Every Child Matters: How School Leaders in Extended Schools Respond to Local Needs
01 June 2007
This research, commissioned by the National College for School Leadership (NCSL), examines how school leaders contextualise the principles of Every Child Matters (ECM) and the leadership of extended schools for their local area. It explores how school leaders align ECM, extended schools and standards agendas, the ways in which school leaders adapt ECM for their own context and investigates whether responses to the principles of ECM vary according to the socio-economic levels of the community that the school serves.
Key Findings
- Every interviewee in the study felt that ECM, extended schools and standards agendas overlapped and very few tensions between the agendas were reported.
- As the agendas were felt to align so closely, implementing the ECM agenda was a relatively smooth process in the case-study schools.
- All interviewees took the view that delivering ECM goals would ultimately impact on standards of attainment.
- School leaders need to gather evidence to reinforce the argument that ECM and extended schools can lead to increased attainment, and this link should be promoted widely in the school and wider community, securing commitment to the agendas from all staff.