Plan a term or half term of activities at a time – it will save time later as you won’t be racking your brain for an activity.
Pick the brains of other teachers not involved in running the Club, they might know of some good experiments or projects.
Know your budget and plan accordingly.
Have lots of helpers and rotate who has overall responsibility for planning and leading each session. This eliminates one person having sole responsibility.
If you meet at lunchtime and your sessions are short; fun, easy activities tend to work best as you won’t have time to explain complicated ideas or procedures.
If you want to take some photos, draft in someone as photographer, you’ll find it hard to lead the session and take photos too.
Think about sustainability, hopefully your Club will be running for years.
Remember to file all risk assessments and session plans for use at a later date, it will save lots of time.
Find enthusiastic people to help – enthusiasm is contagious and it will make the sessions much more enjoyable.
Try all experiments first, even ones that look easy can go horribly wrong!
Your most popular activities will always involve mess, bangs and smells!