The out-of-school-hours experience

All school staff understand that what goes on in classrooms during official school hours is just a part of the learning opportunities on offer to pupils. This article looks at the benefits of out-of-school-hours activities, links to the Citizenship curriculum, and ways of promoting a range of activities. Finally there’s a look at some case studies of projects already running, and links to sources of further information and funding.

This week (from 30 June until 4 July) is Education Extra’s Out-of-school-hours Learning Week. For these days and beyond, the charity is inviting pupils, parents and teachers to ‘celebrate all the wonderful work done throughout the year to bring extra, informal learning opportunities to pupils in out-of-school hours’.

Benefits for pupils and staff

As a result of a variety of funding initiatives, there has been an intensified focus on out-of-hours learning in recent years. The Government’s Extended Schools programme is encouraging schools to provide wider services for pupils, families and the community and the Secretary of State for Education and Skills has reiterated the importance of education as an enjoyable experience. The creativity encouraged through out-of-school-hours activities is an opportunity for hugely expanded informal learning as well as enjoyment.

In addition, a study by the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) entitled Towards the Development of Extended Schools has demonstrated the positive impact that this kind of learning can have. The noticeable improvements in motivation among pupils help to encourage a heightened interest in their school-hours learning and the extent to which teachers draw on the expertise of outside agencies when it comes to out-of-hours learning can have a valuable knock-on effect on general teacher workload.

The New Opportunities Fund (NOF), a lottery distributor which was created to award grants to education, health and environment projects throughout the UK, has distributed £205 million of lottery money to out-of-school-hours projects involving over a third of all primary schools, over half of all secondary schools and nearly half of all special schools. Priority has been given to projects that address the needs of the most disadvantaged children through activities that are designed to enthuse, motivate and promote a positive attitude towards learning.

A recent evaluation of the NOF out-of-hours programme found that it:

• Helped pupils make the transition from primary to secondary school
• Motivated disaffected youths to become mentors
• Brought professional role models into the school environment through adult mentoring schemes
• Allowed parents andcarers to become more involved in their children’s education
• Provided community volunteers the opportunity to gain accredited skills
• Allowed children to re-engage with learning, seeing it as fun
• Gave teachers the opportunity to develop innovative teaching skills.

Such benefits are echoed by Ruth Spiller of the Exeter Out of School Project. An incredible range of opportunities is on offer across the city including a peer project designed to provide young people with peer support, library sessions focused on the needs of the various Key Stages and a museums project aimed at raising cultural awareness.

‘We have developed a range of distinctive programmes that respond to the needs of young people’, Spiller explains. ‘We want to raise the self-esteem of young people through their involvement in developing, participating in and celebrating out-of-school-hours provision and their contribution to the value of the communities in which they live.’

This real and direct link to Citizenship through out-of-hours learning is a useful one for schools. Pupils are often already achieving Citizenship targets through their out-of-hours activities so it is always useful to include these opportunities when evaluating and ensuring effective delivery of the Citizenship curriculum. In fact, many of the activities linked to the Citizenship scheme of work are just the kinds of activities that can be achieved in out-of-hours sessions. For example, mock elections, student councils, mini-Olympics, fundraising and involvement in community forums.

Ideas for celebration

If you would like your school to raise the profile of its out of-school-hours activities, these ideas may help:

• Take photos of after school clubs and make a display
• Make a video of out-of-hours learning taking place
• Devote an assembly to out-of-hours learning once a term
• Display children’s work outside the school, perhaps in a supermarket, library or art gallery
• Devote a stand at your school fete to out-of-hours learning
• Liaise with neighbouring schools and feeder schools over additional activities — there may be opportunities for collaboration
• Involve the local community as much as possible. Invite local dignitaries such as the mayor or MP to celebrate with you
• Publicise the out-of-hours learning you are offering to pupils. Invite the local press to support you (Education Extra has sample press releases for this purpose)

Case studies:

Dudley — overwhelming success

Dudley Council has received over £1.3m from the New Opportunities Fund for out-of-school-hours learning and Summer School programmes. Its targets were to achieve 23,587 pupil places and 475,731 pupil hours by 2004 (the length of the funding). These targets have been exceeded already and they have set themselves a new target of achieving 50,000 pupil places and one million pupil hours by July 2004.

Dudley staff, pupils, parents and governors have enthusiastically embraced the programme and contracted in excess of 1,000 individual activities across the borough. This is reflected in a recent Ofsted report that found that study support, extra-curricular and out-of-school-hours learning activities are strengths in schools across Dudley.

As a result of the activities that have been introduced, there is real evidence that children have blossomed and made significant progress, both in their studies and in developing life skills.

Hillcrest School and Community College — helping improve performance

Two years ago Hillcrest School and Community College was in a troubled state. It had failed Ofsted inspections, many staff were continually absent or leaving, 40 per cent of the teaching force was made up of cover teachers and students were behaving badly. Violence amongst pupils and towards staff was a regular occurrence, and drugs and sexually inappropriate behaviour were problems. All of this was reflected in the results the school was delivering: 22 per cent of students were leaving with no qualifications at all; 84 per cent left with less than the standard 5 or more A-C grades at GCSE level.

At the end of each half-term the school began to organise an event – a pantomime or a replica of a show like Stars In Their Eyes. Participation in these events was dependent on attendance in the previous week, so not only did the event provide pupils with a fun time, but it also encouraged them to make an effort in their classes.

Hillcrest School and Community College is looking to develop a fencing team following the interest that has been shown after James Bond’s fight scene in the last Bond film Die Another Day. Finding an association that makes an activity appealing to the pupils is key to its success and it is this sort of approach that has made out-of-school-hours activities so popular with pupils at Hillcrest School and Community College.

Pre-school breakfast study clubs and literacy schools, formerly paid for with New Opportunities Fund grants, have been so successful that the school is now funding them from its own budget to sustain the activities.

All of these activities have had a positive effect on the pupils. In 2002 38 per cent of pupils left with 5 or more A-C passes at GCSE level – that’s more than a 100 per cent increase in two school years and this figure is expected to rise further this year. This is what the out-of-school-hours programme set out to achieve: removing barriers to learning and offering educational and life-skill opportunities for those who face disadvantage.

Manchester — Passport to Sport

Manchester Leisure Sports Development has received £1.4m over three years for its Passport to Sport programme, and this month has seen the culmination of the first year of activity.

The Passport to Sport programme provides 95 primary and 14 special-needs schools across Manchester with six after-school clubs each year. The scheme is not only aimed at fulfilling the objectives of the New Opportunities Fund’s Out of School Hours Learning programme, but also to create pathways for local children to world-class sports facilities in the wake of the Commonwealth Games.

All participants get a passport and each time they attend one of the after-school clubs they get a sticker for their passport – this can then go into their Record of Achievement.

The scheme also has a volunteer network that encourages pupils and teachers to assist coaches at clubs – this helps to develop new coaching staff and future sustainability.

Originally published on Teachernet