Leading the Extended Small School Extended Schools Pathfinder Evaluation - Sept. 2005 • Emerging understanding of the task of extended schools: - An extended school maximises the curricular learning of its pupils by promoting their overall development and by ensuring that the family and community contexts within which they live are as supportive of learning as possible. Schools may have more influence than they think Remove barriers to learning Eg: Eliminate • Remove something harmful Give the child a good breakfast Mitigate • Reduce the effects of something harmful Provide opportunities where the child can experience success Compensate • Counteract something harmful with something beneficial Provide a safe quiet space after school for study or simply reflection Create new learning opportunities Enhance • Enhance the effects of something beneficial Provide opportunities to experiment Provide opportunities for parents to learn with the child Challenge •Set more stretching and broadening expectations Present able pupils with new social or academic challenges and life experiences Community Engagement • Schools exist in a distinctive social context, which has a direct impact on what happens inside the school. – How well do you engage with and work with the community around you? Headteacher National Standards Sept. 04 • School leadership should commit to working with the internal and external school community to secure equity and entitlement. • Headteachers should work collaboratively at both strategic and operational levels with parents and carers and across multiple agencies for the well being of all children. • Headteachers share responsibility for leadership of the wider educational system and should be aware that school improvement and community development are interdependent.’ Strengths and Opportunities • Small schools are very well placed to develop this approach – Not so threatening as larger, more complex organisations – Seen as a valuable asset in the community (If you don’t believe it just try closing one!) – Supporters can see the difference they can make - visible to others – Voluntarism is much greater in smaller communities - social capital A community leadership perspective? • A frame of mind ? • A disposition ? • An act ? • A position ? ‘Community leadership mobilises, connects and energises people. It allows them to build a common purpose and vision, take action together, and make a difference locally’ ‘As long as we use very different terms for explaining good schools and good communities, we risk talking about how schools can be improved or transformed as if this could be done independently of the community. This is in defiance of the facts and can generate inflated expectations of what school leaders can achieve alone’ David Hargreaves 2003 Further online resources • www.tda.gov.uk/remodelling • www.continyou.org.uk • www.teachernet.gov.uk/wholeschool/extendeds chools • www.ncsl.org.uk/publications • www.4children.org.uk • www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/studysupport • www.surestart.gov.uk/surestartservices/childca re/extendedschools • www.pre-school.org.uk/extendedschools • www.governornet.co.uk Every Child Matters - five outcomes that matter most to children