These are just a few ways in which the 1,200-student secondary school in Brent is pushing the boundaries of traditional education, as the London borough's only full-service extended school. This success is even more impressive considering that pupils come from a wide range of social, ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds, and just over a decade ago the school consistently had poor exam results.
Range of activities
After taking part in the Brent Behaviour Improvement Programme, which saw attendance rise and exclusion figures fall, Queens Park's hard work paid off when it won extended school status in 2003. Like other extended schools, Queens Park now acts as a home for a range of services, both to young people and adults, often involving youth workers and voluntary groups.
Extended schools are the main way in which the Government "aims to deliver its pledge to children, young people and families", and, as Education Secretary Ruth Kelly announced before the election, they will get 430m funding over the next two years on top of the 250m announced in the budget. Ministers are now deciding exactly how that money should be spent in England and Wales, according to the Department for Education and Skills (DfES).
While Queens Park isn't sure how much extra funding it could benefit from, it already receives 120,000 a year to run a variety of activities - including information technology, health, sports, arts and lifelong learning - and has 25,000 set aside for childcare.
Wheelchair user Jerome Harewood, 16, uses the school's on-site City Learning Centre for information technology classes and took part in a project to create a robot. "The clubs are fun and I liked making a robot and creating a music CD," he says.
Deputy head Barrie Birch is the powerhouse behind the school's metamorphosis, and he admits that although some students might not know what an extended school is, they reap the benefits. "We don't talk in that kind of language, but we have TV screens in school telling them what's going on and also send out a newsletter," he says.
Expertise bought in
To run these extra services, he works to identify partners and buy in their expertise. One such partner is ContinYou, a charity contracted by the DfES to provide support to extended schools. ContinYou helps foster partnerships between schools and organisations and runs regular networking events that Birch attends to get ideas.
Julia Powar, programme manager at ContinYou London, says Queens Park is proactive at building close links with local groups. "It has recognised the huge value of working closely with its community to better respond to local needs," she says.
Birch is keen to introduce projects that address emotional and behavioural problems, sometimes developing interventions for young people who are causing concern. This has resulted in actors from the Blue Sky Theatre Skills Group running workshops on anger management and conflict resolution. Coram Family's boys2MEN group also runs a project at the school to support Black young people. It uses music to help improve their self-esteem, as well as carrying out mentoring.
The school also employs a counsellor to work with Year 10 girls to help them identify and achieve their goals, and a psychotherapist who works on a one-to-one basis with young people who have behavioural problems.
These workers report to Birch who oversees all the agency work and is the point of contact for third-party providers.
A special needs co-ordinator and director of inclusion at the school are also involved in arranging and co-ordinating projects, such as parenting courses run by charity Home-Start.
Brent Adult and Community Education Service runs an adult education service at the school three days a week.
Promise Campbell, 15, has been to Saturday morning revision classes, worked with the Blue Sky theatre group and trained as a drugs adviser through a school project. She says: "It's great that adults can come here too - it's good for the whole community."
On the creative side, the school works closely with Brent Youth Service to help run its Brent Summer University. Young people aged 11 to 25 across the borough can attend a range of 73 courses during August, including sport, IT, music and catering, some of which are held at the school. Sonya Kahlon, project manager of Brent Summer University, says: "We negotiate the space we need and costs with Queens Park and also use its IT technicians. It's been really successful and the school is very co-operative and works well with us."
One of Queens Park's most successful partnerships is with the art workshop Cloth Of Gold. Sixth-formers produced a large banner using silk-screen printing as a backdrop to the main hall school stage, and also worked with four local primary schools to produce a banner customised to the requirements of each school.
"We hope to set up our own permanent silk-screen space and train staff to use it," says Birch.
Familiar surroundings
Anna Ferrie, director of Cloth of Gold, says: "The pupils are familiar with the community and there seems to be a sense of lots of different links involved. It's good for the pupils that there's not an in-school, out-of-school division. It gives them a chance to see that school can offer them interesting things."
Tim Agetumlbi, 17, took part in the Cloth of Gold project as a sixth-former as part of a design course. "It was a really good experience and I've really got into fashion as a result," he says.
Birch's plans for the future include setting up an in-school creche.
He also hopes to have more health services on site and is now working with the primary care trust on developing smoking cessation classes.
Head teacher Mike Hulme believes that being an extended school has meant students understand that learning is lifelong, while they have developed self-confidence and started to make a positive contribution to society. "They are now aware that the school goes beyond the gates - it's not about 8.30am to 3.15pm. The ultimate goal is where the school becomes the core social centre for society."
POLESWORTH HIGH SCHOOL TURNS TO YOUTH WORK
Polesworth High School in Warwickshire was already more progressive than many others in its area, as it boasted its own youth club. But since taking part in a project where different schools piloted parts of the extended schools remit, it has its very own school and community youth worker - the only one in Warwickshire.
Back in 2002, the 1,000-pupil school brought in Jo Humble on a trial basis, but the initiative was so successful that she is now fully employed by the school. Humble's role includes an input into personal, social and health education, co-ordinating the anti-bullying peer mentoring project - where Year 10 mentors refer Year 7 pupils who are being bullied to Humble, or attend a drop-in - and spending evenings working at the school's youth club. She's also launched a Duke of Edinburgh's Award scheme at the school, as well as a chill-out zone.
Humble says: "It's been really successful and now it would be nice to have other youth workers helping me. There's another year of the project to run, and I hope it gets funding so we can continue it. Other schools should do the same thing."
Head teacher Andy Clarke is also convinced of the value of joining up school and youth work. He says: "I'm delighted with the way it's worked out. Multi-agency working too often consists of people going to a big meeting and nothing happening, but this way we get things done."
YOUNG PEOPLE'S VOICES
A lot of my friends at other schools are quite envious. It's great that there's all this stuff to do here - Tim Agetumlbi, 17
I feel lucky to be at this school and our parents trust us to go here. It feels safer than going to a youth club - Deishna Jaysanghe, 14
Having teachers after school to help us with homework is good because now it's part of the everyday routine - Jerome Harewood, 16
It's very convenient having everything here. Some people who use our facilities have to come from other schools and have to travel a lot further - Promise Campbell, 15.
