Out of School Hours Learning

1. Having a purpose

Image of a boy wearing a white T shirt

Commentary

Out of School Hours Learning (OSHL) exists for a purpose. Its purpose is to enhance children’s and young people’s abilities as learners and it will take shape and change over a period of time as it grows, matures and extends its boundaries, responding to needs with a clear sense of direction. Growth will depend in some measure on whether goals are explicit, shared and reviewed, encouraging a dialogue amongst school and community stakeholders including young people, parents, tutors and partners.

Sharing of goals means writing them down, discussing and refining them, and encouraging as widely as possible a dialogue among teachers, pupils, parents and other interested parties in schools and communities. The true test of commitment to these goals will be gauged through the language people use to talk about them, the way they are written down, discussed and reviewed and the approach taken to guide, monitor and evaluate practice.

Questions to ask

  • Why has OSHL been introduced?
  • Who has been involved in discussing its purposes and setting its goals?
  • What are the benefits for:
    • young people?
    • teachers?
    • parents?
    • the school as a whole?
    • partners?
    • the community including employers?
  • Where can people find out about the purposes and potential benefits?
  • How are purposes discussed, analysed and reviewed by stakeholder groups on an ongoing basis?

Evidence to show

Examples of documentary evidence might be:

  • vision or mission statements
  • policy documents
  • posters around the school, centre or community
  • web-based and other forms of communication
  • newsletters to parents
  • media reports
  • minutes of meetings
  • development plans
  • success criteria or performance indicators
  • reviews and evaluations.

Testing the evidence

Examples of requests a visitor might make

  • Tell me what you see as the main purposes of study support for your young people.
  • What would young people say if I asked them?
  • Show me something which would give me an idea of . . . ?
  • How do your purposes work out in practice?
  • In what ways might the purposes of study support conflict with those of the school?
  • What would other stakeholders (eg parents and other partners) say about the purposes?
  • What do evaluations and reviews tell you about how provision might be changed in the future?

Emerging practice

In an emerging centre, OSHL may still be relatively new but may nevertheless have a clear sense of direction and purpose. Emerging centres may have started up without long-term planning, perhaps beginning their life in response to an immediate and important need, for example providing a place for young people to do their homework or study without distraction. Attempts will have been made to recognise and clarify some longer-term goals including examining provision to ensure that it matches or can be made to match purposes in the future.

Key indicator

Responding to needs and clarifying purposes.

Case study

Having a purpose case study - Emerging

Established practice

Established centres have development plans. The plan lays out clearly the main purposes of OSHL, describing what it is and who it’s for. It does so in language which is accessible to a wide range of potential users including parents, employers, tutors, providers and young people. The plan describes how purposes are translated into practice, the resources needed to make it work and the process by which the plan is kept under review.

Key indicator

Communicating policy through development planning.

Advanced practice

Advanced practice keeps the purposes of OSHL under continual discussion and review amongst all those involved. This will ensure that practice reflects what is important. Professional development time is set aside for re-examining purposes and priorities, widening the scope of OSHL and considering how new directions might best be communicated to all stakeholders, including parents, employers, tutors, providers and young people.

Key indicator

Keeping purposes and practice under critical review.