The start of the new academic year is a hectic time for parents, and one priority needs to be selecting the correct extracurricular activities for your child. Dominic Watts, Consultant at Gabbitas, looks at some of the key benefits of allowing, and encouraging, your children to participate in the different Extracurricular Activities which may be on offer at your school.
Extracurricular activities, or ECAs, are a fantastic opportunity for children to broaden their horizons and take part in activities which they may ordinarily not have access to. Many of the ECAs on offer may be filled to capacity in a very short time, and so it is important to discuss the options with your children and give your choices to your school nice and early.
Sporting ECAs
Sporting activities are a great opportunity for your child to blow off some steam after a hard day at school and to build new friendships with children in other classes or year groups.
Whether your child will be competing for one of the school teams, or simply playing sport for enjoyment alone, this is a brilliant way for them to broaden their skill set and experience something totally different to ordinary classroom activities.
In today’s world, exercise levels are plummeting with the increased dependence upon smart technology, and so it’s more important than ever to ensure that your children are getting some fresh(ish!) air and engaging in physical activities.
Although the September weather may not be particularly hospitable, be careful not to underestimate how enjoyable and beneficial sports and other physical activities can be for your children – and don’t forget, you could have a budding professional in the family!
Creative Arts
Many people in education argue that creative arts are undervalued in modern society, due to the high emphasis on academic achievement.
ECAs present an invaluable opportunity for explore this side of human life without the trouble of having to find external classes to help your child to find their passion.
Music, for example, is something which can become such a huge part of our lives if we are given the opportunity to develop a love for it at a young age. Creative arts ECAs also give your child the chance to develop their imagination and explore skills which they may have but may not yet have discovered.
Some children are absolutely fantastic actors or actresses but only become aware of this when they attend their first Drama ECA. Activities such as colouring, painting and comic book creation allow your child to get in touch with their creative side after school in a pressure-free environment in which they can relax and enjoy themselves whilst making new friends in the process.
Academic ECAs
Academic ECAs are fantastic for allowing children to refine and build on the skills which they have been working hard to develop within school. As well as being the perfect way for your child to address something which they are finding challenging within the ordinary curriculum (handwriting, for example), academic
ECAs can also allow your child to spend more time engaging in activities which they really enjoy in school. Usually, there are also many academic ECAs on offer which go beyond the ordinary curriculum and allow children to utilise their academic skills in order to experience something unique which they may never ordinarily have access to.
Robotics ECAs are becoming very popular within schools, and many children are enjoying challenges such as game creation using their coding skills, or being part of a team which finds and produces content for a school publication.
Entrepreneurial ECAs such as Enterprise also allow your child to introduce themselves to a more adult world, in which they can start to build the skills they may need when they grow up and enter the workplace.
Overall, ECAs are invaluable for your child’s education. Although the school curriculum is extremely broad, it is impossible to create a curriculum for schools which includes everything a child might be passionate about or have an affinity for.
Each child is unique and we need to provide children with all of the opportunities we can for them to flourish and to find their own voice. ECAs provide the perfect opportunity for children to learn new skills and, most importantly, for them to learn about themselves and their unique gifts.
