As well as providing out-of-hours services for their local communities, extended schools are in business during the holidays. From this week, there will be fewer bored kids on the streets in a deprived part of east London as the Tom Hood secondary school in Leytonstone kicks off its summer programme.

Radhika Bynon, extended school manager, says: "We expect to have about 120 young people a day, from Tom Hood and neighbouring schools, doing things like basketball, sport, Bollywood dance. It's providing them with something that's fun and enjoyable. It does change how they view school, to spend two weeks doing basketball with teachers who they get to know better - they'll come back with a different mindset in September than if they hadn't had that experience."

However, the programme is only a small element of what the school offers. Bynon, a non-teaching member of staff with a background in the voluntary sector, was given the task of setting up an advice and support centre on the site to serve adults. Constructed on an unused section of the playground, it provides health and social care in an area with some of the highest levels of need in London. There is a high incidence of infant mortality; the highest numbers of women dying from some forms of cancer; and more than 40% of youngsters with special education needs.

While children throng willingly into the school's halls and studios for their summer sessions, the centre caters for adults and older teenagers with a wide range of services, too. These include a sexual health clinic; a Citizens Advice bureau; jobcentre sessions, a credit union loans and money advice service; a drop-in centre for childminders, including a toy library; and a creche, funded by Sure Start. "The thing that has driven this project is a belief that local families find it harder to access services quickly than in other areas because we're in a corner of the borough of Waltham Forest," Bynon explains. "Levels of need may be surprisingly high because of that geographical quirk. So we say, OK, we have a building; in our school we have 900 families; in this patch there are 3,500 children, so we offer our services to parents at nearby schools as well."

She says that it is in the school's interest to help parents because the sooner they access these services, the better the likely outcome for families.

To ensure Tom Hood is meeting specific community need, parents and children have been asked what services the advice centre should offer, and what facilities the extended school should have. "We run evening classes because that's one of things parents asked for," says Bynon.

"Things that have gone really well - a very successful salsa class, our internet introduction course has been very successful, also first aid and cookery - to encourage adults back into learning. When a child sees their parent learning at their first computer course, that changes the dynamic in the household."

This is the end of Bynon's first year in her new post; but Tom Hood needs to extend itself even more, she says. "We want to work on more parenting programmes, and we're continually working on improving relations with neighbours. We've set up a community garden project with Neighbourhood Watch, which hasn't always been the greatest enthusiast of children, but they come and work with parents and children. It's a lovely project: on a Saturday morning, we all muck in together."

Useful link

For details on how to become an extended school, visit teachernet.