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Schools must become "institutions that work better with modern life", education minister Elizabeth Truss has said.

She suggested that schools should be open for up to 10 hours a day, with room for children as young as two, offering care outside formal lessons, catch-up classes and extra-curricular activities.

Ms Truss's comments came as new Government research was published on the number of schools in England that provide childcare before and after school during term time and during the holidays.

It reveals that just under two-thirds of primaries (64%) offered parents access to before-school care last year, while 70% provided after-school care and just under a fifth (19%) offered care during the holidays.

Overall, half (53%) of primary schools in England offered families before and after-school care during term time. This equates to around 9,900 schools, the study said.

More schools in poorer areas were open for children before and after lessons than schools in richer areas.

But more schools in richer areas provided childcare during the holidays.

In a speech to City Fathers in London, Ms Truss said schools have to offer more flexible care and support for working parents.

"It feels as though the whole issue of parenthood has never been more fraught," she said.

"The debate swings between blaming parents for all society's problems - for being too focused on their own careers and neglecting their children, letting them run riot and play computer games late into the night. Or it blames them for being too obsessed with their own offspring - painting an unfair and untrue picture of entitled mums and dads ramming their Bugaboos into pedestrians, clogging up the streets on the school run and hogging all the best spaces in supermarket car parks.

"The reality, of course, is that neither of these gargoyle stereotypes is true.

"In fact parents today are working harder than ever, spending more time with their children than ever, and worrying more than ever about how to help their child succeed."

Ms Truss said she wants more schools to offer a day that is nine or 10 hours long, with a flexible nursery for two to four-year-olds.

"We're determined to make schools become institutions that work better with modern life - that prepare children for all the challenges of the modern world, and support and help family life," she said.

"Not necessarily for extra lessons - but for a safe, calm place to do homework, or to go over classes which you didn't get the first time round; time for clubs like debating, cadets, orchestras, sport and drama; for volunteering or Duke of Edinburgh or careers talks from employers - all the sort of enrichment activities which our best schools already offer as a matter of course."