Beyond the School Gates: Can Full Service and Extended Schools Overcome Disadvantage?

This book, for the first time ever, critically examines the role of full service and extended schools. The authors draw on their extensive international evaluations of this radical new phenomenon to ask: What do extended or full service schools hope to achieve, and why should services based on schools be any more effective than services operating from other community bases? What pattern of services and activities is most effective? What does extended schooling mean for children and families who are not highly disadvantaged, or for schools outside the most disadvantaged areas? How can schools lead extended services at the same time as doing their ‘day job’ of teaching children? Why should schools be concerned with family and community issues? Beyond the advocacy of ‘extended provision’, what real evidence is there that schools of this kind make a difference, and how can school leaders evaluate the impact of their work? This book will be of interest to anyone involved in extended and full service school provision, as a practitioner, policy-maker, or researcher.