'Holistic' schools of the future could offer a base for family services

A study commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation finds that many schools are already opening their doors to the community and building links with families in ways which recognise that children's learning works best as a partnership between parents and teachers. But the report describes some areas where schools have gone further in creating a base for services that support families as well as children. For example:

• Manchester City Council is piloting three 'full service schools' where primary pupils and their families will have access to health, social services and other agencies designed to prevent the need for special education and other, more expensive measures later on.
• Hackney in London has launched PACT (Parents, Children and Teachers) as a borough-wide scheme to develop home-school reading and maths programmes for children, skills projects for parents and learning programmes for children and parents together on literacy and the environment.
• Schools' Outreach, a voluntary organisation in the West Midlands helps primary and secondary schools to recruit and train pastoral care workers whose activities can range from action to reduce truancy and bullying to individual classroom support for pupils in difficulty and home visits to improve links with parents.
• The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham has appointed a team of specialist youth leaders and teachers with the aim of reducing school exclusions among Afro-Caribbean students. In addition to classroom support, they liaise with young people and their families and organise personal skills and job training programmes.
• Twelve secondary schools, a further education college and a university college have combined with the youth service in Tower Hamlets, London to establish a 'Summer University' that provides a menu of study and vocational courses, science and computer training, health education, arts and sports activities for more than 2,000 young people.

The report finds that the growing relationship between primary schools and pre-school learning is one major reason why schools are coming into closer contact with social support agencies that work with families. The Government underlined its commitment to encouraging family learning in schools in its education White Paper.

Mog Ball, the independent researcher who conducted the review, suggests that the logical extension of current trends will be a re-structuring of schools as a base for meeting all the needs of families, especially in areas of high stress and disadvantage. But she warns against assuming that schools are always the right setting for support services in a community - especially where parents remember their own education as a negative experience.

She also argues that the idea of holistic schools offering educational and support services to the community will require greater investment in teacher training and in school premises, if it is to spread.

Pressures on schools to deliver the National Curriculum already mean that teaching staff have little time to develop new links with families and the community. The solution may lie in offering a home within schools to other professionals who can offer support services as part of a multi-agency initiative.

Mog Ball said: "Many projects and activities have been generated to make links between schools and the 'outside world'. But schools are under such pressure that they may well wonder how they are going to meet this latest weight of expectation that is accumulating around them. If we are to move closer to the concept of the 'full service' school, then local education authorities will have an important part to play in helping schools to select which services are most appropriate and in ensuring that the right packages of staffing and funding are put in place."