Extra-Curricular Activities In Early Years – What Should You Offer And How Should You Pay For It?
Sarah Steel explains how nurseries can benefit from offering a good extra-curricular programme, while highlighting some of the potential issues with providers and costs that settings should be wary of…
- by Sarah Steel
If you browse the websites of most nurseries these days, you will see a range of ‘extra-curricular’ activities advertised. These are clearly designed to be enjoyable and beneficial to children, but are also part of a marketing campaign to influence parents’ perception of quality and value.
Various activities of this nature are available. Many settings offer sports-based classes. Often aimed at preschool children, these are usually taught by external coaches, sometimes from franchise companies such as Tumble Tots or Little Kickers.
Also popular are music-based activities, which can be enjoyed by younger children as well as preschoolers and are usually based around playing a selection of instruments and singing. Then there’s yoga, which has seen a real rise in popularity over recent years, with franchise companies like Tatty Bumpkin offering sessions from babies upwards.
Why choose an external provider?
You may be very lucky and have staff members who have particular skills, such as singing, yoga, sport or languages – but generally, using an external provider means that you get someone who is passionate about what they do, has all the appropriate equipment and possesses the appropriate training.
Many coaches/teachers will provide lesson plans that show links to the EYFS, which nursery staff can include in their learning journeys and wider activity plans. External coaches usually have their own insurance too, which is useful for sports-based activities, even though you would expect your nursery insurance to cover this. Over the years we have used a number of different external teachers at The Old Station Nurseries, most of whom have been very good. However, while the original franchisee may be very good, when they expand their subsequent recruits sometimes do not meet the same standards. We have had experiences where teachers have really ‘gone off the boil’, or been replaced by someone without the same degree of skill.
It’s important to see a teacher/coach in action before you agree to employ them. If possible, watch them at work at another setting, request testimonials and ask to see lesson plans for a whole term. Most will offer a free taster session at your nursery, so make sure that you’re happy with the service they offer and how they actually interact with the children and staff. It’s also important to not view external teachers as a chance for nursery staff to take a break. It isn’t fair to leave other teachers with children whom they don’t know as well as you do, and the children will respond much better with their key carers present. Extra-curricular activities also represent a chance to upskill nursery staff, who will be able to see different teaching methods in action and are then more likely to follow up on the activities during normal nursery sessions.
What should I choose?
Why are you offering additional activities at your nursery? Is it because you want the children to enjoy some new experiences that you can’t provide internally? Is it because parents have asked for them? Is it because you have some quiet sessions that you want to fill? Is it to raise additional revenue? You do need to consider carefully why you are going down this route, and it may be that your answer to many of the above questions is ‘yes’. This thought process will help you to decide which activities to choose and how to deal with the financial considerations. In reality, most providers choose activities that they know the children will enjoy, but which will appeal to parents as adding value. Foreign languages are seen as being very attractive by many parents, and there are numerous French, Spanish and Mandarin teachers in nurseries in the UK, amongst many other options. With the current drive towards healthy lifestyles, various sporting and yoga-type activities are popular too, and there are many different companies offering them. Providers need to decide whether to include the cost of the activity in sessions or to charge parents extra. We have done both over the years in our nurseries, depending on the demographic of the local area and demand and supply. At the moment we offer Spanish classes at one of our nurseries and charge parents £4 per head for the class, which covers the cost of the teacher.
However, we also provide music sessions for all age groups and pay the cost of this ourselves. It can be useful to put inclusive activities on during quieter sessions, such as a music class on a Friday afternoon, to encourage ‘floating’ children or extra sessions to book in these slots and improve occupancy. My experience is that extra-curricular activities don’t really generate significant revenue for nurseries, as teachers usually have a limit to group sizes and will then need a second session as numbers go up. Costs range from £30 to £50 per half-hour session for many teachers, so you may feel that it is not reasonable to charge parents much more than £3 to £5 for a session, unless you are in a particularly affluent catchment area – in which case teachers may charge more as well.
One-off visitors
Regular weekly, or bi-weekly activities are great and may be perceived as a real benefit by parents. However, it can also be cost-effective to organise occasional visitors such as a mobile farm, an insect specialist, science club or a circus-skills workshop. These more specialist visitors do cost more (upwards from £150 per visit) but will be enjoyed by many children and can be really useful for special events such as summer fetes, Christmas parties or end-of-term graduation parties. Again, it’s worth asking for testimonials and researching the company carefully online – and don’t forget to check any requirements they have, particularly for space and access.
We previously had a visiting farm in for a summer party at our Faringdon nursery and it made the event really memorable, with nursery children, their families and friends and siblings all benefiting from the animals. We took many photos, used them on social media and in our local press, and covered the cost of hiring the farm in our marketing budget!
Sarah Steel is the managing director of The Old Station Nursery Group, which operates across Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire; for more information, visit theoldstationnursery.co.uk or follow @nurserysarah
