What additional support does the Government intend to provide to enable primary schools to provide after-school clubs?
I recognise that clubs running before or after the school day can be beneficial to children in a number of ways. For example by enabling them to build friendships with children they would not normally mix with; giving them the chance to spend more time playing outdoors or by exposing them to opportunities to learn new skills and engage in new activities. Such services also often provide nutritious food and support parents and carers to work more flexibly.
As such, as part of the our Renew and Reform plan we have provided a £6.4m ‘Winter of Wellbeing’ package across all schools in Wales this financial year. The funding is to support additional sessions around the school day to promote physical, mental and emotional wellbeing through increased access to creative, sporting, play and cultural activities in English and Welsh.
We are also looking at this as part of our Programme for Government and Cooperation Agreement commitment on reform of the school day and year, where we recently announced up to £2m in funding to support the targeted trialling of daily additional enrichment activities and experiences around the school day. This work will give us valuable evidence and information for future policy development.