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Childcare: giving children a good start in the crucial early years, supporting working parents to the benefit of the whole family

Good quality childcare is one of the core offers that schools must offer access to by 2010 under the Extended Schools Agenda. The Local Authority takes a strategic lead in the local childcare market working with all sectors to ensure their is sufficient childcare for parents. Schools are not required to offer the childcare on the school site but must be able to signpost parents to available childcare. It is essential that schools work in partnership with other schools within their cluster.

There are various ways in which a school can set up childcare. All of these options are described in the 'Route way to Childcare Development in Schools' document which all schools should have a copy of and can be downloaded via the link below:

Download Routeway to Childcare file

Over the last few years there have been various schools who have expressed an interest in opening up childcare on their school site. The process is the same with all schools with a parental needs survey carried out as the first step. From this school's can determine what the initial interest may be. We then arrange to have a meeting at the school with parents to discuss the various options available and whether there actually is a need. It may be identified that perhaps childminders or another childcare provision will be more appropriate.

If it is established that there is a need for childcare on the school site then we will assist the school in setting up the registered childcare facility. Support is offered throughout the whole process, something of which can take up to 6 months depending on Ofsted and depending on the schools timescale.

A good example of a school that has worked with us in developing an Out of School Club on their site is Whickham Fellside Community Primary School. The school has followed the process as suggested in the Route way document and has just recently opened it's doors in September. It now has a private provider running the childcare on the school site. Market research and a parents meeting were part of the process before an advertisement went out for a provider to run the childcare. There were several interested parties before the school short listed, interviewed and selected their preferred option. One of the success stories of the 'Route way To Childcare to Development in Schools' document.

Varied Menu of Activities: giving children a choice of opportunities to enjoy and excel at outside the classroom

The DfES define this element of the core offer as:

‘A learning activity outside normal lessons which young people take part in voluntarily. Study support is, accordingly, an inclusive term, embracing many activities – with many names and guises. Its purpose is to improve young people’s motivation, build self-esteem and help them become more effective learners. Above all it aims to raised achievement’

What’s happening in Gateshead Schools?

All schools in Gateshead offer a range of activities for their children and young people, and there are many excellent examples of good practice in the borough.

The key to success in these activities is to meet the needs of the pupils and the local community.

Community Trampoline Club:

Schools in the Hookergate Cluster have used some of their extended schools funding for a trampoline club that provides sessions for the secondary school pupils, feeder primary pupils and adult groups. They are also working on plans to incorporate sessions for community members with special needs.

The club offers an opportunity for individuals to work towards a coaching qualification, which will help with sustaining the club by developing a group of appropriately qualified and vetted volunteers from the local community, parents and cluster school staff to deliver the sessions.

Out of school activities at Ryton Infant School:

After discussions with Jan Porter, Headteacher at Ryton Infant school, a member of the Extended Schools Team was invited to carry out a consultation to find out what activities the children would most like to take part in. A meeting was arranged with the school council and the discussion was started by laying out photographs of some of the activities they might be interested in. The children were very enthusiastic and came up with an amazing range of suggestions – not all of them entirely practical! The school council then gave the rest of the school the opportunity to vote for there personal favourites. The most popular options were:

Cheerleading, football, trampolining, and gymnastics.

Since then 50children have had the opportunity to attend a football club, and efforts are underway to locate suitably qualified coaches for the remaining sessions.

Cinema Club at Chopwell School:

In common with many schools, and partly as a result of its rural and somewhat isolated location, Chopwell Primary school has been offering a range of out of school activities for children for sometime. The inclusion of a cinema club run monthly gives children (and their parents?) an opportunity that due to the limited bus service might not normally be open to them, or taken for granted for by children living nearer the centre of Gateshead.
Children gain from the experience and the benefits of inviting parent into the school helps to breakdown some parents reluctance to engage with the school.

If you have an example of an activity or club that has been particularly successful do please let us know.

For full guidance on the Varied Menu of Activities element of the core offer look at the DCFS document, Study Support, a national framework for extending learning opportunities that can be found at:
http://publications.teachernet.gov.uk/default.aspx?PageFunction=searchresults&ft=study+support&pn=1&rpp=1&ShowHide=4&Area=1

Swift and Easy Access to Specialist Service: working in partnership to ensure the well-being of all children

Swift and easy access (SEA) is about schools working closely with other services to identify and support children and young people with emotional, behavioural, health or other difficulties as early as possible. Working effectively in this integrated way towards common goals, with health and social care for example, has real potential to help remove some of the barriers to learning faced by children and young people of all ages.

SEA is perhaps the most challenging aspect of the Extended Schools Core Offer and it also has the potential to have the biggest impact. SEA means a profound transformation in the way schools, Local Authorities and Children’s Trust partners work together with the aim of improving both standards of care and academic achievement.

From a schools' perspective, it offers the chance to remove significant barriers to learning. It means:

Improving the life chances of all children and young people by ensuring they have the support and challenge they need to achieve all five ECM outcomes;

Identifying vulnerable children and young people earlier and providing more effective prevention, intervention and support in a systematic and coordinated way;

Building a personalised package of interventions and opportunities around the needs of each vulnerable child and young person;

Providing high quality services in accessible settings;

Improving both standards of care and academic achievement by ensuring health, education and other services work effectively together towards common goals.

Schools in Gateshead are using the Common Assessment Framework to assist them in offering swift and easy access to specialist services. Schools, with the support of the local authority and other children's services agencies, have in place clear internal processes that means those pupils who need specialist support are assessed quickly by an appropriate member of the school staff. An agreed time period to carry out the assessment is then communicated to pupils, their families and school staff. This is all monitored via an internal tracking system in place once a child is identified as having additional needs.

Parenting Support: helping parents engage with their children's learning by offering support where needed

The Parenting Support aspect of the Core Offer always depends on the particular needs of the parents in any one school. We all know that parenting is a demanding role, and the delivery of Parenting Support needs to be in the whatever form is most suitable to encourage take-up of services offering good advice, broader parental services, and also more individual support.

Working on the basis of strong evidence that parents are the biggest single influence on their children’s lives, and that those schools that work well with parents have improved levels of achievement and more positive pupil attitudes, this approach seeks to meet the need for information, advice and support for all parents.

Accordingly, the Extended Schools agenda is building on existing provision to ensure that all schools deliver appropriate parenting support. Examples of this work here in Gateshead include:

A major initiative to stage information sessions for all parents at key transition points in their children’s lives, particularly when starting or changing schools;

Family Learning sessions to enable children to learn with their parents;

Information on wider advice and support services available through national helplines and websites, as well as local family support services;

Working with Children’s Centres and other agencies, to provide even better opportunities for broad, integrated educational, health and social service support for parents.

We also realise that setting up an effective range of extended services that make a difference to parental participation and improve children and young people’s achievement and wellbeing requires detailed consultation with parents and carers, pupils and the wider community on the services they need and want, and much collaborative work with schools is being done to gain such feedback.

Community Access: opening the doors to the community

The element of the Core Offer covered by “Community Access” represents a commitment to ensuring that school facilities are made available for the wider good of the community. Schools can be lively and exciting places outside traditional school hours too, providing learning and leisure opportunities for their pupils, their parents and the wider community. How this takes place should be governed both by community need and the other facilities available in the community. Many schools in Gateshead already make their facilities available for community use, either through directly offering activities and services themselves, or by letting to third parties.

Not only does greater access to school facilities, such as sports halls, playing fields, libraries and ICT, benefit local communities, but - as we’ve already found in many parts of Gateshead - it also benefits schools themselves by making them even more the ‘hub’ of local community life.

The benefits of greater community access to school facilities have included:

Maximising the use of facilities
Improved income for schools
Better parent and community involvement in schools
A greater sense of community
Better adult learning opportunities
Dual use of facilities, as pupils work with their parents / families

And through close ties with other council services, many Gateshead schools have extended adult learning opportunities by providing, for example, literacy and numeracy support, as well as other activities to engage adults in learning, such as arts and crafts and other areas of interest. Many local schools are also looking to develop partnerships with other agencies, including health services, to ensure that they remain firmly at the heart of their community.