By September 2010 all Shropshire-maintained schools were able to provide their children and their parents/carers with access to the full range of extended services (full core offer) which covers the following five areas of provision.

A varied menu of study support activities

Offering children access to a wide range of opportunities to experience and enjoy, for example:

• ‘Catch up’ and ‘stretch’ activities; homework clubs
• Arts activities, eg dance, drama, arts and crafts
• Sports activities (at least two hours a week for those who want it)
• Other recreational activities, eg special-interest clubs, music tuition, modern foreign languages, volunteering, business and enterprise activities, visits to museums and galleries

Parenting support

This includes things that parents and carers can be involved in too, helping them to engage with their children’s learning by:

• Providing information on all aspects of parenting, linking to the Family Information Service (FIS)
• Offering clear information and support at transition especially when children are moving through school
• Offering parenting programmes with the support of other children’s services
• Running family learning sessions
• Actively helping all parents

Quality childcare

This includes looking after the children when you’re not there.

Giving children a good start in the crucial early years, supporting working parents to the benefit of the whole family.

• Primary schools offer year round (48 weeks) access to high quality childcare, 8am to 6pm or to reflect community demand
• Provided on school site or signposted through other local providers with supervised transfer arrangements
• Secondary schools do not need to provide formal childcare. Some choose to, but activity programmes need to provide a safe, supervised place to be

Swift and easy access to specialist services

This includes the right support for when things are difficult.

• Working in partnership to ensure the well-being of all children
• Beginning with preventative work to ensure the health and well-being of all pupils
• For children with additional needs, schools should work closely with multi-agency or locality teams developed under the children's trust arrangements to ensure that needs are identified and supported in school as early as possible

Community access

This includes things that parents, families and the community can do as well potentially offering:

• Wider community access to ICT, sports and arts facilities including adult learning
• Sign-posting to existing community facilities
• Links with relevant community provision including Children’s Centres Services

This provision should be being reviewed regularly, in consultation with the school community as a whole, to ensure it remains appropriate to what is needed.