She now runs computer classes at one of the schools.
The long_term aim is to create a neighbourhood with a campus feel where essential services are easily accessible to all residents.
The children's centre will be next to an existing GP surgery and community centre. The Grove Secondary School has freed one of its buildings to create a multi_agency hub, housing police, social services, health and community development workers. For many, these are services that previously involved two bus rides to access.
This isn't just about schools opening up to provide extra support for pupils' families; it's for the whole community.
Although it's early days, statistics highlight the benefits of the approach to all involved. The proportion of pupils attaining five or more A_Cs at GCSE has risen from 25% to 37%. While there have been around 40 antisocial behaviour orders in the rest of the town, in Greater Hollington there has been just one. Ms Linton puts this down to acceptable behaviour contracts and far more focused support for potential troublemakers. The social services' child protection team on the estate says referrals during the summer holidays have halved, mainly thanks to the number of activities now run at schools.
 

Top: The extended schools play area in Greater Hollington part funded with help from 1066 Housing Association, and above, children planning community activities for their extended schools

'The long-term aim is to create a neighbourhood with a campus feel where essential services are easily accessible to all residents'

School's cool
in Hastings

From humble beginnings, says Austin Macauley, schools in
Greater Hollington have formed a partnership that has
changed their community

Exhausting but exciting would probably best sum up John Benwell's take on what's happened over the last four years.
The head teacher of Robsack Wood Primary School and his staff have led the way on extended schools. Breakfast and after-school clubs are well established which, combined with a multitude of other activities, have doubled the length of the school day, providing many employment opportunities for local people in the process.
'If the head doesn't have the vision it will fall at the first hurdle,' he says. 'We take it as a core belief to what this school is about and that means listening to the community. You end up with better relationships with parents and the community and can break down barriers and myths. In the longer term it should improve working relationships with other professionals.'
When the children's centre opens at the school the whole site will effectively cater for children from six months onwards.
'I see this as the missing link in education,' he adds. 'Schools need to play another role, particularly where families do not have anything else. Where families need this kind of support I believe it is here to stay.'

Four years ago an unprecedented event took place on an estate near Hastings in east Sussex. The head teachers of Greater Hollington's one secondary and three primary schools sat down in a room together.
It was the first time they had done so. Up until then, they'd worked in isolation, despite being within a two mile radius of each other. The meeting marked the start of a journey that could eventually transform the role schools play in the neighbourhood.
Neighbourhood manager Rachael Linton brought them together in the hope of brokering a partnership that would lead to a united front in tackling the estate's problems.
'In the beginning it was "maybe we could open one night a week" or "shall we share caretakers so we can open school on a Saturday?'' says Ms Linton, who runs Greater Hollington Partnership, one of England's neighbourhood management pathfinders. 'Unfortunately, that's what a lot of schools still think this is all about'.
But not in this corner of Hastings. Four years on, schools have embraced the government's extended schools ethos.
From having no childcare places on the estate there are now more than 100 and a further 80 will come on stream later this year when a children's centre is opened. By providing speech therapists, the centre will cut the waiting time for support from a year to just two weeks.
And the fact that the centre will be located on the premises of one of the schools is a telling sign of the shift in attitudes here. Schools now have a clearer vision of how they fit into the bigger picture.
'One of the points of extended schools is using something you already have,' says Ms Linton. 'From a neighbourhood renewal point of view, schools are often the only public building in an area that adults interact with.'
They are more likely to use services run from schools, she says, because they are on their doorstep and in familiar surroundings.
One such service now offered at schools is debt counselling. Research commissioned by the pathfinder found 38% of adults cited debt as the main barrier to returning to work. And when it discovered 35% of pupil exclusions were related to smoking, the primary care trust arranged for smoking cessation support to be brought into school. Ms Linton believes neither intervention would have been possible without the extended schools programme.
And there are numerous other examples of how the scheme is opening new avenues. One which sticks in Ms Linton's mind is the local resident who admitted to being a bit of a wheeler_dealer on the internet auction site Ebay.