In September 2003 the Jack Petchey Foundation gave Tower Hamlets Education Authority a grant of £395,000 to support Out of School Hours Learning in borough secondary schools. This was the biggest single award ever made by the foundation and the first of its kind to a LEA.

During the academic year 2003-2004, twenty-two Tower Hamlets secondary and secondary special schools benefited from JPF OoSHL grants ranging from £2,000 to over £22,000 in total per school under this pilot programme. The funding was used by school-based OoSHL co-ordinators to provide a huge range of yearlong activities and short-term projects designed to raise achievement and to provide enrichment opportunities for students.

These have been delivered before and after school, at lunchtimes and weekends and during school holidays, on school premises and off-site, by school staff and external providers to over 5,000 pupils across the borough.

OoSHL (Study Support) Service has worked closely with schools to assure the quality of the programmes and to ensure full and effective use of the JPF funding across the LEA. We have also maintained regular communication with Andrew Billington, chief executive of the JPF, to report on the progress of the pilot programme and to put forward proposals for future funding.

In May 2004 the JPF confirmed their continued support for OoSHL with a further grant of £395,000 for the academic year 2004 –2005. In consultation with JPF and the LEA, the OoSHL (Study Support) Service has made some significant changes to the structure of the JPF funding and its distribution to schools.

Quality assurance of activities will be a particular focus of attention through 2004 –2005. The role of the OoSHL (Study Support) Service in the management and administration of the scheme will shift away from finance and towards monitoring and evaluation as JPF funding is no longer held by the service but delegated directly to schools.

In order to access their JPF funding allocation,  schools will have to have achieved the borough’s OoSHL Quality Assurance Award (QAA) by July 2004. Schools that have already achieved QiSS status have been awarded additional funding of £10,000 and those on track to do so by December 2004 a further sum of £5,000.