• When do you talk about extracurricular activities with the students you teach? How about in your tutor group? When do you get feedback about what opportunities they might like but do not exist yet?
• Which 'extracurricular activities' do you do? How could you use your experiences or hobbies to encourage your students?
• What challenges might your students face in participating in extracurricular activities? What could be done to tackle these?
• How can you use extracurricular activities to celebrate the efforts of your students?
• How can you link extracurricular activities to work being done in lessons to help engage students with their learning?