Extended Schools

What is Extended Schools?

An extended school consortium is a cluster of schools, ranging in number and covering early years provision (including children's centre’s), special status schools and Secondary schools. It is designed to meet the diverse needs of parents and children in the schools and local community through a wide range of activities, events and training opportunities. Schools are not expected to deliver these services and activities on their own but to work with other schools and with external partners and providers - for example, the health service, the local college, private and voluntary organisations. Groups of schools can work together in groups (called Consortiums or Clusters) and they do not have to deliver all of the services and activities on each school site. It's an area that's evolving all the time, but there is a core offer of extended services that the Government wants all children to be able to access by 2010. These core services are:

childcare

a varied menu of study support activities

parenting support and family learning

swift and easy referral to a wide range of specialist support services

community access to ICT, sports and arts facilities, including adult learning

These are linked directly to the ' Every Child Matters ' document and draw on the knowledge and expertise of a wide range of professionals from different agencies and services.

Benefits of Extending Schools Activities

For pupils and schools:

Higher level of pupil achievement

Increased pupil motivation and self esteem

Specialist support to meet pupils wider needs

Additional facilities and equipment

Enhanced partnership working with the community

Better school security

For families:

Improvements in child behaviour and social skills

Greater parental involvement in children's learning

More opportunities for local adult education and family learning

Greater availability of specialist support for families

For communities:

Better access to essential services

Improved local availability of sports, arts and other facilities

Local career development opportunities

Better supervision of children outside of school hours

Closer relationships with the school