Making it work

Making it work Study support at the heart of your extended services provision Revised March 2007 ‘By 2010, all children should have access to a variety of activities beyond the school day. Well-organised, safe and stimulating activities before and after school provide children and young people with a wider range of experiences and make a real difference to their chances at school. It gives them the opportunity to keep fit and healthy, to acquire new skills, to build on what they learn during the school day or simply to have fun and relax.’ (Ruth Kelly, Foreword to the extended schools prospectus, Extended schools: access to opportunities and services for all, DfES, June 2005) Revised March 2007 Revised March 2007 Introduction Study support (or out-of-school-hours learning) describes the wide range of informal learning activities that young people take part in voluntarily outside normal school hours. This includes activities before school, at breaks, after school, during holidays and at the weekends. The range of study support activities includes: • sport and physical activity; breakfast clubs • arts and crafts, design technology and ICT • homework clubs and revision sessions • activities linked to the curriculum (eg creative and performing arts) • peer mentoring and peer tutoring schemes • volunteering • summer schools and residential experiences • visits to museums, galleries and heritage sites • modern foreign languages • environmental projects. Study support is a broad term that can be used to refer to activities that take place in play settings, during formal childcare provision, and in other settings that have been designed to meet the core offer requirement of providing a ‘safe space to be’ for children and young people aged 11 to 14. About this booklet This booklet explains how your school can maximise the impact of its study support programme as a key part of its extended services provision, and build on the strengths of its existing out-of-hours activities. It shows how – with a range of free, new resources – your school can gain additional support for present and future planning. The booklet contains: • a short explanation of the policy framework for study support • pointers for planning an effective programme of activities beyond the school day • signposting to free resources (online and printed) to help your school provide a range of learning opportunities • information about other services that can underpin study support work. Why is study support so important? ‘The importance of participation in study support … has been widely recognised for some time, and the benefits are particularly evident where a school … has included a programme of study support activity in its overall strategy for school improvement.’ (Alison Lockwood and Richard Page, Introduction to Study Support ETC DfES 2006 www.continyou.org.uk/studysupportetc) Study support is an integral part of the ‘core offer’ of extended services that all schools are expected to provide by 2010, either individually or in partnership with others. You will need to consider how best to provide a wide range of activities that meet the needs of your pupils and the local community all year round. Study support has been proven to have many benefits, not only for the children and young people who participate, but also for their families, the local community and the school. Ultimately, study support is a tool for raising standards of achievement through increasing levels of engagement in extended/wider learning opportunities. Free online resource Since 2005 the DfES has commissioned ContinYou to create a web-based resource to help schools develop their study support provision. This resource – called Study Support ETC – has been designed to provide up-to-date information and a range of tools to help you plan, manage and develop your study support programmes. Study Support ETC is a one-stop-shop that includes sections on: • auditing needs • re-shaping the school day • policy and evidence • staffing and resourcing • involving young people • case studies. Look out for this symbol , where we refer you to key sections of the Study Support ETC website: www.continyou.org.uk/studysupportetc. Study Support ETC complements ContinYou’s wider ETC brand – Extending to Communities – which is led by our subscription magazine Schools ETC. Visit www.continyou.org.uk/schoolsetc to find out more. A policy framework for study support Extended schools Study support is one element of the core offer of extended services in and around schools. To varying degrees it can also contribute to the delivery of the others: • a varied menu of study support actvities, combined with childcare – although study support and childcare have different purposes, there is considerable overlap and the children and young people participating may not be overtly aware of the differences themselves – for example, a breakfast club that provides both learning and a care element. Study support should form a key part of high-quality wraparound childcare. You should plan childcare and study support services together to ensure consistency and compatibility of provision. • parental support, including family learning – many schools and other settings have developed family learning through the study support offer, for example, Dads and Lads, family ICT sessions, intergenerational projects, and healthy living activities. Parents and carers are often motivated to engage in these opportunities in order to support their children’s learning more effectively and, once engaged, they are more likely to identify their own needs and access additional support and services on offer. • swift and easy referral to a wide range of specialist support services – multi-agency partners and professionals from other services are increasingly engaged as providers of, or contributors to, study support – for example, drop-in counselling, health projects, or training peer mentors. In addition to the benefits to well-being and learning, greater opportunities to share information and remove barriers between services are therefore opened up. • community access, including adult learning – study support, through partnership working, provides the community with greater access to learning facilities and resources – for example, holiday clubs run by the UFA or Children’s University, family trips and outings, and accredited volunteer and mentoring training. In addition, the distinct ethos of Study Support can be successfully applied to family and adult learning. Visit Teachernet at www.teachernet.gov.ukwholeschool/extendedschools, or ContinYou at www.continyou.org.uk/extendedschools, to find out more. Every Child Matters Study support activities, projects and programmes can enable schools to address each of the five Every Child Matters outcomes: • be healthy – for example, by offering activities that promote physical health (such as breakfast clubs, cookery clubs, aerobics or tri-golf) or mental health (such as Tai Chi, stress management or counselling) • stay safe – for example, by offering activities that raise awareness of self-defence and first aid, or through developing anti-bullying initiatives • enjoy and achieve – for example, by offering activities that reconnect or extend young people’s interest in existing classroom subjects, such as Robot Wars (ICT), a Sudoku club (maths), or the development of new skills such as juggling or street sports that create new opportunities and contexts for learning • make a positive contribution – for example, by offering activities that encourage young people t look beyond themselves to the wider world, such as volunteering opportunities, peer-mentoring or young enterprise activities • achieve economic well-being – for example, by offering activities that involve local businesses, or that increase young people’s financial literacy or their awareness of the world of work. Every local authority is now developing arrangements for children’s services, including children’s trusts, in order to find out what works best for children and young people in their area. Study support can play a significant role in informing the decisions reached in Children and Young People’s Plans. It can also provide an effective strategy for schools and multi-agency partners to improve outcomes for all children and young people. Ofsted Since September 2005, Ofsted has inspected schools under new guidelines that are designed to be consisten with the new integrated inspections of children’s services, including being inspected against the five Every Child Matters outcomes. When completing your self-evaluation form (SEF), you should aim to include details of the outcomes and impact of your school’s study support programmes, rather than simply presenting a list of the activities that are on offer. In the context of study support, inspectors are asked to comment on ‘the extent t which enrichment activities and/or extended services contribute to the learners’ enjoyment and achievement’. You should also prioritise discussing extended services with your designated school improvement partner. The Five Year Strategy and Schools White Paper Study support is a key part of the DfES’ Five Year Strategy for Children and Learners. It states: ‘We want more schools to develop extended services of all kinds [including] ... a wide range of study support activities’. The Schools White Paper also highlights the importance of extended services: ‘Our ambitious commitment to schools offering extended 8am–6pm provision to pupils … [is] key to supporting children’s learning and to families’ involvement and engagement with schools in their communities’ (Higher standards, better schools for all, HMSO 2005, p75).  Visit the ‘Policy and evidence’ section of the Study Support ETC website at www.continyou.org.uk/etcpolicy to find out more about school improvement and Every Child Matters. The impact of study support There is considerable evidence that participation in study support leads to improvements in young people’s self-esteem, attitudes to learning, achievement, classroom behaviour and school attendance. Other benefits of study support for children and young people are that they can: • have fun while developing new skills • mix with different groups of pupils and adults • learn at their own pace • achieve success in different areas • become motivated through success • improve their health and fitness • gain access to a wider range of facilities and resources. In the report The impact of study support (DfES, 2001) Macbeath et al found that pupils who took part in regular study support activities did better by an average of 3.5 extra grades, or one extra A–C pass, than those who did not participate. In Learning out of hours: the quality and management of study support in secondary schools (2002), Ofsted highlighted a strong relationship between the provision of ‘extra-curricular activities’ and pupil attitude and attendance.  Visit www.continyou.org.uk/onlinereference for summaries of the key research and reports into the impact of study support. Strategic planning of study support programmes Find out what’s needed You need to be aware of the ‘big picture’ of what is happening in your school in order to make the best use of resources and to identify new opportunities for study support within and outside your school. You will also need to be aware of who attends, but, more importantly, who doesn’t, and why they don’t. Successful study support depends on having regular conversations with the pupils, children and young people you are trying to target in order to understand what they want. You may already have conducted an audit as part of your school improvement/Ofsted planning processes. If not, you could work with senior colleagues and partners to audit what you do. Ensure that there is a clear strategy behind the study support activities or programme currently being offered or planned.  Use a template found in the ‘Needs audit’ section of the Study Support ETC website at www.continyou.org.uk/etcaudit. School planning and strategy Is your study support effectively contributing to the achievement of the goals in your school improvement plan and SEF? Work with colleagues to identify how study support can best contribute to your priorities and how you can demonstrate this. For example, setting up a breakfast club can contribute to improving pupils’ health, attendance and punctuality. Well run and well targeted homework support clubs can have a beneficial impact on underachieving pupils. For study support to develop and flourish, you need a whole-school understanding of its importance, to ensure that everyone will want to contribute to its success, and feed the findings back into the development of new/ongoing activities. Targeting and inclusion Well planned and well targeted study support activities can have a significant impact on a range of school improvement priorities and make schools much more inclusive. Issues to consider: • What do you know about the children and young people who currently take part in study support activities? Are they the pupils who already benefit most from schooling? • Look at attendance registers, and talk to those who don’t attend about why they don’t. Run taster activities for different groups. Ask other pupils to plan and run activities themselves. • Which pupils would benefit most from taking part in study support activities? Look at gender issues and assessment results, for instance – who should be targeted and with what activity? Do you need to bring in outside experts or members of the community to help deliver the activity? • Ensure that children with special educational needs (including gifted and talented children) and disabilities are fully included in study support activities.  Visit the ’Targeting and inclusion’ section of the Study Support ETC website at www.continyou.org.uk/etctargeting to see a checklist of questions to ask yourself and actions to take. Involving young people and parents Pupils and parents are your most valuable resource when planning study support and extended provision. Ensure that you have mechanisms in place to find out what pupils would like to take part in and how they can be involved in the planning or delivery of activities.  Ideas about how to involve young people can be found in the ‘Involving young people’ section of the Study Support ETC website at www.continyou.org.uk/etcyoungpeople. Partnerships The extended schools prospectus states that: ‘Schools will need to work in partnership with other providers to complement and support access to existing services in the community’ (DfES 2005, p9). You will no doubt already be working with trusted partners, including parents, tutors and members of the local community. Consider how these can be developed to further support your school’s study support provision. Who else is providing activities, for instance, supplementary schools, sports clubs, the voluntary sector, or the local YMCA? Are there facilities in the local area that your target group would benefit from having access to?  The ‘Partnerships’ section of the Study Support ETC website at www.continyou.org.uk/etcpartners includes a list of potential partners at local and regional levels. Health and safety Study support activities and extended services require procedures and systems to be in place to ensure pupils, parents and staff are safe and protected from harm. • Insurance: Check this with your local authority. Study support activities that are run by the school are usually covered by the school’s insurance. However, provision off-site may need additional insurance (school journeys, for example). You should also check the insurance arrangements of other agencies running activities, as these may vary from one type to another. • Criminal Records Bureau disclosures: All adults running activities will need to be checked through the Criminal Records Bureau. This should be explained to newcomers and volunteers. Some may have already organised their own checks, in which case you will need to ask for documentation at least. • Risk assessments: Each activity and each venue/space will need to be assessed for potential risk to staff and participants, using a sliding scale: low, medium, high and significant hazard.  Visit the ‘Health and safety’ section of the Study Support ETC website at www.continyou.org.uk/etchealth – or download Safe keeping: a good practice guide for health and safety in study support (DfES, October 2000) at www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/studysupport/docs/safekeep – for detailed guidance and sample documentation used by schools and local authorities. Staffing a study support programme Some schools have appointed a co-ordinator for study support/extended services. While it is not essential for this person to be a member of the teaching staff, it is important they have a direct link to, or are a member of, the senior management team. Staffing individual activities can be a challenge, but if your school’s decisions about this are consistent with workforce remodelling, staff can be rewarded and recognised for their involvement in study support in ways that can be mutually agreed between themselves and school management. For example, lunchtime staff can be offered time off in lieu or teachers offered a day off once a term for running a ten-week oshl activity. When considering what activities to run, also look at existing expertise in your school and locally – among support staff, older students, parents, carers, friends of the school and the local community. Ask people for ideas about how they might use their expertise. Other schools have involved premises officers, school nurses, local businesses, catering staff, Year 6 pupils, sixth formers and local over-60s clubs to help deliver their study support activities.  Visit the ‘Staffing’ section of the Study Support ETC website at www.continyou.org.uk/etcstaff for more ideas about how to staff and deliver your programme. Funding the programme A range of different funding sources can be used for study support activities and projects, including the School Development Grant, donations from local businesses, local authority funding, Awards for All grants, and funds from charitable trusts. Some schools have also secured personalised learning and the standards grant. Some have set up separate charitable trusts or committees to raise funds for their activities, as they can attract grants for voluntary organisations that schools cannot normally access. In order to ensure sustainability, you should consult with local parents, carers and young people about implementing a charging policy for your local study support activities. Activities that are run by external providers – for example, sports coaching, activities at sports centres and individual music tuition – might be the easiest place to start. Parents can only be charged for activities that happen outside school hours when these activities are not a necessary part of the national curriculum or do not form part of the school’s basic curriculum for religious education. In addition, no charge can be made for activities that are an essential part of the syllabus for an approved examination. If childcare is offered through study support to under 8s, the provision may need to be registered and regulated by Ofsted.  Visit Teachernet at www.teachernet.gov.uk/_doc/9843/Planningand%20fundingextendedschools.pdf – or the ‘Funding’ section of the Study Support ETC website at www.continyou.org.uk/etcfunding – for the latest updates about study support and extended services funding from government and other sources. Useful resources Case studies The Study Support ETC website features an extensive database of study support/extended services case studies from schools across the UK.  Visit the ‘Case studies’ section of the Study Support ETC website at www.continyou.org.uk/casestudies – or send us your own case study of good practice. Extra Time resource packs – free ContinYou has produced a series of resource packs that show how to set up clubs and keep them going. These comprehensive guides will help you with funding, planning, management, promotion, ideas for activities, fitting with school improvement, and so on. Guides are available for maths, reading, breakfast, cookery and OwnZone clubs.  Printed versions are available – call 020 8709 9900 or email info.london@continyou.org.uk. Packs can also be downloaded from the ‘Resources’ section of the Study Support ETC website at www.continyou.org.uk/etcresources. Study Support Code of Practice This brings together, for the first time, guidance for primary, secondary and special schools, which reflects the increasing collaboration between phases. Many schools have extended and improved their study support provision, and the involvement of pupils, parents and other partners. The changes incorporated in this new edition of the code of practice reflect these developments.  Download a copy from www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/studysupport/816987/cop.PDF. Breakfast Club Plus ContinYou’s Breakfast Club Plus network offers you everything you need to set up and run a breakfast club – tools for budgeting, finding funding, monitoring and evaluating, case studies, activity planners, and so on.  For more information, visit www.breakfastclubplus.org.uk. Study support: a national framework for extending learning opportunities A new national framework for study support was published in 2006 by the DfES. It provides local authorities, schools and other relevant organisations with practical advice and guidance on setting up and sustaining study support programmes. It also raises the profile of the benefits and positive impact study support can have on pupils, families, schools and communities. To obtain copies, contact DfES Publications on 0845 60 222 60 and quote reference 03859-2006BKT-EN, or download a copy from www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/studysupport/docs/study_support_framework. A six-page summary document is also available directly from ContinYou on 020 8709 9900. Schools ETC (Extending to Communities) Schools are exploring new ways of extending services in a drive to achieve sustainable improvement in their achievements, and to ensure that they deliver the five outcomes of Every Child Matters. The Schools ETC magazine highlights the huge range of partnerships and initiatives being developed through schools across the UK in order to support learning beyond the classroom and bring about more coherent services for children and families. Visit www.continyou.org.uk/schoolsetc or email jason.barlow@continyou.org.uk for more information. Extended schools: access to opportunities and services for all (Extended Schools Prospectus) Extended schools, as outlined in this prospectus, provide a range of services and activities, often beyond the school day, to help meet the needs of children, their families and the wider community. This prospectus sets out a menu of extended services that the government wants to see all children enjoy by 2010, and in half of primary schools and a third of secondary schools by 2008. Download a copy from www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/extendedschools Websites ContinYou Study Support ETC website: www.continyou.org.uk/studysupportetc DfES Study Support: www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/studysupport Teachernet – Extended Schools: www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/extendedschools Every Child Matters: www.everychildmatters.gov.uk National Remodelling Team: www.remodelling.org Organisations ContinYou ContinYou is one of the UK’s leading community learning organisations. ContinYou uses learning to tackle inequality and build social inclusion. It creates learning programmes and services that offer fresh opportunities to people who have gained least from formal education and training. ContinYou runs the Extended Services Team for the DfES, and supports local authorities and schools in the development of good practice in study support. Visit www.continyou.org.uk. Quality in Study Support QiSS is part of Canterbury Christ Church University’s Faculty of Education. Their work focuses on supporting schools and local authorities and other educational bodies in raising standards of achievement and transforming learning and teaching. They do this through research, consultancy, staff development programmes and quality assurance processes, including the QiSS Recognition Scheme. Visit www.canterbury.ac.uk/education/departments/professional-development/ centres/quality-in-study-support. University of the First Age The UFA is a national educational charity that works in partnership to develop the confidence, achievement and potential of young people through extended learning opportunities. It provides models of how different learning environments can be designed, and runs and trains learning teams of parents, community members, young people and others to support and deliver extended services provision. Visit www.ufa.org.uk. Acknowledgements ContinYou acknowledges the generous support of the Department for Education and Skills in developing this publication. It was written by Ian Fordham and updated by Jenna Hall, edited by Louise Pile and designed by Paul Mepham. Published by ContinYou, 17 Old Ford Road, London E2 9PJ Tel: 020 8709 9900 Fax: 020 8709 9933 First published 2006. Updated 2007. Edition 2. Email: info.london@continyou.org.uk Website: www.continyou.org.uk Registered charity number: 1097596