Schools to open evenings and weekends.

[WaterSheep]

Anne Longfield has suggested that schools should open in the evenings and on weekends, in order to help prevent children being preyed on in the streets by gang members.

Apparently this would allow children to access their sports, drama and technology facilities. Wonderful... but what happens if anything goes missing or gets damaged, who is going to replace them?

Oh and just one small point, i'm sure it's an accidental oversight, she hasn't actually stated who will be supervising the children....

•that's interesting who supervises the activities, and how does it work with school supplies, private information and security of the buildings?*

There are are community use staff for running reception and the same cleaning and janitorial staff library staff catering staff.

Activities etc supervised by whoever's running them so some council staff, volunteers, community education, lifeguards, ministers. The list is endless.

Community use have no access to school private info - why would they.

But it seems the sensible option isn’t supported by many here.hmm. Well as the saying goes, you can’t argue with stupid!

It depends what you mean - should the parts of the building that are suitable for communal use, with separate security and without passing through secure areas when sharing key facilities such as toilets, be available for groups to use? Yes, of course - and IME the vast majority are.

Should the whole building be available without restriction, especially in the hours when they remain teachers' workplaces (well outside the child's school day, even on a normal day, let alone parents' evenings, open evenings, school plays in the evening, etc etc)? No.

I love the idea that more children could do more activities that engage them. I love the idea that more children could be exposed to extra-curricular sessions that could change or improve their outcomes.

However, the fact is the children who need those experiences, those clubs, that support won't get it just because school buildings are open for more hours each day; their parents won't encourage them to access it, the children won't want to access it because of peer pressure and the only ones who'll really gain much from it are the children whose outcomes are likely to be pretty damned great anyway.

I think there should be evening staffed events available more but not at school. Different activities they can take part in to prevent roaming.

Agree. Utilise the buildings, certainly, but staffing, insurance etc. is an whole other much more complicated issue.

Our school hall is in use from 7.30am to 6pm each day with before and after school clubs - like many school buildings actually are, with either external providers paying for the space to provide the club, or the school doing it themselves (to be honest the money from it is all that's keeping a fair few school budgets remotely out of deficit these days). We have staff coming in from 6.30am until about 8.30pm at night on a night there are things like governors meetings on and the layout of the local schools to us round here mean you can't get away easily with hiring out the hall and locking up the classrooms etc - because toilets are inside the classroom areas... so then you would have people wandering in and out of classrooms, things being "borrowed" and lost and all the security implications of that.

I've been in some schools where it works well, where areas like the sports hall are used for the PE department during the day and then the attached leisure centre expands into that area for the weekend, or the local library is attached to the school with some community rooms between it and the school that either the school or library expand into as the time and need arises - but they're rare and usually purpose built with that kind of use in mind so they can restrict access to certain areas as needed - and things like toilets have been set up with that in mind. For a lot of schools built in the likes of the early 60s in our area - that wouldn't work at all.

It is interesting reading about the youth work comments. I came out of youth work around 10 years ago although I still work with young people.
When I started over 30 years ago as. YW it was fun. We had more freedom around activities and trips out. As the years went on we got bogged down like wcseryone else with papaerwork. We had to plan and get approval and send the names of kids who wanted to come on trips 6 weeks in advance. Then the Every child matter was implemented so we had to target a session around Enjoy, achieve etc and at the send of the session write a report of our aims and outcomes etc. And so it went on. With budget cuts the majority of youth clubs in my area were shut down and target work started so that meant the kids who had issues and vulnerabilities was able to access the service.
We were expected to educate on social, sexual and independence matters.

Most of the kids I knew just wanted a safe space to meet their mates, play pool or do some art or baking and just chill and maybe have a trip out now and again.

Youth work became over complicate.
Youth clubs need to reopen without all the pressure of the young people feeling that they are being 'educated'. Everyone needs down time.

'Community schools in Scotland have suffered massive budget cuts in Scotland incidentally. The programme of events held in them in evenings and weekends are aimed at adults mostly - ie night classes, pottery and learning languages, that kind of thing. It's not a youth club.'

This week my children will attend swimming lessons, dancing, beavers, scouts and orchestra in community use schools.

I'm doing Indian cookery in a community use school.

Husband is attending the community council meeting in the community use school and will probably go to the gym about 3 times.

My parents will both use the library, cafe and gym.

I work in a school in a Pastoral/Safeguarding role. I understand that she's trying to be solution-focused and it's probably all very well meaning, but to be completely honest I'm getting really fucking tired of Schools being expected to mop up the endless stream of social, emotional and environmental shit that Government policy has inflicted on vulnerable children and families.

Schools are already opening their own food banks because parents are having their benefits cut.

We are having to employ our own Mental Health worker because our students are having to wait longer and longer to access therapy from CAMHS.

We are having to 'buy in' Youth workers because the local youth service has been cut to the bone.

We've had to pay for our support staff to train to deliver Parenting Courses in school because the council can no longer afford to offer them.

Our staff are having to spend increasing time helping parents to sort out their housing, benefits, visa issues, you name it... because the charities that used to provide these services locally are all on their knees due to skyrocketing demand and dwindling resources.

And now we're supposed to open the doors to students on evenings and weekends! Presumably to make up for the loss of community youth services that have been cut by the government, and to try to prevent crime, antisocial behaviour and gang culture that is increasingly rife in poorer areas because of government cuts to the police and youth offending services. Who is going to pay for this?? Because we certainly can't afford to and frankly, I don't see why the hell we should when we are already spending huge amounts of time and money taking responsibility for plugging the gaps in other services unrelated to Education that the Government couldn't give a shit about.

Two working parents has only become the norm in recent years. I’ll bet there are loads of MNers in their 30s and 40s, older, who had a parent, probably their mum, at home full or part time. No need for after school care, no need for holiday care.

Lizzie you’re right, so I think I’m done here.

Really good point FudgeBrownie makes.

“ their parents won't encourage them to access it, the children won't want to access it ....”

The last place on earth many of the children who need such supervision most will want to be is in a school building out of hours. Can’t force them to attend.

Its a slippery slope. Schools will be open all of the time for youth clubs etc for the most vulnerable. Then they will be open to everyone. Then at some point they will start with lessons in this time. Then it will become compulsory.

Perhaps if they want to hire out and utilize spaces left empty for long periods of time, they could use the houses of parliament?

Our school is open from 7.30am - 6pm each night

Ours at open that at the weekend. On weekdays it's until 10pm

Community use have no access to school private info

The thing is, it depends what you see as private info. The standard school classroom has lots of information - children's photos and names, various reward systems, class lists etc - that is routinely visible to those who work in and belong to that classroom. When we have hired out the school including classrooms, we have had to ensure that every piece of such information is covered or removed - and in a primary school with e.g peg labels etc it can be a very time consuming job!

MinisterforCheekyFuckery

A very sad, but insightful post. Thank you.

All very well but what about the resources and equipment in school? My old school used to rent it’s buildings out to a language school at the weekend; I had to lock every resource away which took so much time. They would take paper, pens, board markers, even tear pages out of exercise books. I even spoke to the teacher about it but it still carried on. A waste of time and resources!

The thing is, it depends what you see as private info. The standard school classroom has lots of information - children's photos and names, various reward systems, class lists etc - that is routinely visible to those who work in and belong to that classroom. When we have hired out the school including classrooms, we have had to ensure that every piece of such information is covered or removed - and in a primary school with e.g peg labels etc it can be a very time consuming job!

With GDPR our schools have already made all those adjustments. Most of what you describe is primary school. Our community use schools tend to be high schools and that sort of thing is much less common there anyway.

I've just had a bit of a re-think!!

I've now fully support the idea that school buildings are handed over for community use from 3.30pm- 10pm at night..

No more staying in school planning/assessing until 6.30pm for me!
No more after school clubs, intervention, department/pastoral/MLT/progress meetings, open evenings, parents evenings, careers fairs, band concerts, achievement evenings, shows, DOE training& prep, rehearsals....

I'll go home at 3.30. Lovely. 😉

Honestly folks chill.

This is totally normal and common in Scotland and has been for decades.

It's excellent use of resources, good value for tax payers and the whole community benefits.

The world will keep on turning and in a few years you won't be able to imagine how things were before this.

@elodie

How silly

CassianAndor

Possibly a class question too? Husband (60) and I (55) both had full time working parents. My mother was the main breadwinner and his worked 2, part-time jobs and we were both far from unusual in our working class communities.
People have always needed childcare but probably the biggest difference now is the breakdown of extended family networks.
That said, my grandparents were very elderly so I was in paid childcare as a toddler. By the time I was 8, I would be at home alone with my 10 year old brother after school/holidays.

But regina it's not the norm in Scotland. @Mistressiggi has already said what community schools offer is very different to a youth club.

regina
Thank you!
Yes, it would be very silly indeed.

Regina, tbh, it's not silly.

The school is my workplace. If there is an expectation that others are to share my workplace in a way that prevents me from carrying out routine tasks, that creates some difficulties for me in carrying out my normal work.

Parts of my workplace - the hall and outside space - IS used, generally in the later evening and the weekends, in ways that do not impact my work (though there does have to be flexibility - bookings are not available e.g. for parents' evening or performance nights).

More extensive use is impossible due to the layout of the building.