Covid-19 had a detrimental impact on extra-curricular activities. During the national lockdown, numerous club providers had to shut their doors and even cease their operations altogether. In Autumn term 2020, a lot of schools managed to resume some form of after-school care but the extensive list of activities they used to offer is, sadly, out of reach for now. Schools cannot meet the risk assessment guidelines to invite external club providers. They also don’t have the capacity to deliver more clubs themselves because of the increased burden of keeping everyone safe and minimising the risk of spreading the infection.

But fear not. This is not the end.

As soon as the threat of the virus gets lower, the myriad of club offerings will spring back to life again.

But what do we do now?

Online clubs offer an incredible alternative to physical clubs. I never doubted the potential of online education, having worked in the alternative provision sector where the core curriculum was delivered solely online. However, I had my reservations whether more traditional club activities such as arts and dance could be successfully delivered via zoom. How mistaken was I to even doubt that! I signed up my daughter for online drawing classes and I am overwhelmed to see the incredible progress she has made. The way she looks forward to every lesson and takes pride in every piece of art she produces is wonderful to see. By the way, my daughter is only 6.

Music lessons are a great success too. Her confidence in all things IT is skyrocketing, and I find myself looking for more online club options as they give me a few hours of uninterrupted work, and, most importantly, equip my daughter with new skills and help her grow confidence in using technology.

I am confident that after Covid-19 loosens its grip, we’ll be spoilt for choice of physical clubs yet again. However, I am also sure that many parents are overjoyed with the discovery of the online clubs format and would want to keep many of them going.

Here are a few suggestions of online clubs I came across in my search:

Coding

Blue Shift Coding

Firetech Camp

Music

Go Kid Music

Ballet

NK ballet school

Art

Art-K

History and Art

Vincen and Frida