Extended schools
An extended school works with the local authority, local providers and other schools to provide access to a core offer of integrated services designed to enrich and support the experience of children and young people, and remove any barriers to their achievement. The core offer consists of:
- a varied range of study support activities
- childcare in primary schools
- parenting and family support
- swift and easy access to targeted and specialist services
- community access to facilities.
Extended services can help to: improve pupils' attainment, self-confidence, motivation and attendance; reduce exclusion rates; and enhance children's and families access to services.
It has been recognised in recent years that supplementary education forms part of the wider extended services agenda. Supplementary schools are actively included in the planning and delivery of extended services across the country.
Supplementary schools can contribute to the core offer by, for example:
- providing study support activities, such as language classes, homework support, and holiday clubs
- delivering family learning sessions and parenting classes in partnership with local trainers
- providing advice to newly-arrived families and supporting newly-arrived children as they enrol into mainstream education
- supporting users with no or little English access services more effectively.
Some local authorities have trained supplementary school staff in making referrals to social care through the Common Assessment Framework (CAF).
Supplementary schools usually struggle to find affordable and suitable teaching premises; they would, therefore, always welcome the possibility of using mainstream classrooms and premises.
Case study: Birmingham local authority
Links between extended services and supplementary schools help a mainstream school to meet it’s core offer by providing:
- community access to facilities including adult and family learning, ICT and sports facilities
- swift and easy access to targeted and specialist services
- a varied menu of activities including study support, sport and music clubs.
Raising standards in literacy through mainstream and supplementary school links
The above linking project was developed by Birmingham Local Authority in collaboration with Extended Services. Funded by Extended Services this 30 week programme identified a number of supplementary and mainstream schools working as partners with pupils who needed additional literacy support. Eighteen partnerships have been developed between supplementary schools and mainstream schools where a group of children are attending both schools.
The mainstream schools identify a cohort of ten children in need of extra help with literacy. Each partner school signs an agreement to deliver the programme. The supplementary schools have been given funding to pay for a tutor who must have experience in supporting children’s literacy at primary level. The mainstream school nominates a representative who visits the supplementary schools for two hours every fortnight to monitor the work, provide appropriate teaching and learning resources, help the literacy tutor with differentiated lesson planning and setting out shared learning objectives for lessons, support behaviour management and monitor teacher assessment records. Every six weeks the mainstream link person provides a written progress report for the supplementary school literacy tutor.
As with any project evidencing impact is vital. Individual Learning Plans are prepared for targeted pupils in the light of literacy levels provided by mainstream schools as baseline information and the Target Levels to work towards.