• Lucas Walsh, Barbara Lemon, Rosalyn Black
• Foundation for Young Australians

Read the full text

30 August 2011The Foundation for Young Australians has been contracted to undertake an analytical summary of the Australian and international literature in relation to:

1. How different jurisdictions and overseas countries have defined extended service models
2. The reported rationale behind trials and implemented approaches
3. Critical success factors and inhibitors that have been identified as impacting on effective implementation.

This report provides a detailed response to each of these questions, with a particular focus on models of provision that aim to facilitate the delivery of services to children and young people at risk of not engaging in education or making a successful transition to schooling, further education and training and participation in the wider community, as well as a focus on the transferability of international experience into the Australian context.

The report also provides brief descriptions of Australian and international practice to date. These are not necessarily intended to indicate best or even representative practice. Instead, they have been selected to demonstrate the broad range of practice that characterises the field. At the same time, an effort has been made to select examples that have been identified by independent evaluations or by systemic initiatives as making a difference to student outcomes or demonstrating responses to the various challenges that attend the practice of extended service schooling.

Searches have been undertaken of the following Australian academic databases: A+ Education, Australian Public Affairs, the Australasian Education Directory and Family and Society Plus. Searches have also been undertaken of the following international databases: Academic Search Premier, Education Complete, Educational Administration Abstracts, Educational Resources Information Centre (ERIC), Expanded Academic ASAP, JSTOR, Source OECD and the Web of Science. The following keywords have been applied to these searches:

• extended schools/schooling
• extended service schools/schooling
• full service schools/schooling
• community schools/schooling
• wraparound.

In addition, literature has been sourced from a range of Australian and international policy sites, with an emphasis on publications from 1990 through to the present. Other literature has been sourced directly from agencies such as the Youth Research Centre at The University of Melbourne that have undertaken previous studies into extended or full service schooling practice in Australia. Extensive searches of the World Wide Web have also been undertaken to identify literature and research arising from practitioner sites and non-government agencies.