I went to the 4Children Extended schools conference in Bristol and although pretty dull with speaker following speaker in the morning and a rather uninspiring seminar in the afternoon, the information I gathered was very useful.
Matt
For example, did you know that the Extended schools programme had £265 million pounds committed to it over the next 3 years, that’s the equivalent of £11,500 per school, or over £1.6 million per local authority, but schools won’t necessarily be able to get their hands on any of it directly, that is for the LA to decide.
There are currently about 8000 schools with an extended services provision, and the plans are to have 18,000 by 2009/10 and then every single school, all 23,000 of them, to have some kind of extended schools programme by 2010/11. That means every pupil in England will have access to ‘high-quality childcare, 8am–6pm, five days a week, 48 weeks a year’ Now, that’s ambitious!.
The five core offers of the service are:
– Primary schools offer high-quality childcare combined with a varied menu of activities (study support)
– Secondary schools provide access to a varied menu of study support and enrichment activities as well as a safe place to be
– All schools offer parenting support: information and advice, access to parenting groups and family learning
– Swift and easy access: schools ensure that children with additional needs are identified early, and well supported through integrated working with other services
– Schools offer community access to appropriate facilities such as ICT suites, sports and arts facilities – and adult learning
So, what has all this to do with us? Well the DCSF and the TDA are very actively seeking third sector and voluntary partners, ideally by providing services directly to LAs and schools. Amongst all the talk of working together with teachers, parents, the community, statutory providers and the private sector there was little to no mention of working with the young people themselves.
It seems to me to be a real missed opportunity by the DCSF to enagage children in their own schools and communities by having them involved in planning and even running some of the extended services on offer. I plan to approach Valerie White at the DSCF Extended Schools Dept about this, to discuss how we can help them to ensure young people are full partners in their own extended provisions.
I want your ideas and contributions, which we can discuss at the team meeting, but please add you intiial thoughts in the comments section of this post.
Thanks