7 ways to make your school enrichment day the best it can be!

At Fun Matters, we know a thing or two about making school enrichment days the best they can be. After all, we have been running school events for over 10 years. Over those years there are a few top tips we have picked up to ensure your school activity day runs like clockwork.

1.      Food and Drink

Most of the events we run for independent schools are run over 1-3 days, and they are long days for our team. We always appreciate it when school staff provide some drinks and refreshments for the Fun Matters team. Not only does it make us feel welcome and appreciated it also keeps everyone motivated and on top form for the long days. An army marches on its stomach and all, well so do the Fun Matters team.  

Refreshments don’t have to be complicated a few cups of tea or some cold squash on a hot July day are perfect for fortifying our troops.

2.      Get teachers involved

At Fun Matters, we do provide a full team for supervision at events, but when you have over a hundred pupils and up to 10 activity stations an extra pair of hands is always useful. Providing us with a few teachers to help run the event and keep the pupils on track makes a huge difference to the smooth running of your school event.

Ideally try to provide one teacher, or member of staff, per station.  Teachers are much better at discipline for students than Fun Matters staff, and the students are much more likely to take instruction from staff backed up by our team, rather than the other way round.

3.      Plenty of space

Make sure you have factored in plenty of space for your event, you want to ensure there is plenty of open space between stations so groups/teams can move around easily between activities. A typical 6 - 8 station set up, like our It’s a knockout package, will require about a small football-sized pitch area. For most schools, we tend to recommend using a playing field of some form, either football, cricket or rugby. It is always better to have too much space and not use all of it, than not enough space and be tight to manage at the outset.

It is also worth considering the suitability of the space for this type of event and the time of year. If you are running an event in the height of summer then this should be less of an issue but English summers are notoriously unpredictable. So, consider how well the site will hold up in rain, especially if your event is being held in autumn or spring.

4.      Vehicle Access

Continuing on the theme of choosing the right space for your event. When choosing your field/pitch areas make sure there is easy vehicular access to the set-up area. It is also worth checking beforehand with your maintenance or ground care staff to ensure they are aware of the event and happy for us to use the space.

Bare in mind we will need to drive relatively large vehicles onto the site, and then drive pins into the ground to ensure all the inflatables are safely secured for use. Sometimes schools imagine our pins are similar to tent pegs but they are much bigger, up to two-foot-long and thicker than a standard tent peg. The size of the inflatables means we need to be able to park the vehicles nice and close to unload and run the set-up process efficiently.

We do try to keep our impact on the pitch/field to a minimum but the fact is we are bringing in heavy vehicles and tramping about with large inflatables, not to mention all the pupils running around on the space for the duration of your event. Speaking to your ground care team early will allow them time to make any preparations or changes they would like to do before we arrive which keeps them happy and ensures the day runs far smoother.

5.      Enthusiastic helpers.

In our experience, the events which run the best are ones where the school are able to provide enthusiastic helpers to support the running of the activity day. This could include teachers, non-teaching staff, or even prefects and pupils. These helpers make all the difference in ensuring that everyone is looked after and the activity stations all run smoothly throughout the day. Roles for these helpers range from team scoring to managing turns and resetting games between rounds.

Our activity days are fun-filled and require energy from both sides, the ideal staff from the school are keen PE staff. But any member of staff or responsible student who has plenty of energy likes fun activities and interaction with the students will do the trick. This helps everyone get the maximum out of the sessions.

6.      Positive Attitude

By the time you factor in set up and pack up time, our school events are long days for both our staff and the teachers supporting us. So, it helps to have a really positive and motivated attitude to the day. If it is a hot and sunny day it can be draining for our staff and teachers to keep the energy levels turned up to 11 for the whole day. But it is all worth it when you see the students engaged and enthusiastic throughout. The enjoyment and fun that shows on all the pupils faces go a long way to ensure that everyone taking part has an amazing and enriching day, from staff and teachers to the pupils themselves.

Teachers really help to set the tone for the day and having a positive and enthusiastic outlook from the start really makes a huge impact on the success of an event. Some of the schools we have worked with year after year are perfect examples of this. Take Dauntseys school we have been going there since 2013 and every year the whole staff team is so welcoming and excited to see us. The passion from their teachers makes that event one of the most fun events we have done.

To find out more about our events and check our availability please fill in the form below or give us a call.