Anne Longfield, Chief Executive of 4Children said: “4Children have been campaigning for extended schools to be available for all families for several years. Whilst it is early days and a lot of work still needs to be done, overall the findings are evidence that extended schools benefit young people and their families. Although only shown through anecdotal evidence at this stage, the report states that pupils engagement with learning has improved in certain cases and trust between schools and families has grown, this is extremely encouraging news.

“One of the key challenges still remaining is to ensure that the extended school is an inspirational place for children and young people to be. The challenge will to be to offer the consistency, reliability and peace of mind that working parents – especially lone parents need for their children – through primary and into secondary school – alongside an exciting array of activities of the highest quality. For secondary schools this will be a particular change of emphasis – offering before and after school childcare arrangements that also run during school holidays too. The pace of change from now on will be enormous but the level of enthusiasm from schools very encouraging.

“The commitment from Government, Local Authorities and schools has been demonstrated, now we need to keep the momentum up and ensure children and families receive they support they deserve and are entitled to from their local school”.

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