Since the school went to one session the afternoons are free, and they are the part of the week the children talk about.
Nine clubs run on four afternoons: football, netball, athletics, the garden, art, the Quran club, drama, a small science club and a chess club that has thirty one members and two boards. All of them are free, all of them are run by teachers who are paid for the time rather than expected to volunteer it, and a child may join two.
Sport is played against the school on the neighbouring island four times a year, home and away on the school boat, and those days are the highlight of the year for about half the school.
The garden club is the one visitors ask about. It grows food, the canteen uses it, the children eat what they grow, and it is the only place in the school where a child who is finding lessons hard is routinely the one who knows what to do.
Afternoons end at half past four, and the school boat and the walking groups are arranged so that no child from the far end of the island goes home alone in the dark in the wet months.