The school day
More and more schools are considering re-shaping the school day to meet the needs of their pupils, parents and the community. Indeed, for some, the idea of the core offer is too modest - with a vision of 24/7, 365 a year schooling seen as the goal to aim for!
Flexibility and experimentation
Yet wherever you are as a school on this journey, many see study support as the most straightforward starting point for re-shaping the school day. Whether before school, at lunchtime, after school or at weekends, it is an ideal place:
- to 'experiment'
- to modify or personalise the curriculum
- to be a test bed for new approaches to teaching and learning.
As study support activities often have explicit and direct links to the curriculum it is also a safe way of creating flexibility to the shape of the school day, without requiring major change or disruption to teachers, pupils, staff or parents. Find out more about changing the shape of the school day or see case studies of schools who have changed the school day.
Breakfast clubs - a creative 'third space' for learning
A great example of the power of study support has been in the rapid growth of Breakfast club provision, which has transformed the shape of the school day in many primary schools and some secondary and special schools across the country. By fusing breakfast with enjoyable learning activities and other services, it has created a minor revolution in how pupils and parents access the school between the hours of 8am-9am and created a creative 'third space' for learning.
