Beyond the School Gates: Can Full Service and Extended Schools Overcome Disadvantage Colleen Cummings, Alan Dyson, and Liz Todd Around the world, schools are being asked to offer new services to students, families and communities in order to overcome the effects of disadvantage. Referred to as 'extended', 'full service' or 'community' schools, they extend their provision so that they are open beyond the normal school day, in order to work with families and local communities. This book, for the first time ever, critically examines the role of full service and extended schools. The authors draw on their extensive international evaluations of this radical new phenomenon to ask: • What do extended or full service schools hope to achieve, and why should services based on schools be any more effective than services operating from other community bases? • What pattern of services and activities is most effective? • What does extended schooling mean for children and families who are not highly disadvantaged, or for schools outside the most disadvantaged areas? • How can schools lead extended services at the same time as doing their ‘day job’ of teaching children? • Why should schools be concerned with family and community issues? • Beyond the advocacy of ‘extended provision’, what real evidence is there that schools of this kind make a difference, and how can school leaders evaluate the impact of their work? This book will be of interest to anyone involved in extended and full service school provision, as a practitioner, policy-maker, or researcher. Colleen Cummings is a Research Associate in the Research Centre for Learning and Teaching, University of Newcastle, UK. Alan Dyson is Professor of Education at the University of Manchester, UK, where he co-directs the Centre for Equity in Education. He was previously Director of the Special Needs Research Centre at the University of Newcastle. Liz Todd is Professor of Educational Inclusion at the University of Newcastle. Her Routledge book, Partnerships for Inclusive Education, was shortlisted for the 2007 NASEN/TES Academic Book Award.