Every Child Matters
The NGA supports the holistic view of education that underpins the Every Child Matters agenda. We support the five principles of Every Child Matters and the strategic aims of the programme to develop extended and full service schools.
However:
We are concerned that the focus of government policy on extended schools seems to have become focused in practice on childcare - rather than on education.
We are concerned that many in schools feel that implementation of ECM is under-resourced and burdensome, and that governing bodies are being asked to take on significant new responsibilities with neither the training nor the resources to deliver the expected provision.
We are concerned that third party provision of social and leisure activities outside the curriculum raises important questions of legal and moral responsibility and has the potential to further narrow the relationship between teacher and pupil.