The YMCA will host its own fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference this week in Brighton at which it will call on the voluntary sector to work in partnership with extended schools to best serve local communities.
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Schools Ministers Jacqui Smith, John Grainger from the community learning charity ContinYou, John Craig from think-tank Demos and Nick Jeffery, YMCA England Extended Schools Adviser, are all due to speak at the meeting entitled ‘Too cool for the extended school?’.

Three young members on Hove YMCA’s youth participation board will also attend the fringe meeting and will have the opportunity to meet Children and Young People’s Minister, Beverley Hughes.

Eighteen-year-old Vicky Kidby said: “I’m really excited about going to the Labour Party conference as young people and their voices are worth listening to.

“We have opinions that are valid, and it makes me feel important being invited to the conference.”

Fellow-board member Rachel Davis, 19, added: “There should be more consultation between MPs and young people as there is a generation gap that needs to be filled.

“I’d like to see regular sessions with young people putting their opinions directly to Tony Blair.”

More than 70 YMCAs across the UK work alongside local schools to offer extended services such as breakfast and homework clubs, sports coaching and support for parents. |QUOTE|The YMCA voiced the concern, however, that the Government plans to make every school an ‘extended school’ may continue to exclude young people disillusioned with education.

“From experience we know that extended schools have a great deal of potential to be more than just a longer day,” said Nick Jeffery, YMCA extended schools adviser.

“Schools and local education authorities must recognise that providing services for academically comfortable young people is simply not enough,” he added.

The YMCA called upon the Government to transform extended schools into a service for the whole community, particularly vulnerable young people.