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Background
Resources
In November 1997, the Government announced that National
Lottery money would be used to fund after-school clubs for
a million children, as part of its drive to get lone parents
off benefits and back into work. The childcare scheme, costing
£300 million, was to be paid for out of the Exchequer
and the Lottery's new opportunities fund.
A further expansion was announced in May 1998, with numbers
increasing from 3,500 to 30,000 clubs within five years. This
meant doubling the existing target for places at after-school
clubs for 4 to 14-year-olds from 20,000 to 40,000 in 1998.
It also meant that the number of qualified playworkers would
have to increase from 11,000 to 100,000 over five years, according
to the director of Kids Club Network (now known as 4Children),
the voluntary body that supports many of the out-of-school-hours
clubs.
Evidence of benefits
While this expansion was taking place, various research studies
published findings suggesting that taking part in study support
or other out-of-school-hours activities could boost academic
achievement.
Research funded by the Department for Education, published
in June 2000, found that study support not only boosted pupils'
attainment but also helped to raise attendance and improve
attitudes towards school and learning. The research was conducted
by John MacBeath, professor of education at the University
of Cambridge, Kate Myers, visiting professor at Homerton College
Cambridge, and Tony Kirwan, head of quality in study support,
National Youth Agency. Details of fhe full report, The Impact
of Study Support, and a summary of findings are at www.dfes.gov.uk.
On 15 June 2000, the TES reported on a study of 23,000 Canadian
four to 15-year-olds, which found that after-school sports,
arts classes and even strong friendships help to improve children's
academic performance. The 1998/99 National Longitudinal Survey
of Children and Youth found that 29% of those who had little
or no involvement in activities showed delayed development
in vocabulary, more than double the 13% who participated in
organised activities.
On 26 April 2001, the Daily Telegraph reported on a three-year
study by the National Youth Agency and the University of Strathclyde,
which found that secondary school pupils who took part in
after-school activities achieved better than expected GCSE
results. They received on average one more A*-C pass. They
also had better attendance records and a more positive attitude
towards education than their peers of equal ability.
Breakfast clubs were also increasingly being used to both
support pupils' learning and behaviour and to provide assistance
to working parents. Improving Breakfast Clubs: lessons from
the best, a report published in 2002 by the New Policy Institute
and funded by Kellogg's, analysed the impact of 33 UK breakfast
clubs. Three-quarters of the schools said breakfast clubs
had a positive effect on attendance and punctuality. Eighty
per cent said children concentrated better during morning
lessons after attending the club because they were more settled,
attentive and motivated to learn. One in three parents said
childcare provision was the most important benefit of their
child's breakfast club because it provided them with safe
facilities when they had to leave home early in the morning.
Improving breakfast clubs: lessons from the best, by Andy
Harrop and Guy Palmer, (£20) is available from the New
Policy Institute on 020 7721 8421 or can be downloaded free
of charge from www.npi.org.uk.
In the light of these benefits, particularly for the most
disadvantaged communities, Kids' Clubs Network continued to
call on the Government to increase its investment in out-of-school-hours
provision to regeneration communities. Launching its fifth
annual Kids' Clubs Week in 2001, it said out-of-school-hours
clubs are a worthwhile investment because they play a crucial
part in breaking the cycle of poverty and enabling parents
to return to work. Much of the funding for breakfast clubs
and after-school provision was ad hoc, and included the Standards
Fund grant for study support, the Sure Start Out of School
Programme, the National Healthy Schools Standard, the New
Opportunities Fund, regeneration and neighbourhood renewal
funding, voluntary organisations, commercial sponsorship (including
a scheme run by Education Extra and sponsored by Kellogg)
and schools' own budgets. One primary school in a deprived
area of Northampton gained press coverage for funding its
own holiday club with the focus on helping pupils revise for
national tests (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4875772.stm).
In 2002, a Scottish review of the research literature on the
benefits of out-of-school clubs and study groups cautioned
that some of the claims for their benefits to pupils' achievement
and self-esteem are unsupported by strong evidence. However,
the authors highlighted that such activities do allow parents
to take up jobs or training, particularly single parents.
They agreed that if the claims are accurate, they are indeed
impressive, and suggested that if study support can build
confidence and self-esteem, or raise performance, it should
be more widely available. Out of School Care: a brief review
of the literature is available on the website of the Scottish
Council for Research in Education at www.scre.ac.uk.
In March 2006, Scotland produced guidance on out-of-school-hours learning to help the spread of good practice - More than 9 to 4 - Out-of-School-Hours Learning in Scottish Education. Almost all secondary schools and more than three-quarters of primary schools in Scotland provide out-of-hours learning in some form, backed by funding of £12 million each year.
Government policy on "wraparound childcare"
In 2003, with the publication of the Every Child Matters policy
document, out-of-school-hours learning became part of the
wider plan for extended schools, which will provide all children
under 14 with "dawn-to-dusk" care in school from
2010. Extended schools are expected to work with local providers,
agencies (and other schools) to a core offer of services including
"wraparound" childcare for working parents (in primary
schools); parenting and family support; a varied range of
activities including study support, sport and music clubs;
swift and easy referral to specialist services such as health
and social care; and community use of facilities including
adult and family learning and ICT. As the guidance on extended
school provision has developed, debate has arisen about what
services parents might be asked to pay for. Teachers' unions
argue that drawing a distinction between activities that are
a part of the national curriculum, and therefore cannot be
charged for, and "non-academic" provision that would
incur a charge will not be easy.
For information on the development of "wraparound childcare"
see extended
schools (also known as New Community Schools in Scotland). | |
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