Transforming learning for children and young people in Bristol
What are Extended Schools?
“Extended Schools are at the heart of the delivery of Every Child Matters, improving outcomes and raising standards of achievement for children and young people.”
“We have increasingly strong evidence showing the positive impact of extended services on children's motivation, behaviour and engagement with learning.”
Beverley Hughes, Minister of State for Children, Young People and Families.
Extended Schools provide a range of services and activities over and above the normal curriculum, often beyond the school day and including weekends and school holidays, in order to meet the needs of children and their families.
A growing number of Bristol schools are already providing these services and it is the Government's intention that every school will offer extended services by 2010.
Extended schools in Bristol
Our goal is to work with others to ensure that every single child and young person has the best chances in life.
In Bristol we have a good track record of partnership working and we are developing a partnership model across the city for all children's services based on:
- One City
- Three Areas
- Ten Localities
There is an extended school partnership in each of the 10 localities bringing together all the schools, from every age group with other local providers to support children's needs and help them to learn. This means being able to provide the ‘core offer' for children and families, which includes:
- Access to high quality Childcare on the school site or through other local providers all year round, from 8am to 6pm
- A varied menu of activities such as, sport, arts, visits, enterprise activities and a range of study support for schools work including homework clubs, Aim Higher and gifted and talented programmes
- Swift and easy access to a wide range of specialist support services including health services such as speech therapy, mental health services, and social care
- Parenting support including information and help when children transfer between key stages and opportunities for family learning
- Community access to school buildings and resources such as ICT, sports and arts facilities
To make sure this strategy is realised, Bristol Children and Young People's Services has a dedicated Extended Schools leadership team. The team works closely with partnership managers, Head Teachers and a wide range of community groups to ensure:
- Delivery of the core offer is on course
- Development plans meet local needs and priorities and funding is directed specifically to making a difference for children and their families
- Schools and communities are brought closer together in the way in which they plan collaboratively to achieve the Every Child Matters outcomes for all children
- Effective communication and joint working between CYPS and other partners
- Good practice is recognised and shared across the City to benefit of children
- Training, support and advice is made available to all partners
We report regularly to the Training and Development Agency on our progress against the Core Offer. One way of demonstrating our impact is through the production of case studies which demonstrate the day to day impact of our partnerships on the lives of our children and their families. Each Partnership publishes case studies which can be found by following the links to the individual localities.