Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to increase the provision of science-specific after-school clubs in state sector schools.

The Department is committed to ensuring that pupils have access to high quality extracurricular opportunities. These opportunities are an important part of a rich educational experience and can help pupils with their emotional and social development.

Schools are best placed to understand and meet the needs of their pupils and have the flexibility to decide what range of extracurricular activities to offer. Both the pupil premium and recovery premium can be used to fund enrichment activities. In March 2022, the Department updated its guidance to make this clear to schools; schools can choose how they wish to use this funding in line with a menu of approaches.

The Department supports a range of initiatives to expand access to high quality extracurricular activities. For example, the Department works with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to offer the Duke of Edinburgh’s (DofE) Award to all state secondary schools in England. Schools can also encourage young people to take part in the British Science Association’s flagship programme, the CREST Awards scheme. This is the UK’s largest national award scheme for project work in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects. It aims to inspire young people by providing science enrichment activities to inspire and engage five to nineteen year olds.