7 Ways to Create Opportunity for Participation in After School Clubs

1. Match the schedule and content of your after school clubs to the needs of your school community.‍

‍The needs of families and students have changed.  Parents may want after school classes to bridge child care gaps at new times due to changes at work, or may see more value in classes geared to social-emotional learning or academic support.

Listening is a core tenant of equitable school program development.  To enact this equity mindset and discover what your school families want in the next phase of after school programming, start with a brief survey.  Include questions on student grade, subject matter interest, safety priorities, timing and interest in scholarships.

Here’s an example survey we created using Google Forms.  If you’d like to make a copy and use it at your school, simply copy this sheet and click “Edit Form” to access your private copy of the designed form, customize where you want, and start collecting responses.

{{cta}}

2. Associate learning skills and outcomes with each class.

‍The “4 C’s” of 21st century learning skills are: critical thinking, creative thinking, communicating, and collaborating. These skills help today’s students become future global citizens. Think about the academic, social-emotional and behavioral learning skills and outcomes that are associated with your various after school activities and share this information with families in the descriptions of your classes and clubs.

Work with your after school providers to map their class descriptions to 21st century skills and learning outcomes.  Student learning outcomes state what students will know or be able to do once they complete a class.  When you’re writing a learning outcome, start with, “Students will…” followed by a verb and a statement of the knowledge and abilities the students will be able to demonstrate.

Here’s a sample description for Art & Science Club: “Students will design science experiments using arts & crafts materials, analyze the results of their experimental creations and collaborate in small groups to create original works of science-themed art.“

Refer to our Class Description Checklist to write a description that will get students excited to participate, and check out this list of measurable verbs to help create your learning objectives.

3. Reserve spots for students who would benefit most from participating.

Many elementary schoolers who would benefit most from after school clubs can be hard to reach. Allocate some spots in advance for students that have previously been disengaged.  Work with the principal, guidance counselor or school-day teachers to identify the students and reach out to their families personally and offer to help get them signed up.  Doing this extra bit of outreach can make a big impact on student participation.

4. Incorporate scholarship support, flexible payment options and classes with varied costs.

If your PTO has a scholarship fund, make sure that families know about it, and that it's easy for them to privately raise a hand in need of support.  Work with the Principal or a guidance counselor to spread the word to families.

After school providers often fund scholarships too.  Make sure to ask each of your providers if they can help increase opportunity and participation by funding at least one scholarship per season.

Homeroom offers schools the ability to raise money for scholarships through parent donations, or by adding a fundraising fee to the cost of a class.  Families can redeem full or partial scholarships privately, using the same registration process as non-scholarship families.

Allowing families to break up the cost of classes into installment payments or deferred payments can increase participation by defraying costs.  We’ve thought a lot about this at Homeroom and we’re excited that this fall, families can select a zero interest payment plan for classes, while our school partners and providers still get paid upfront.

One way to build in programming at a lower cost is to engage parents and caregivers to participate in your after school program as volunteer instructors.  Families are not always aware that opportunities to help with the after school program are available, so communication is key.  Reach out to families to see if they have a skill to share or time to supervise less structured clubs like chalk-art,  jump rope or study club and offer these classes for free or for a small fee.  A great incentive for parent and family volunteers is the offer of a complimentary after school class for their child.  

5. Encourage families to sign up with friends and get students excited by talking to them directly.

From playdates to after school activities, our kids love doing stuff with their school friends!  Go beyond emails and flyers and reach students directly. Share a brief, fun explanation of the upcoming after school clubs with school-day teachers and ask them to relay it to their students during class. If there’s time, students can raise their hands for the clubs they are excited to try and see which classmates are also interested. Work with the Principal to have a student council member announce the upcoming clubs over the school PA system. If classes are not filling up, send families a quick email asking them to invite a friend to enroll.

6. Learn about how your school can access Federal funds to help cover program costs and expand your program to include more students.  

The American Rescue Plan includes $500 billion to support students in their out-of-school time. A chunk of those funds are available for funding important programs like summer enrichment and after school clubs.  Work with your Principal to channel funds to your program:

• Identify how your after school classes and clubs serve the academic and social-emotional needs of students.  
• Figure out which and how many students you can support.
• Decide what classes you can offer and how they help with learning recovery.
• Detail what it will cost to expand the program for more students to participate.

If you’re looking for inspiration on how to start the conversation with school administrators or district leaders, refer to the resources in this post.

7. Recruit teachers to lead clubs.

Who better to act as trusted mentors and extend social-emotional and stealth learning opportunities to out-of-school-time than teachers?

School-day teachers make amazing after school educators because they bring classroom management skills and subject matter expertise from the school day directly to after school activities.  After school classes led by school-day teachers affirm school culture and identity and come with built-in trusting, caring student-teacher relationships.

Teachers can earn extra income through after school clubs and dive deeper into concepts across STEAM, physical education and academics than in the regular school day.

Find out which teachers at your school have a special interest in leading a club once a week and what their needs are for facilities and materials. Ask them to share an outline of the curriculum with you and the Principal, or help them find a class curriculum from a trusted source. At Homeroom we provide ready-to-teach curricula and free registration and management tools to school teachers that want to make the leap to after school.

Teacher-led clubs intrinsically serve both academic and social needs of students and should be proposed as part of any after school program initiative that is financed by Federal funds for post-COVID recovery.

Our mission at Homeroom is to offer every child an opportunity to explore and discover through after school programs. We welcome you to connect with our team to talk through starting or growing an after school program at your school. Email us here.