Teachernet, Community engagement and ethos

Community Engagement and Extended Services

Communities

The Department for Children Schools and Families (DCSF) guidance defines community for schools as having four dimensions:

The school community
The area in which the school is located
The UK community
The global community

Getting started with community engagement
Planned work to develop community engagement should be based on sound information. Local community analysis is needed to identify the most fruitful areas to develop partnerships. School governors can be valuable resource for developing community partnerships.

Reaching out to the community
All schools can benefit from partnership arrangements from local to national to global. A rich network of contacts outside the school can provide benefits to teachers and governors as well as pupils.

Pupils are a group in the local community and it is important that the pupils' voices are heard enabling them to take pride in and responsibility for aspects of their school, as well as helping to evaluate how well the school is building community cohesion.

Extended services
All schools should provide a core offer of extended services by 2010. This includes working strategically with other local schools, local voluntary and community groups and consulting with parents, families and the wider community. The extended services initiative is a significant opportunity to engage local authorities, religious or non religious groups, and other voluntary and community organisations in supporting schools to meet the duty to promote community cohesion.

What is The Extended Services Core Offer?
By 2010 all children and families should have access to:

A varied range of activities including study support, sport and music clubs, combined with childcare in primary schools
Parenting support including family learning
Swift and easy access to targeted and specialist services
Community access to facilities including adult and family learning, sports and ICT

Guidance and advice on extended services
Local authorities are playing a role in supporting the development of extended services. Guidance and information are available from DCSF. At the national level, the Training and Development Agency (TDA), ContinYou and 4Children provide detailed information and support. Schools should use these sources of guidance at an early stage.

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