Craft Club

Making crafts out of lots of different materials is a fun activity for children. A quick search online will generate lots of great activities you could do. Here are just a few craft ideas to get you started:

• Use beads and buttons to make jewellery.
• Make pom-pom creatures.
• Create craft stick models.
• Hunt for natural materials and make nature crafts (such as twig picture frames, leaf rubbing and pebble painting)
• Make paper crafts (origami, paper plate art, paper cutting and papier mâché)
• Try sewing, knitting and crochet
• Construct junk models (a good way to promote recycling and reusing)

For even more great ideas, read our other art and craft activity blogs.

Photography Club

Budding photographers could get out and about around school, photographing the school garden or wildlife, which could be exhibited or entered into competitions. Children could also take photographs of school displays, pupils’ work and new school projects etc for a school newsletter (see ‘Writers Club’ in our School Literacy Clubs blog).

Animation Club

Read our ‘Inspire, Innovate, Invent: STEM School Club Ideas for Primary Children’ blog to find ideas for starting an animation club where children can bring their ideas alive.

Cooking Club

Cooking is not only a fun activity for children to do but also a great activity for developing life skills and encouraging healthy eating. As well as lots of child-friendly cookery books to choose from, there are also many free recipe ideas to be found online.

Here are some fun ideas to try:

• Make popular food items with a healthy twist, such as fruit pizzas, beetroot brownies and banana spinach pancakes.
• Develop simple recipes and create a school recipe book and sell it to raise funds for the school.
• Make food items to be sold at school events or break times.
• Have a ‘Bake-off’ competition.
• Celebrate international diversity by learning about and making food from around the world.

Music Clubs

With such a diverse range of instruments and musical genres to choose from, as well as the possibility of exploring music technology and composition, the options are endless for music clubs. Music clubs are a popular choice that offers exceptional benefits for child development.

Read our ‘Sing, Play, Shine: Music Club Ideas for Primary School‘ blog to find lots of ideas for starting a music club.

Drama and Writers Clubs

Read our Creative School Literacy Club Ideas blog for lots of ideas.

STEM School Club Ideas

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) activities are not only exciting but also offer children a rich array of learning and enrichment experiences that foster their social, emotional, and intellectual development. Read our ‘Inspire, Innovate, Invent: STEM School Club Ideas for Primary Children’ blog for lots of fun ideas for starting a STEM club.

Other Interest and Wellbeing School Club Ideas

Languages Club

Learning a foreign language is enjoyable, mentally stimulating and a great opportunity to learn about other cultures. If you haven’t got any confident MFL speakers on the staff, invite parents or members of the community in to help with running the club. There are lots of fun games that could be played.

Why not try these ideas:

• Embrace the different cultures by learning some traditional songs and dances.
• Try some national dishes and learn to say the food names.
• Try on traditional clothes and learning to say the names of the different items of clothing.
• Connect with other children around the world and create pen pals so the children have somebody to talk and write to.

British Sign Language Club

Learning sign language is a fun activity and great for promoting inclusivity, body language awareness and cultural appreciation. Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Learn signs for some poplar children’s songs
• Play games that rely on visual cues such as ‘Simon Says’
• Read stories and teach children the signs for key words and phrases in the story which they can join in with.
• Act out stories using sign language
• Organise silent activities where children must use sign and body language to communicate.

There’s lots of fun to be had.

Games Club

Children love to play games, but with so many now choosing electronic devices over good old fashioned board games, it is great to encourage them time to put their ipads/tablets aside and have a more communal experience. There are lots of different games you could play, such as:

• Classic board games – e.g. games such as Snakes and Ladders, Monopoly, Scrabble.
• Card games – e.g. UNO, Snap, Pairs, Happy Families.
• Strategic games – e.g. Chess, Draughts, Dominoes, Connect Four.
• Dexterity games – e.g. Tower game. Kerplunk, Operation, Beat the Buzz.
• Team games

There are lots of fun games to choose from with all different themes.

Mindfulness/Calm Club

For those fraught lunch times or just to add some end of school relaxation to a busy day, mindfulness activities are great for enabling children to become more self-aware and learn how to manage their thoughts and feelings.

Try these ideas to create a calm club in a busy school environment:

• Use Art, Craft & Design resources to create calm and tactile art activities that can be done while playing calming music in the background.
• Try mindfulness colouring to focus the mind.
• Share children’s stories that focus on mindfulness, creating a calm area where children listen.
• Accessorise a special area with Therapeutic Resources, such as sensory lighting, glitter storms and textured mats.
• Why not create a space in the school grounds where the children can take part in some calm activities. Add windchimes to create calming sounds and scented flowers to evoke feelings of relaxation.
• Incorporate some yoga activities into your sessions to help relax children’s minds and bodies, as well as improve their concentration levels, strength and flexibility.
• Practise guided meditation.

Sports Clubs

Sports are a fantastic way to boost children’s overall well-being, both physically and mentally. There are numerous sporting activities to choose from:

• Team sports– such as football, netball, cricket, rounders, basketball, rugby and dodge ball.
• Individual sports – such as swimming, martial arts, tennis, badminton, archery, cycling, skipping and short distance running and cross-country.
• Athletics – such as javelin, hurdles, high jump and long jump.
• Acrobatic, rhythmic and artistic sports, such as gymnastics and dance, trampolining, and cheerleading.
• Multi-sports – a good way to introduce children to a wide range of different sports.
• Try something different, such as Disc Golf, Quidditch and Circus Arts.

Outdoor and Environmental School Clubs Ideas

Gardening club

Great for all seasons, gardening is known to do wonders for mental health and wellbeing, encourages healthy eating and sensory development, and it’s a form of exercise too! With suitable clothing, it can be done in all weathers and seasons:

• In the warmer months, plant seeds and create a fruit and vegetable garden and/or flower garden that evokes the senses.
• In colder months, focus on plant protection, growing in greenhouses and looking after wildlife, such as making bird feed and feeders, bug hotels and hedgehog houses.

Read our ‘Growing the next generation‘ blog and ‘24 ideas for small outdoor spaces‘ blog for more gardening ideas.

Forest School Club

Get children outdoors and into a forest school setting to do wonders for their overall wellbeing. Research has shown that forest schools develop children’s self-confidence, social and emotional skills, and gross and fine motor skills. Here are a few activities that you could do:

• Build dens together.
• Create obstacle courses using crates, piping, tyres and logs.
• Get messy in mud kitchens.
• Search for minibeasts.
• Go pond dipping.
• Create nature art.
• Forest bathe.
• Cook around the campfire.

Read our ‘Create your own forest school!’ blog and our other ‘Forest Schools‘ blogs for more fun ideas.

Eco Club

Never more than now are the issues of climate change at the forefront of people’s minds. Why not take action in your school and start an Eco club? Make children feel empowered to make a difference.

Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Use ECO School badges to highlight the importance of children’s roles and make them feel part of the club.
• Use School Garden Resources and Equipment’ range to help create a school kitchen garden and teach children how to grow their own fruit and vegetables. Perhaps food waste from school dinners and lunches could be used to create you very own compost.
• Schedule regular litter picking sessions. Litter pickers are useful for this, as well as gloves,  brushes, and nets for pond areas.
• Explore renewable energy. Use ‘Solar Educational Kits’ to explore the concept and make mini wind turbines. Could the children fundraise to provide the school with solar panels or a wind turbine to supply the school with electricity?
• Introduce recycling bins to each classroom or different areas of a school. Put children in charge of promoting recycling through creating posters etc. Perhaps they could also oversee promoting and collecting recycling for junk modelling and other art projects.

For more ideas, have a look at our ‘25 of the best ‘Eco School’ activity ideas’ blog.

In Conclusion

We hope that the above has provided you with lots of fun and diverse school club ideas to further enhance the learning experiences of the children in your school and help to build a vibrant school community.