Has the Word "Extra-Curricular" Been Holding Our Industry Back?

What if the biggest thing holding your business back isn't your marketing...

...it's the identity you've accepted?

In this episode, I'm exploring why I believe the children's activity industry has been thinking about itself the wrong way for years.

We dive into why labels like activity provider, club provider and extra-curricular provider may be limiting the way schools perceive your organisation, why the best providers aren't "just running sessions", and how shifting your identity can completely transform the way you design programmes, communicate your value and build long-term partnerships with schools.

If you've ever felt like schools see your work as a "nice extra" rather than something they genuinely rely on, this conversation is for you.

Ready to put this into practice?

If this episode made you realise that your website, emails, programme descriptions, packages or proposals are still positioning you as an activity provider rather than an education partner, I'd love to help.

Book a School/Nursery Partnership Business Review and I'll personally audit every part of your school-facing presence - from your programme positioning and messaging to your emails, website, resources, packages and proposals.

I’ll send you a recording with my insights and a PDF with my recommendations to help you identify exactly where you're unintentionally sounding "optional" and create a clear plan to help schools see the true value of what your organisation brings.

Because becoming an Essential Education Partner doesn’t mean upgrading your bio or changing your logo.

Instead you’ll want to be building an organisation schools genuinely trust, rely on and want to keep working with year after year.

👉 Book your School/Nursery Partnership Business Review for the summer and let's make sure your September marketing reflects the value you already create.

Thanks to our sponsors at Thrive4Activities, you can access your free ThriveHub course, exclusive to Approaching Schools Podcast listeners here.

Thrive4Activities is a specialist brand built specifically for children's activity providers 

and clubs delivering structured activities.

Designed around the realities of running an activity business, Thrive4Activities 

combines practical guidance, learning resources, planning tools and specialist 

support in one place.

Whether you’re looking to attract more families, improve retention, increase income, 

strengthen your team or save valuable time, Thrive4Activities helps providers focus 

on what matters most and turn plans into progress.

Go to Improve My Club today to get started!

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the Approaching Schools podcast. I'm Cerys Keneally, and I help children's activity providers to build key business relationships with schools and nurseries without having to use cold calling or stalking. I want to help you earn a more reliable and consistent income, while building your social impact and enriching children's lives with ease. So join me as I take you on a journey, and let's make a positive difference together.

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Approaching Schools. Now, I've been thinking about this episode for weeks. Then, when we released School Programme Creator recently, and so many people wanted to buy it—not just people who were new to approaching schools, but people who have been working in partnership with schools for years who want to develop a new programme. Just one of those examples is those currently making the move from extracurricular clubs to curriculum delivery, and this made me think about what I'm going to talk to you about today even more.

In fact, it's one of those ideas that's been bouncing around in my head for a long time now, but I wasn't sure whether I should actually say it out loud, because whenever you challenge language that an entire industry has used for decades, people understandably become a little bit uncomfortable. But the more I've thought about it, and the more businesses I've worked with, and the more schools my clients and I have spoken to, the more convinced I've become that this conversation needs to happen, because I don't actually think the biggest thing holding our industry back is actually marketing. It's not Facebook algorithms. I don't even think it's schools not having enough money, and it's definitely not your competition.

I actually think we've accepted an identity that keeps us positioned as optional. And once you hear it, you'll probably never unhear it. And it’s one word that’s made me stop. So let's start with a confession here, because I used the phrase “extracurricular provider” for years. Activity provider, after-school provider, club provider, external provider—they're all phrases I've used. They're all phrases my clients have used, and they're all phrases schools use too. So this isn't me pointing fingers. This is me recognizing something I think we've accidentally normalized in our industry.

Think about the conversations you have. “So, what do you do?”
“I run after-school clubs.”
“I deliver football.”
“I teach dance.”
“I run coding workshops.”

They're perfectly normal answers, right? But they're also incredibly revealing, because every one of those answers describes the activity, not the value.

Imagine if a physiotherapist introduced themselves by saying something like, “I move people's legs around,” or a solicitor said, “I fill in forms,” or an architect said, “I draw buildings.” Now, technically, they're not wrong, but they are describing the mechanism, not the transformation. And I think we've done exactly the same thing here. We've become brilliant at describing what happens in the room without becoming equally good at describing why it matters.

Now, let's get something straight here. This is not an attack on the word “extracurricular.” I want to make that really clear. This isn't me saying the phrase extracurricular is wrong. Schools need categories: curricular, co‑curricular, extracurricular, wraparound, enrichment. Those categories are really useful. The problem isn't that category being on the timetable. The problem is when we allow a timetable category to become our professional identity. Now, those are two completely different things.

There is a huge difference between saying, “This programme runs after school,” and saying, “We're an after-school club provider.” Now, one just describes when your programme happens, right? But the other is describing who your business is. And that difference might sound tiny, but I actually think it's enormous because identity—and the way you see yourself—changes behaviour, and behaviour changes outcomes. And as I always say, the way schools are going to see you starts with how you see yourself.

So it's a bit of an identity trap, really, because here's what I think happens: if you believe you're just an activity provider, you create activity‑based offers, you market activities, you compare yourself to other activities, you price your services against other activities, you compete on activities, you become interchangeable. Think about it. If two businesses both say, “We run football clubs,” how does a school compare them? Price, availability, convenience, distance. Who's free on a Tuesday?

Now imagine one of those businesses instead says this:

“We help schools improve participation in physical activity, build confidence in children who avoid competitive sports, and create progression from Year 1 through to Year 6.”

If you're an activity provider, you'll probably know LoveAdmin. They've recently become Thrive4, a whole new approach to helping clubs make progress on the challenges that matter most, with a dedicated brand specifically for activity providers and clubs delivering structured activities. It's called Thrive for Activities. The reason behind the change is simple: running a successful activity business isn't just about managing bookings and registrations. It's about managing competing priorities, like attracting and retaining your families, increasing income, building a stronger team, and finding more time to focus on the things that matter most. Thrive for Activities has been created to help you tackle those challenges and more through practical guidance, learning tools, and specialist support designed around the realities of running an activity business. You can find out more by following the link in the show notes.

It's the same sport, right? Completely different conversation. And that's not because they're pretending to be something they're not or anything like that. It's because they're explaining the value properly, and that becomes a completely different buying decision for the school.

Now, please don't misunderstand me here, because here's where I think people might not understand what I'm saying. I'm not saying every football session needs to become an attendance intervention or something like that, and I'm definitely not saying that every dance class needs to claim it improves SATs results. And I'm not saying every provider needs to force curriculum language into everything they do.

Children deserve joy. They deserve creativity. They deserve music, art, dance, nature, sport, cookery, building, performing, exploring. Those things matter because their childhood matters, right? And their development matters, not just because they improve school data. So please don't ever lose that. The activity does still matter because it's magic, right? But so does understanding the wider value that every activity you deliver creates.

Because often the activity is simply the vehicle, isn't it? You know that confidence is the destination, or a sense of belonging is the outcome, or that friendships are the real benefit, or self‑belief, or resilience being the ultimate results. But this does change everything.

Here's why I think it matters so much: it changes how you design programmes for schools, it changes how you approach schools and nurseries, it changes how you hold meetings with SLT. It changes pricing, it changes renewals, it changes reporting and contracts and staffing. It even changes the very business that you are building.

Because if you see yourself as someone who simply runs clubs, you probably keep building a business around delivering more clubs. So think about that for just a moment. If you see yourself as an organisation helping schools create better educational experiences, you naturally start asking different questions, like:

How do we measure impact?
How do we create progression?
How do we become easier to work with for schools?
How do we support the teaching staff?
How do we communicate better with SLT?
How do we become part of the school's long‑term thinking?

That is a completely different business that we are describing right now.

So I want to talk about the hard truth, because here's the bit that might make some people feel a little bit uncomfortable: changing your language isn't enough. You can't simply wake up tomorrow, change your Instagram bio to “essential education partner,” and expect schools or nurseries to treat you differently, because being part of building a partnership isn't in the title. It's in your behaviour as that school partner.

Partners communicate well. They're reliable. They safeguard brilliantly. They deliver consistently. They solve problems. They make schools’ and teachers’ and nurseries' lives easier. Partners build trust over years. You earn that identity. You don't get to just declare it.

So here's a question I want to leave you with today: when somebody asks you, “What do you do?” what answer comes out automatically? Is it all about the activity, or is it around the value? Because I honestly believe the biggest opportunity right now for our sector is not simply getting more school or nursery bookings. It's changing how education understands specialist external organisations.

And this isn't about pretending we're something we're not. We're not making exaggerated claims here. We're not trying to become teachers. But by finally recognizing what so many amazing providers in our industry already do—because you don't just fill an hour, do you? You create opportunities, you develop confidence, you widen children's experiences, you bring expertise that schools don't always have internally. You create belonging, you help children discover things they never even knew they loved, and you support teachers. You increase their capacity, and you contribute to education.

And maybe, just maybe, the next chapter for our industry is not even about becoming better activity providers. It's becoming organisations that schools genuinely trust, rely on, and build around, because here is the hill that I am willing to die on: the future in our industry does not belong to the providers with the biggest Instagram following, or the cheapest prices, or the flashiest equipment. It belongs to the organisations that stop thinking of themselves as optional and start actually behaving like trusted partners in education.

So, if this episode got you thinking, I would genuinely love to hear your perspective. Do you agree? Do you disagree? Has there been a moment where you realised your work was creating far more impact than you were giving yourself credit for? Come and let me know over on Instagram at Cerys Keneally. I read every message, and if enough of you enjoy this conversation, I think this might become a whole series, because I honestly believe we've only just scratched the surface here.

Thank you so much for listening. I will see you in the next episode. And if you want to book one of my business reviews over the summer, I will literally audit all of your education marketing so you can be school‑ready and confident for September. The link is in the show notes.

Thank you for listening to the Approaching Schools podcast. If you've enjoyed this episode, do come and let me know in my free group for children's activity providers, Approaching Schools, so that I can make more content like this that you'll love. You can find me on my socials at Cerys Keneally, and my inbox is always open. I would love for you to leave a review on iTunes and hit subscribe on your favourite platform so you can be the first to know when a new episode is ready. Until then, chat soon.