Extended Education - as conceived by the editors of the newly launched Journal for Extended Education - is a term that encompasses a variety of public or private forms of educational  arrangements. These activities and programmes focus on the social, emotional and academic development of children and young people.

Most European children are enrolled in schools that offer lunch as well as extracurricular activities. In Switzerland however, school-aged children generally participate in school- or community-based programes, forms of private tutoring or after-school activities, that are organised privately and are not linked to the curriculum and the school. Nevertheless a few children - mainly in bigger cities - attend all-day schools. In the cities there is a greater need for all-day schooling due to societal changes (Andresen et al. 2012; Schüpbach, 2010). Efforts to set up new all-day schools are undertaken by several stakeholders, such as the community, parents and political parties. All-day schooling is a carrier for various hopes such as the hope that more equality of opportunity may be provided by schools offering a diverse extended education programs for all children. Learning time can be extended. Special programms can be included into the daily school programm. Schools can develop their own profiles by offering courses and programs that are original, well-designed and linked to the curriculum (Fischer, 2011; Stecher et al. 2009)

All-day schools that serve children from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. four, respectively five times a week are still uncommon in Switzerland. Motivated by the long waiting-lists for any kind of child care, the local school authority in the city of Zurich has decided to set-up all-day schooling in the future as a buttom up school improvement project: primary schools in the city of Zurich are requested to change from the traditional schedule to an extended schedule that offers additional activities for every child and also cover parents' working days from either 8 a.m. - 4 p.m. or from 7a.m. to 6 p.m.

In this study we want to find out how different professionals define the meaning of all day schooling. The research questions are: How do teachers, parents, principals and social workers define all-day schooling; what do they consider as future hopes and what kind of expectations they address to whom.

Diverse professional socialisation, different job description, a heterogeneous school staff, the degree of multiprofessional cooperation as key element for school quality are elements of the theoretical framework. The aim of the research is to shed light on the meaning of extended education and to clarify responsibilities and expectations.

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