Kent Enrichment Outreach Programme

Background
The South East Regional Partnership (SERP), for many years, coordinated and administered enrichment outreach courses held at weekends and in the holidays throughout the region. The G&T team at Canterbury Christchurch University was central to this and hosted the SERP activities and information on its website. Government funding for Regional Partnerships (RP) ended on 31-3-11 and SERP activities have closed.

In the last year, over 800 Kent children took part in SERP courses and the void left by the end of SERP will be felt by large numbers of children, parents and schools in the future.

Programme
Kent has twelve districts and operates a six term year. Each district has between 27 and 50 primary, junior and infant schools and between three and ten secondary schools. If every school in every district offered an enrichment outreach course once every five to ten years, according to district size, Kent would have twelve courses on offer to children each term and over 70 courses each year for at least five years. If some schools wish to host more frequently, the overall offer will be even better.

A problem for some children in the past has been the matter of travelling distance and cost to attend activities. A local offer will alleviate this problem. In the past, SERP courses have offered 25% of the places free to children receiving free school meals; this offer could be replaced by the child’s school deciding to subsidise them, for example: via Pupil Premium funding.

Individual teachers in a school can offer a course or a school could host an activity delivered by an outside provider. A list of providers used by SERP in recent years is contained in this directory together with details of their offer to schools. It will be the host school’s responsibility to negotiate and plan with the outside provider. It would be appreciated if details of additional outside providers known to schools can be passed to Roger Silk to allow this Directory to be expanded.

The host school will be responsible for the administration of the course with the support of the Kent G&T Adviser. Proposals will be completed by each school offering a course; costs would be determined and the cost per attendee agreed. The maximum number of children attending will be decided by the host school/provider depending on the nature of the activity and the age of the children. Minimum numbers will be agreed - the break even figure – and stated on the course details and proposal form. Cancellation of courses will be 10 days before the event, if necessary.

Pro-forma for the scheme have been adapted from the ones used by SERP in the past – copies attached as separate documents.

Courses have usually started at 9.30 or 10am finishing at 3.00 or 3.30pm. Pupil, parent and course provider evaluations will be part of the process.

Courses will be advertised at least 8 weeks prior to the course. For the first four weeks, only children attending schools within the host district will be able to apply; from week 5, any children in Kent can apply for vacant places.

Over-subscribed courses can be repeated at the discretion of the course provider – within the same district or elsewhere on request. 

Host schools will produce flyers to accompany the course forms and circulate them to the schools in their district. There is a directory of available courses posted on the Kent Trust Web G&T site. Each school would circulate the course information to appropriate children in their school.

Parents will complete the form and pay by cheque/BACS directly to the host school. Teachers will be paid, through “additional hours” claims, by their own school and the payment for resources, site staff, etc will also be dealt with internally.

Timescale
Schools offering courses for the 2011-12 year should email their proposals to Roger Silk for approval and collation prior to advertising the course. Roger Silk will confirm with the host school within three working days on receipt of the proposal form.

Courses will be advertised from July for a late September/early October start and the calendar for the year will be established for each participating district and across the whole county. Additional courses proposed during the school year will be added as proposals are received.

• The Directory of Outside Providers
• Course Provider Application form
• Student Course Attendance Application form

Courses available in 2011-12
These details will be updated regularly throughout the year

Maidstone