Just under three quarters of 10-15 year olds take part in some kind of out-of-school activities, and sport clubs are the reigning champions. There’s been high and fairly steady participation across the last ten years, though during the pandemic we saw a little drop in numbers, although perhaps not as much as we might expect. There’s also been a slight decline in the percentage of young people taking part in dance classes (from 14.7% to 11.5%). On the flip side, there are equally slight increases in the number of younger teenagers engaging with music, art, and religious classes. Perhaps showing a desire for more creativity?

We can also see a growing trend of young people receiving tutoring support beyond their regular classroom hours. Whether this is linked to the trends we’ve observed elsewhere – for example decreased satisfaction with school (see Chart 1 in this section) – we can’t be sure. And let’s not forget that the world hit pause during the pandemic, and extracurricular activities took a hit too. Other data suggests that in May 2021, only 53% of young people were actively involved in them, though by 2022 that number had shot up to 83%.¹