OVERVIEW

The purpose of this framework is to provide the Head teacher, teachers and governors with a statement of the extended schools provision which the Extended Schools Coordinator plans to introduce, in partnership with the school and many local service providers, during the academic year 2005/06.

The provision will necessarily be limited by the constraints of time and by the size of the cluster (we have the second largest extended schools cluster in the East Riding). However, it is envisaged that all schools in the cluster will be offered the opportunity to work with the Extended Schools Coordinator to extend one or more of its “core services” during this academic year.

There are 16 schools in the Driffield cluster and each has its own individual extended schools framework, which has been produced after a fairly exhaustive, if time limited, process which involved the completion of an audit for each school, a community questionnaire and a process of consultations between each Head teacher and the Extended Schools Coordinator.

In addition, consultations have been carried out with and feedback obtained from various local agencies and service providers including the Youth Service, Connexions, Early Years Development, Driffield Town Council, Humber & Wolds Rural Communities Council, Adult Education, East Riding College and East Riding (council for) Voluntary Youth Services to name but a few.

The audit, which was carried out in April 2005, highlighted the fact that all the schools in the Driffield cluster are already offering some of the “core services” to a greater or lesser degree. For instance, some schools already have established breakfast and after school clubs, one school has already had an Ofsted Report which included their successful family and adult learning provision and all schools already provide some study support, sports and arts activities.

The community questionnaire, which was completed in June/July 2005, was designed to establish demand for extended schools services and to identify areas of need which may be addressed by introducing or enhancing existing “core services”. With an average 20% response across the cluster, the results from the questionnaire have provided valid and compelling evidence of the main areas which the extended schools agenda in the Driffield cluster needs to address.

With one or two notable exceptions, the overwhelming demand from parents is for childcare provision before and after school and during school holidays. Most of the individual frameworks therefore include strategies which will be put in to action throughout the coming year and which, hopefully, will go some of the way to meeting this need.

Demand for the “core service” of family learning was also notable and an effort has and will continue to be made to meet these demands by offering various learning opportunities to individual schools and also to partnerships. Where numbers are too small in individual schools for a course to run, the use of partnerships between schools will allow parents and children from one school to be offered courses at a nearby school. Family learning is already becoming established in many of the schools in the cluster and every school will have the opportunity to offer family learning courses to their parents and pupils during 2005/06.

The provision and range of adult and community learning in the Driffield area is extremely limited, largely because there is no permanent site within the area for the delivery of courses. Many members of the Driffield community are effectively excluded from the opportunity to participate in adult education and training by the requirement to travel to Bridlington, Beverley or Bishop Burton.

Efforts will be made throughout the coming year to forge links with East Riding College, Bishop Burton College and the University of Hull to begin the re-establishment of a wide range of adult and community education in the Driffield area.

The community questionnaire indicated that the demand for health and social care support services is largely confined to schools in, or close to Driffield. An attempt will be made to begin meeting some of the demands for services such as parenting skills courses, smoking cessation, behaviour and anger management, etc by identifying agencies able to bring these services in to schools at no cost to the school or parents, or by locating sources of funding in order to “buy in” such services.

Where necessary, because of restrictions on resources, staffing, etc, Driffield School will act as a host for extended schools core services and parents and pupils from the primary schools will be invited to attend. However, whenever possible and practicable, services, workshops, courses and activities will be offered in all those primary schools expressing an interest in hosting them.

Only extended schools functions which the Extended Schools Coordinator is involved in organising, setting up or coordinating are included in this framework. This provision can be transposed straight into your school improvement/development plan and added to any existing extended schools provision as part of your school’s self-evaluation process.

Finally, this framework is just the starting point for the provision of extended schools “core services” in our cluster. As more partners are identified further services and activities will become available during this academic year and offered in schools for the benefit of pupils, parents, carers and the wider community.