Core Offer
An extended school works with the local authority, local providers and other schools to provide access to integrated services.
The Government has set out a ‘core offer’ of extended services that it wants children and their families to be able to access through schools by September 2010.
- Quality Childcare on site or through local providers
- A varied menu of activities including study support
- Parenting support including family learning
- Swift and easy access to specialised support services
- Community access including adult learning
- With extended schools providing quality childcare parents and carers will be able to return to work safe in the knowledge that their child is being cared for in a high quality safe environment.
- Study Support is a learning activity outside the normal lessons which young people take part in voluntarily. Its purpose is to improve young people's motivation, build their self esteem, help them become more effective learners and above all to raise achievement.
A varied menu of activities can include:
- Arts and crafts
- breakfast clubs
- community and voluntary service
- dance and drama
- extension and revision
- homework clubs
- learning another language
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- maths and science clubs
- music
- outdoor and environment
- special interest clubs
- sport and physical activity
- summer schools
- visits to museums and galleries
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- Research has shown that good parenting in the home makes a big difference to children’s outcomes. By providing information sessions for parents at key transition points in their lives, parenting programmes and family learning sessions schools can help children’s learning and behaviour.
Some ways schools are providing support to parents:
- Setting up workshops for parents at the school, run by national charities like Parentline Plus.
- Using family link nurturing programmes which provide structured 10 week courses for both parents and carers and children.
- Offering family learning classes whereby parents learn alongside their children.
- Providing information sessions for parents at key transition points in their lives such as moving from primary to secondary school.
- Developing parent rooms to encourage formal and informal learning.
- Swift and easy access to specialised support services. This about schools working closely with other services to identify and support children and young people with emotional and behavioural, health or other difficulties as early as possible. Extended schools can provide swift and easy access to a wide range of services such as speech therapy, child and adolescent mental health services, family support services, and intensive behaviour support. Some these services may be provided on a school site.
- Each extended school is working towards providing wider community access to facilities such as ICT, sports and arts, and adult learning in a range of subjects including maths and English.
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