What Are Extended Schools?
An extended school provides a varied range of activities and services that may go beyond the school day that supports the needs of pupils, their families and communities. Such services and activities may be provided by the school itself or in association with other organisations who already work with the school and/or other agencies, groups or organisations.
The government’s plans are that every school is an extended school by 2010. The challenge for schools and the cluster project managers is:
- to ensure that all pupils in all schools have access to the core offer of extended services by facilitating the development of extended school provision;
- to ensure that each local area has a tailored range of provision that enhances pupils’, families’ and communities’ experience according to demand and need.
The Core Offers
The “Core Offers” are linked to the “Outcomes” of the Government’s Every Child Matters policy and Bradford’s Children & Young People’s Plan, both of which is intended to ensure that every child can be safe and secure, healthy, can enjoy and achieve both at school and in outside activities and to make a positive contribution – in other words, to have the best start in life.
The Core Offers are:
- High quality ‘wraparound’ childcare provided on the school site or through other local providers, with supervised transfer arrangements where appropriate, available 8am-6pm all year round.
- A varied menu of activities, to include study support, and offer such activities as homework clubs and study support, sport, music tuition, dance and drama, arts and crafts, special interest clubs, learning a foreign language, volunteering, business and enterprise activities.
- Parenting support including information sessions for parents at key transition points, parenting programmes run with the support of other children’s services and family learning sessions to allow children to learn with their parents.
- Swift and easy access to a wide range of specialist support services such as speech therapy, child and adolescent mental health services, family support services, intensive behaviour support, and for young people, sexual health services.
- Providing wider community access to ICT, sports and arts facilities, including adult learning. Extra services in response to parental demand may be provided or signposted.
The Bingley Extended Schools Steering Group
(Click on the link to read about the Steering Group)
For further information, please contact:-
Jenny Butterworth (Extended Schools Project Manager) at:
Crossflatts Primary School, Morton Lane, Bingley BD16 2EP
jenny.bes@live.co.uk
Tel.: 01274 782041
