ABSTRACT
In the period between their fi rst election victory in 1997 and their ultimate defeat in 2010, New Labour governments in England increasingly sought to develop a distinctive “outward-facing” role for schools. Rather than simply expecting schools to teach children well within the confi nes of the standard curriculum and normal school day, they also encouraged (and ultimately required) them to make available a range of additional activities and services for children, families, and members of local communities. Schools working in this way were given various labels-“extended schools” being the longest-lasting-but essentially they all offered a mixture of extracurricular activities, child care, child and family support, adult learning, and community use of school facilities (see, e.g., DCSF, s.d., 2002, 2003b, 2003c, 2005a; HM Government, 2007). In many ways, these schools were similar to the “full service” and “community” schools (again, the labels vary) that have sprung up in many administrations, particularly in the United States, over the past two decades (Dyson, 2010).
