The BOOST Study Support Team is part of Bolton Council's School Improvement and Lifelong Learning Division.

Bolton Council works in partnership with the UFA (University of the First Age), to provide quality training for adults so that children and young people in Bolton can benefit from additional learning experiences that are informal, voluntary and fun.

The BOOST Study Support Team:

• Derri Burdon - Study Support Co-ordinator/ UFA Manager

• Gemma Morris - Head Learning Coach/Sunflower Scheme Co-ordinator

• Alison Williams-Southern - Head Learning Coach

• Rebecca Williams-Southern - Assistant Learning Coach

• Anthony Brownlow - Assistant Learning Coach   

Playing for Success (PFS) Team:

• Janet Rhodes - PFS Study Centre Manager / QISS Critical Friend   

• Phil Moulton - Learning Tutor   

• Ed Wilcox - ICT Coordinator

Why is Study Support important?
“Young people only spend 15% of their waking time in school – the other 85% is spent in the home and the community. Unless we look seriously at the 85% we will never lift the lid off potential and achievement in the 15%”  

Study support (or out-of-school-hours-learning) describes the wide range of informal learning activities that young people take part in voluntarily outside normal school hours.  This includes activities before school, at breaks, after school, during holidays and at the weekends – for example, homework clubs, sport, music tuition, dance and drama, arts and crafts, maths and science clubs, special interest clubs, visits to museums and galleries and learning a foreign language.  The development of high quality study support programmes will contribute to:
   

• the 5 Outcomes of Every Child Matters    

• school improvement    

• the development of ‘Extended Services’ in and around schools    

• personalised learning

The significance of study support has increased recently, as it now forms an integral part of the ‘core offer’ of extended services that all schools are expected to provide by 2010, either individually or in partnership with others.

The impact of study support
There is considerable evidence that participation in study support leads to improvements in young people’s self-esteem, attitudes to learning, achievement, classroom behaviour and school attendance. 

The BOOST logo can be used by any school in Bolton to 'brand' out of school time learning activities (aka: extra-curricular, study support, extended learning)