Oxfordshire has been allocated £4.5m by the Government to extend school opening hours from 8am until 6pm.

Georgina Cox, 11, left, Charlotte Cox, nine, Jojo Dawes, nine, and Charlie Burt, seven, show off their after school club mosaic with artist Becky Paton

The funding announcement yesterday was welcomed by parents, headteachers and council officers who will be delivering the programme.

Most Oxfordshire schools are already running breakfast or after-school clubs and the funding will enable all families in the county to access year-round childcare through their local schools by 2010.

The additional hours could include language clubs, indoor rock-climbing and first-aid courses, as well as music, drama and arts events.

Oxfordshire County Council had already been given a £900,000 grant for the extended schools programme for 2005-2006.

It has now been allocated £1,657,520 for 2006-2007 and a further £2,057,992 for 2007-2008.

The county's GCSE results have fallen for the past three consecutive years to below national averages and it is hoped that the extended schools programme will engage the wider community in school life, and ultimately raise standards.

Cutteslowe Primary School, in north Oxford, is among the schools now running breakfast clubs.

The service, set up last month with a £5,000 Government Sure Start grant, is run by teaching assistants to help working parents and improve the concentration and behaviour of children in class by giving them a healthy breakfast.

Vikki White, who runs an after-school club at Beckley Primary School, said numbers increased dramatically after it started offering a wider range of activities, including tennis, rugby, drama, first aid and art.

She said: "I would definitely welcome funding to give more families access to this sort of service. It is a long day for the children but the varied range of activities keeps them interested."

Becky Paton, of Headington, Oxford, whose children Oliver, six, and Isabel, five, attend the after-school club, helps run a mosaic session once a week.

She said: "I'm not in full-time employment and I don't need to use the service on a regular basis, but my children go whenever I have an appointment or if they want to take part in a particular activity.

"Many parents don't have a choice so it's wonderful that this facility is available. It's an incredibly long day for the children but there are so many activities to keep them interested. It's important that there's a distinction between school hours and the after-school hours."

David Wilson, chairman of the Oxfordshire Secondary Headteachers Association, and headteacher at Faringdon Community College, which does not run after-school clubs, said: "While having formal activities for students out of hours is a good idea, the main concern for schools is having someone to manage it.

"There's also the challenge of finding activities that will potentially engage all students up to 6pm five evenings a week."

Shannon Moore, the council's senior advisor for partnership and extended learning, said: "Most of our schools are doing aspects of extended work across the county. We greatly welcome confirmation that there's funding in future years."

Education Secretary Ruth Kelly came under fire in the Commons yesterday for not informing MPs first about Government plans to extend the school day.

Ms Kelly was accused by her Tory shadow David Cameron, MP for Witney, of ignoring the House.

Mr Cameron raised a point of order in the Commons, saying: "Over the weekend the Secretary of State for Education announced a policy of extended hours which could affect every school in the country. No-one in this House has had the chance to ask any questions about it."