Centred from the start

Children's centres are sprouting up all over England, offering a better start in life for children and greater support for families in the country's most deprived areas.

Quarry Mount Children's Centre in Leeds, which offers extended day care provision, is one such centre. In the past few years, it has become a model service, successfully integrating childcare, education, family support and health services.

The centre is unusual because it takes children from three years until the end of reception class, offering them a seamless transition between the foundation and reception stages of the national curriculum.

The centre's staff and 82 pupils also enjoy a close relationship with Quarry Mount Primary School, helped by the fact that it is on the school site. Before setting up the service, headteacher Colleen Jackson consulted staff, parents and carers on how best to design the old school hall to meet the rigour of the foundation stage. Refurbishment went ahead, but not without "the usual building constraints and going over budget", she says.

Pupils in the foundation stage receive the national offer of five free two-and-a-half-hour sessions a week. Parents who want full-time childcare pay on a sliding scale according to their income. The cash comes via Education Leeds (which is responsible for primary education) and Leeds City Council (early years). "We're very lucky as we have two very proactive and supportive chief execs," says Mrs Jackson. "Because the centre and the school are run from the same site, we use the capital given to both and divide it up."

Nine fully-trained early-years practitioners offer full— and part-time care from 8am to 6pm all year round. Children are supported by a key worker, in line with government guidelines that stipulate one adult to eight children. The centre provides English language classes for parents and runs a Play and Stay session for under-threes. The staff also work with social workers and a family support worker who does outreach work.

Medical help is on offer from health workers, a doctor, a nurse, an education psychologist and a speech therapist. And to guarantee that the children get their daily intake of vitamins, there is also a fruit tuck shop.

"All the evidence has shown that having the children's centre — and the health benefits from it — is having an immense benefit on their learning," says Mrs Jackson. "Just before children take their Key Stage 2 tests, we have breakfast and then a relaxation session. This helps the children to forget whatever may have happened before school and prepares them for the test. Results have shot up."

Teacher-manager Daphne Smith says the centre is very well staffed due to its close links with the school. "The children get access to more adults and they have more chance to talk and be listened to," she says. "We keep a visual diary for each one which shows the activities they have completed, so the school will have a profile from the age of three, giving them a clear picture of how the child's learning has developed."

Despite this high level of support, Mrs Smith admits that parents had reservations about integrating the nursery with the primary school. "They thought children would miss out on the educational side by not being in 'big school'. But they soon realised that this wasn't the case and they would still get a taste of real school."

Lizzie Coombes, whose five-year-old son Finlay attends the centre, says, "He has positively thrived at the centre and looks forward to coming. We couldn't have wished for a better start to his schooling."

Research conducted last autumn has revealed that good quality pre-school education enhances intellectual development and improves independence, concentration and sociability. The findings, from the Effective Provision of Pre-school Education (EPPE) Project, also showed that disadvantaged children in particular can benefit significantly from good quality pre-school experiences, especially if they mix with children from different social backgrounds. Mrs Jackson says children who have done two years in the centre are attaining higher than the national average in KS1 results.

Providing structured activities for a wide age range is not hard, says Mrs Smith. "We choose an activity that can then be extended for the more able children."

Next year, when the centre is designated a Sure Start children's centre and takes children from birth, even more youngsters will gain from good early-years education. The benefits are clear to Mrs Smith. "It's often quite a shock for a child to enter Year 1, but at Quarry Mount they know the staff already, so the transition is seamless." 

Further information

For more details about children's centres and Birth to Three Matters, and for guidance on the foundation stage, visit www.surestart.gov.uk or www.qca.org.uk 

A Sure Start Children's Centre

Fortune Park Children's Centre in Islington, north London, became a Sure Start children's centre in 2003. Funded by Islington Council, Sure Start and EC1 New Deal, it takes 85 children from birth to five years of age.

The centre's head, Caron Rudge, explains, "In the future, we will additionally have two reception classes, enabling us to see children through the whole foundation stage — an exciting development."

The centre, which has two teachers, 11 under-fives education workers, four support workers and an eight-strong outreach team, supports the children and family as a whole. "It's about integrated services," says Ms Rudge, who has seen the centre come a long way in the past eight years. "Now that we provide an expanded range of services, we can help families so much more. Our staffing structure didn't enable us to do that before."

The facts about Children's Centres

1. Around £435 million is being pumped into children's centres up to 2006.
2. There are 67 early-designated Sure Start children's centres.
3. In March this year, the Chancellor announced additional funding worth £669 million for education across the board. Some of this money will go towards creating 1,700 Sure Start children's centres in England by 2008.
4. Schools provide excellent sites for development in a local area — extended schools are especially well placed.
5. In start-up guidance for children's centres, issued by the Department for Education and Skills in 2003, councils were urged to engage schools.
6. Ministers expect that in most children's centres a trained early-years teacher will be employed on a half-time basis to ensure high quality learning. Centres will be encouraged to increase this to a full-time post within 12-18 months of designation.
7. Centres must aspire to high standards, reflecting good practice in Birth to Three Matters: A Framework to Support Children in the Earliest Years, as well as good practice set out in the curriculum guidance for the Foundation Stage.

This content was published in July 2004 and may not reflect current policy