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More than a third of teachers who run enrichment clubs do so outside of directed time and without pay, a survey shows, raising questions about how schools will meet the government’s new enrichment expectations.

The Teacher Tapp survey, commissioned by ����Vlog, shows that only half of teachers would be willing to run an additional lunchtime or before- or after-school club without extra pay. Some 26 per cent said they would be unlikely to do so, and a further 24 per cent said they definitely would not.

The findings come as ministers prepare to introduce before Christmas that Ofsted will take into account from next year.

In the poll of 7,447 teachers, only 4 per cent said they were paid for running enrichment activities, and more than nine in 10 received no financial reward or benefit at all.

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The government wants every child to have a extracurricular offer, arguing that enrichment builds confidence, aspiration and life skills.

However, teachers and unions warn that the policy risks becoming another initiative and accountability measure placed on schools without the funding to make it happen.

It is an ambition that most teachers support in theory, but many feel unable to deliver in practice. Many schools are already struggling to find staff, balance budgets and protect lesson time.

How, then, will schools expand enrichment when most staff say they are already stretched to their limit?

How will extra enrichment be funded?

Unions warn that the survey highlights a policy built on goodwill rather than resources.

Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the NEU teaching union, says the Department for Education’s plan for an increased enrichment offer “will not work effectively without new investment and resources”. Asking staff to deliver more enrichment “without additional funding, pay or time”, he warns, “will only add pressure and undermine wellbeing”.

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, says there has been “very little detail” on how the new entitlement will be staffed or funded.

“Many schools are currently facing very difficult decisions around reducing staffing, as well as cutting expenditure on areas such as school trips and sports equipment,” he adds.

“Placing additional expectations on schools, without any explanation as to how they will be resourced, cannot be the way forward.”

Billy Huband-Thompson, head of research and policy at the Sutton Trust, says implementation of the enrichment policy will be “challenging [given] significant funding, staffing and time constraints”.

Sutton Trust research from April 2025 shows that 50 per cent of schools were cutting spending on trips and outings, while 27 per cent were reducing sports and other extracurricular activities.

‘Condescending and insulting’

For many teachers, the policy feels detached from the reality in classrooms.

Dylan Price, a primary teacher of 10 years who presents the Teach Sleep Repeat podcast, says that without new money, schools will simply be “asked to do more for nothing”.

“Teachers are already providing these chances for children when they can,” he says. “It feels a bit condescending, almost insulting, to suggest we need new guidance to tell us that enrichment is good for kids.

“We know it’s good - we just can’t keep up.”

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Price says that, with directed time for classroom teachers capped at 1,265 hours a year, clubs run beyond those hours are voluntary unless formally moved into directed time.

Without extra funding, he worries that enrichment will become a “cheap, tick-box activity rather than something meaningful for pupils”.

‘Emotional pressure’

Sophie Bartlett, a key stage 2 teacher and English lead in Oxfordshire, says her previous school once offered teachers a day in lieu for running clubs, but the policy was scrapped.

“We weren’t forced to do them, but we were definitely emotionally pressured to,” she says. “Time was always more valuable than money. Offering time back would be the best way to encourage teachers to do enrichment, because we already give up so much of it.”

Bartlett says she sees “no capacity to provide more” enrichment, adding that teachers already feel torn between guilt and exhaustion.

“There’ll be some teachers who feel they should do a club because they’re on the upper pay scale, or because everyone else is,” she says. “But if there’s no compensation in money or time, they shouldn’t be pressured into it.”

Although Bartlett believes enrichment can help pupils to “flourish” - particularly those who do not thrive in academic subjects - she insists that “it can’t be the only consideration”.

External partnerships

With no sign of additional funding to meet these enrichment benchmarks, school leaders are now considering how they can expand extracurricular activities without putting more strain on staff.

Some say the answer lies in creativity and partnerships, rather than asking staff to do more.

Ann Donaghy, director of secondary education at Archway Learning Trust, argues that enrichment does not always have to mean extra costs or work.

“Funding is always a challenge, and that’s felt across the sector,” she says. “But creating connections and partnerships with third-sector organisations enables opportunities for students through external funding streams.”

At Archway, one example is the National Theatre’s New Views playwriting programme, which is supported by a bursary.

“We can enrich students’ experiences without adding to teachers’ workload or diverting funds from essential classroom provision,” Donaghy says.

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Manny Botwe, headteacher of Tytherington School in Cheshire and a past president of the Association of School and College Leaders, also believes the discussion needs to move beyond schools alone.

This could be “an opportunity to reimagine how young people engage in activities across their community”, he says: many children have lost “third spaces”, such as youth clubs, scouts and cadets, that once provided those experiences.

“This can’t all fall at the feet of schools,” Botwe says. “The government needs to look at how to invest in facilities, in local partnerships and in developing safe community spaces for young people. That’s how you make enrichment sustainable.”

At Tytherington, Year 7 and Year 8 students already take part in a weekly elective programme covering photography, sport, sign language and cooking, which takes place during school hours rather than after school. But Botwe acknowledges that such models are not possible for every school.

When asked whether enrichment could form part of upper-pay-scale progression conversations, Botwe is clear: “I’ve always been sceptical about aligning pay to activities that aren’t about pedagogy, teaching. If we’re requiring staff to do things beyond the pay and conditions, we ought to be paying them for that.”

He also warns against “mission creep” that shifts teachers’ focus away from teaching and learning without structural changes to workload or staffing.

‘Beyond saturation’

Some schools say they are already operating at full capacity in terms of enrichment activities.

Haslingden High School and Sixth Form in Lancashire runs around 60 clubs, from Warhammer and calligraphy to sports, the arts and the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award.

“Every child can see something that’s for them,” says headteacher Russell Clarke. “But teachers are already beyond saturation.”

Most enrichment at Haslingden sits outside of directed time and is unpaid. Staff are “working well beyond their job description” and continue to contribute because they believe in the wider life of the school, says Clarke.

“The moral purpose of enrichment is strong,” he says. “But what has to change is that reforms keep landing with no space made. It often feels like just another set of things adding pressure on to schools.”

Clarke finds himself “asking staff to do less, not more,” because “we’re not an infinite resource and for this to work well, education staff need both time and funding”.

What happens next?

Ofsted will begin taking account of the new benchmarks next year, and enrichment is expected to feature in the forthcoming school profiles that set out key information about every school.

The DfE says the new benchmarks will help to close gaps in access to enrichment, pointing to evidence that pupils eligible for free school meals and those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) take part in fewer activities.

But the message from the profession is consistent: while teachers support enrichment, they cannot deliver more of it under current conditions.

The question for ministers, then, is not whether enrichment matters but how schools can make time for it.

If enrichment goes into directed time, what comes out? And if it stays outside directed time, who pays?

Until there are clear answers to those two questions, teachers argue, the enrichment drive risks exhausting the very people needed to make it happen.

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