Should students' interests outside school be valued?

Should students' interests outside school be valued?

Phil Avery (Geography Teacher) gives expert video advice on: How do students benefit from doing extracurricular activities?; Does participating in extracurricular activities help you get into university?; Should students' interests outside school be valued? and more...

Students' interests outside school should definitely be valued. There is increasingly - among the press and amongst maybe parents to an extent - a focus on the academic and it's important to emphasis the other side. Maybe it's a dance club, maybe it's a drama club, maybe it's a sports club that has no link to the school at all and should definitely be valued. Certainly within my tutor group we've created a calendar of all the events that people do, whether they be school run or outside of school, and we encourage all of our tutees to go along and watch each member of their tutor group taking part in whatever it is they do.