The Government pledge that, by 2010, ‘all children should have access to a variety of activities beyond the school day' and that these will give 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'. The Government has an ambitious vision both of educational excellence, with high and rising standards in schools; and of appropriate, targeted support for individual young people so that the Every Child Matters outcomes become a reality.
Study support is an important strand of the breadth of services delivered by extended schools. The Government wants all schools (primary and secondary) to develop as extended schools. Its Five Year Strategy for Children and Learners, published in July 2004, sets out a core offer of extended services that it wants all schools to develop over time. These include study support activities. The Government's Ten Year Strategy (Choice for Parents, the Best Start for Children), published in December 2004, reinforced this commitment. Effective provision of these services in schools and children's centres include access to childcare outside the school day; swift and easy referral to services families may need, for example health services; use of the settings' facilities by the community; a varied menu of activities and parenting support.
The significance of study support has increased recently, as it now forms 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.
Extended services in schools and children's centres 2006 HMI 2609 www.ofsted.gov.uk
In order to ensure the successful achievement of the Every Child Matters (ECM) outcomes, Trafford's study support strategy should be linked to other strategies and initiatives within the local authority and nationally e.g. personalised learning, extended services, PE School Sport and Club Links, Youth Matters, Healthy Schools etc. so that common objectives are identified, strategies interwoven and effective teams created and built in order to deliver the required outcomes.
Download Strategy.doc from Trafford Learning Webiste
