Campaign to extend schooling reaches out to parents

The poll also revealed that just under a third of Yorkshire parents feel their views are not taken into account when schools plan extra services and many had no idea whether parenting support, holiday activities or after-schools clubs were available.

Now Hornsea School and Language Colleges has been chosen to lead a campaign to promote extended schools in the region by being the first to highlight what they offer on a Google Earth map.

The idea is for parents or residents to be able to click onto a location in an internet map of the region and see what is on offer.

Hornsea School is one of nine pilots across the country after being chosen by the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) which carried out the research into parents and pupils views on extended schools.

The poll also revealed more than half the young people questioned wanted to know more about the out-of-hours activities offered through their school.

Extended schools were introduced by the Government in 2005 with the aim of giving every family in the country the access to parenting support and out-of-hours activities by this year.

Their services are centrally funded through Government and offered through groups of schools working in clusters – normally a partnership between a senior school and its feeder primaries.

The Hornsea cluster, which offers activities ranging from breakfast clubs, study support and parenting courses, to sports and music clubs such as trampolining, and a gardening club, is being hailed as an example for others to follow.

Sally Richardson, the extended services co-ordinator for the Hornsea Cluster, said. "Everyone is now reaping the rewards that extended services have bought to our schools. Sharing services across the cluster has resulted in improved partnerships in schools, local services and the local community.

"Schools can see improvements in attendance and behaviour and there are lots more opportunities for all children and young people in the cluster to participate in a range of activities in and out of school as well as many more parents and carers engaging with schools taking up family or adult learning opportunities."

Hornsea School's headteacher Steve Lawrence told the Yorkshire Post that becoming an extended school had helped it to engage with parents who were more difficult to reach and develop better community links.

The school is a specialist languages college and Mr Lawrence said it was offering lessons to the wider community, giving them the chance to learn languages such as French, Italian, German and Japanese.

Now the TDA is calling for other Yorkshire schools to follow Hornsea's example and promote their extended services through Google Earth.

Chief executive Graham Holley said: "Put simply, the more parents understand the suite of extended services on offer and feel included in the decisions regarding their design and delivery, the more pupils will get involved and the more chances we have to help them be successful and happy.

"Moreover, it is vital that all school staff understand that they, together with colleagues in local authorities, have a key role to play in promoting the extended services on offer through their school and helping parents access other services across the local authority or cluster."

Online help to make change

Extended schools must be able to offer five elements: Child care for primary and special needs pupils; easy access to specialist services outside the school; parenting support; a variety of extra activities including study support and sports clubs; and community access to learning, ICT and sports facilities.

They were launched by the Government in 2005 and all schools are expected to provide extended services by this year.

To raise awareness, the Training and Development Agency has launched a new "Google Map Mashup" found at www.tda.gov.uk/ remodelling/extended schools/whatareextendedservices.aspx .