The findings are revealed in the latest issue of Children in Europe, a bi-annual collaborative journal by a network of national organisations from eight European countries, edited by Peter Moss, professor of early childhood education at the University of London's Institute of Education.
These organisations include Children in Scotland, the lead agency for children's organisations in Scotland, which works in partnership with the National Children's Bureau and Children in Wales.
Professor Moss said, 'Increasing demand for school-age childcare and more school-age childcare in schools is raising questions about the future of the school. Will the traditional school be unchanged? Or will it evolve to become a multi-functional service, with new ways of working with children, new types of workers and new ideas about learning and knowledge? This issue of Children in Europe takes us to the heart of these debates in Europe.'
In his introduction to the magazine Dr Moss points out that as out-of-school services have developed across Europe, they have increasingly been based in schools. This has raised questions about whether childcare services should be separate from or integrated with the school, and about what they should aim to achieve.
In some cases there have been pressures to give out-of-school services an increasingly educational focus, creating conflict between school and childcare service. Professor Moss says, 'The relationship is increasingly tense in countries (like Denmark) where governments want to improve their standing in international league tables of student performance (such as OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment), and there is pressure for more formal learning.' Elsewhere, as in Sweden, he says, the approach has been to combine education, care and leisure activities, developing the 'whole day school'.
The magazine includes an overview from Dr Pat Petrie of the Institute of Education's Thomas Coram Research Unit. Dr Petrie explains that the school timetable dictates when childcare will be needed and also has an impact on the nature of out-of-school activities. For example, in Germany, which has a short school day, homework is an essential part of the out-of-school programme.
'Everywhere, the length of the school day and whether or not the curriculum is relatively formal can affect what children are ready for when they get to their school-age childcare service - they may just want to "chill out" or they may be ready for vigorous activity,' Dr Petrie observes.
Standards of staff qualification vary across Europe. Denmark, Sweden and Germany require a high proportion of all staff to be qualified. In Sweden, training for pre-school and school teachers and free-time pedagogues has been integrated since 2001. In future all will be known as teachers, although with different specialisations, and all will have a pedagogic remit, with responsibility for children's well-being and for their education in the widest sense of the word. However, Dr Petrie adds, 'In many countries it is hard to find statistics on training and qualification, but mostly the work is not highly professionalised and qualification requirements can be low.'
Dr Petrie adds that school-age childcare 'is still widely seen as a protective and preventive measure and as serving labour force requirements'. But there are signs that pedagogic questions are assuming a higher profile, such as 'Is there a risk that school-based services assume the repressive values and practices associated with traditional schooling?'
Individual copies of Children in Europe are available from Children in Scotland on 0131 222 2411, priced 8 to non-members of Children in Scotland and the National Children's Bureau.
