24/7 schooling: thoughts on the issues

 

Ms Alison Banks

Westminster Academy
United Kingdom

 

1. Opening the school building/s and site as a community learning centre 24/7

• Sports management - links with county and district councils; sports governing bodies; regional plans; funding opportunities.

• Facilities management - conferences, summer schools, meetings, neighbourhood forums, and so on; support infrastructure needed.

• Community education, parent education and family learning - access to LSC (Learning and Skills Council) and other funding; providing support infrastructure; links with FE (Further Education) and local providers; post of community education manager

• Insurance, supervision, liability and security issues - must be faced that these are the main reasons why many school sites remain closed outside school hours.

• Funding - recognition needed by DfES (Department for Education and Skills) and other providers of capital bids that space must be allocated for community use and running costs funded.

• Staffing - terms and conditions need an overhaul; flexible working hours needed and more staff who are not on teachers' pay and conditions; new roles for senior managers to ensure work-life balance and that they are not working 24/7!

• Strategies for income generation.

• Public libraries and ICT centres - new approaches to joint establishment with public library service.

• Youth services - joined-up thinking and provision to use school sites out of school hours.

2. Linking with other agencies to provide 24/7 services to young people

Democratisation of student services, empowering young people to manage and provide their own services.

24/7 support for learners using all agencies.

Federations, not of schools but of service providers, for young people in a local area, that is, the ECM (Every Child Matters) agenda.

Internships/learning in the community - move away from five-day week, 3.30pm finish - employers and community groups providing learning opportunities for young people.

Curriculum links across all providers - sharing ILP data for students, competence- based.

Improved self-referral mechanisms for counselling, learning support, mental health services, and so on.

3. 24/7 access virtual school

E-mentoring.

ILP (Individual Learning Plan) for every child/MLE (Managed Learning Environment), with access by students, parents and all agencies who support learning.

Homework advice/support online 24/7 (use overseas teachers).

These are not new ideas - I have experience of all the above through a traditional rural community college (Beacon Community College, Crowborough, East Sussex), an innovative community learning centre with public library (Chafford Hundred Campus, Thurrock) and now setting up an Academy with joint working with youth agencies and other services in a disadvantaged inner-city area.

 

Ms Alison Banks is Principal of Westminster Academy, in the UK.

The Discussion Forum on this Workshop Paper is now closed.