Parents’ Handbook

 

About the club

The Young Explorers Club is registered with Ofsted and is based at the different locations. The club opening times and closing times will be provided on the website, for the weekdays, during term time. We also offer holiday care from 8.30am to 5.30pm.

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Aims

At The Young Explorers Club we aim to provide a safe and secure and relaxed environment, offering a range of activities to reflect the interests of the children in our care.

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What we offer

Our Club follows the Playwork and Montessori Principles, so the children are free to choose activities and resources as they wish. There will always be a selection of activities and resources available, including dressing up, home corner, craft, sewing, board games, construction, computer games, physical play, dance & drama, cookery, and reading. In addition, other resources are available for the children to select from our equipment library.

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What we provide

The food we provide at the Club is not intended as a substitute for a main evening meal. We provide healthy snacks, including fresh fruit and vegetables. We promote independence, by encouraging the children to prepare their own snacks, and to clear away after themselves. We use fresh ingredients and follow statutory guidelines. Fresh drinking water is available at all times. We meet individual dietary requirements and parental preferences wherever possible. We recognise the importance of healthy nutrition for children delivered in a calm, friendly setting. We allow children to decide when they are ready to eat, but request that food be consumed whilst sitting at the snack table. Menus are prepared according to popular demands by children.

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Staffing

Our Club is staffed by managers  Anne Abraham and Annamaria P Turer, team leaders

and the play workers.  Our aim is to provide a smooth transition between school and club.

All of our staff have significant experience of working with children and undertake professional development training. We meet the safe recruitment policy. All staff members have appropriate DBS checks. We maintain a staff/child ratio of 1:8 for children under the age of eight, and a ratio of 1:10 for children over the age of 8.

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Staff also have designated roles:

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Anne Abraham & Annamaria P Turner:         Special Education Needs Co-ordinator

Anne Abraham & Annamaria P Turner:         Equalities and Inclusion Co-ordinator, Health and Safety Officer

Anne Abraham & Annamaria P Turner:         Fire Safety Officer, First Aid Co-ordinator, EYFS Key Person

Anne Abraham & Annamaria P Turner:         EYFS Key Person, Child Protection Officer

Anne Abraham & Annamaria P Turner:         Data Protection Lead

 

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If you have a query or concern at any time, please speak to a member of staff at the club when you collect your child. If you prefer to arrange a more convenient time for a meeting please contact the manager (contact details are further on in this Handbook).

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Organisation

The Young Explorers Club is run as a private business, employing  staff. We enjoy a close working relationship with the Schools in order to ensure continuity of care, and to maintain good communication links.

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Policies and procedures

The Club has clearly defined policies and procedures. Key points of the main policies are included in this Handbook. Copies of the full policies are kept at the Club and are available for parents to consult at all times.

 

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Terms and conditions

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Admission

Our Club aims to be accessible to children and families from all sections of our local community. Admission to the club is organised by the Manager and we use a waiting list system when the need arises. The waiting list will be operated on a first come-first served basis, with the exception of siblings who will have priority for the same days as a sibling already attending. See our Admission and Fees Policy for more details.

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We require a completed set of registration forms for your child before they can attend the club. This information will be treated as confidential and will be stored appropriately.

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Re-enrolment for September is required at the end of the summer term. We cannot keep a place open for your child unless you complete a new registration form. This will apply to other times in the term.

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Payment of fees

Parents are informed of the current fees are. Fees are payable monthly  in advance by cash or cheque, bank transfer, Tax-Free Childcare or childcare vouchers.

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We accept vouchers from many childcare voucher schemes.  Cheques should be made payable to “Anne Abraham/Annamaria Palermo”.

The price per session per child applies to all children. This is payable for all booked sessions including when your child is sick, or on holiday (regardless of the amount of notice given).

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We do not charge for bank holidays and professional training days.

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Please ensure that fees are paid promptly. Non-payment for more than one month may result in your place being terminated. If you are having difficulty paying fees, please speak in confidence to admin.

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Changes to days and cancelling your place

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You must give us one month’s notice of termination, or of changes in attendance. If you need to change the days that your child attends, please contact admin. We try to accommodate such changes wherever possible.

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Temporary changes

Please remember that we need to know if your child will not be attending the Club for any reason. Even if you have informed your child's school, you still need to notify us as the school does not automatically pass this information on to us. If your child doesn’t attend a booked session, we will have to treat them as a ‘missing child’ unless you have notified us of their absence.

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If you know in advance of any days when your child will not be attending during the following week, please try to let admin know as soon as possible.  In cases of illness or emergency when notice cannot be given, please call as soon as you can. Contact details will be provided. Last minute changes may be made by messaging the club phone followed by an email to our admin team.  We also have a member of staff who will check the club phone for any amendments at about 2,30pm before collecting the children, at the end of the School day. The registers will be updated accordingly. 

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Induction

You and your child are welcome to visit the Club before your child's first day, to familiarise yourselves with the setting and to help your child settle in. Please contact the Manager to arrange this by emailing.

During your child’s first session time will be set aside for an induction. The induction will include running through Club's rules and routines (including meal times, collection, children's meetings), and introducing your child the staff and other children.

Another child will usually be allocated to act as your child's buddy for the first few sessions.

See our Child Induction Policy for more details.

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Arrivals and departures

Our staff collect children from class and escort them to the Club. A register is taken when children arrive in our care, and you must sign out your child each day when you collect them.

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We expect that your child will normally be collected by the people you have named on the registration form. If you need a different person to collect your child on a particular day, you must notify us in advance. We will not release your child into the care of a person unknown to us without your authorisation. We then expect you to create a ‘password’ of your choice, for that person collecting.

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See our Arrivals and Departures Policy for more details.

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The club finishes at the times specified. if you are delayed for any reason please telephone the Club to let us know. A late payment fee of £5 per 15 minutes will be charged if you collect your child after the Club has closed. You may also be asked to make a contribution towards any extra staff wages and transport costs incurred.

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If your child remains uncollected after the collection time, and you have not warned us that you will be delayed, and we have been unable to reach you or any of your emergency contacts, we will follow our Uncollected Children Policy and contact the Social Care team.

Child protection

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We are committed to building a ‘culture of safety’ in which the children in our care are protected from abuse and harm. Any suspicion of abuse is promptly and appropriately responded to. We comply with local and national child protection procedures and ensure that all staff are appropriately trained. For more details see our Safeguarding Policy.

Equal opportunities

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Our Club provides a safe and caring environment, free from discrimination, for everyone in our community including children with additional needs.

• We respect the different racial origins, religions, cultures and languages in a multi-ethnic society so that each child is valued as an individual without racial or gender stereotyping.

• We will challenge inappropriate attitudes and practices.

• We will not tolerate any form of racial harassment.

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Special needs

We make every effort to accommodate and welcome any child with special needs. We will work in liaison with parents or carers and relevant professionals to fully understand your child’s specific requirements. We will endeavour to accommodate all children of all abilities, whilst working within the Club’s limitations. Each case will be considered individually and risk-assessed to ensure everyone’s safety.

Our staff training programme includes specific elements relating to children with special needs. For more details on equal opportunities and special needs, see our Equalities Policy.

 

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General Information

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Behaviour (children)

Children and staff have created rules for acceptable behaviour whilst at the Club. These are displayed at the Club for everyone to see. We encourage the children to write club rules regularly.

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We have a clear Behaviour Management Policy, a copy of which is distributed to all parents and carers, when requested:

The Club promotes an atmosphere of care, consideration and respect for everyone attending: children, staff and visitors. 

We encourage appropriate behaviour through: praise for good behaviour; emphasis on co-operative play and sharing; talking to children with the courtesy that we expect from them and engaging children in activities

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The Club has procedures for dealing with unacceptable behaviour.  We recognise that poor behaviour can occur from time to time for reasons that are not always evident, or as a result of special needs. We will try to be flexible in order to accommodate such cases.

However, if your child is violent, or if their behaviour poses an immediate danger to themselves or others, we will require you to collect them from the Club immediately. In exceptional circumstances, and only when all other attempts at behaviour management have failed, we reserve the right to permanently exclude a child from the Club. See our Suspensions and Exclusions Policy for full details. 

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Behaviour (adults)

We will not tolerate from any person, whether a parent, carer or visitor: bullying; aggressive, confrontational or threatening behaviour; or behaviour intended to result in conflict. Our Club is a place of safety and security for the children who attend and the staff who work here, and we reserve the right to ban anyone exhibiting inappropriate behaviour from our premises. See our Aggressive Behaviour Policy for more details.

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Illness

We are unable to care for children who are unwell. If your child becomes unwell whilst at the Club we will contact you and ask you to make arrangements for them to be collected.

Please inform the Manager of any infectious illness your child contracts. If your child has had sickness or diarrhoea please do not send him or her to the Club for 48 hours after the illness has ceased. See our Illness and Accidents Policy for more details.

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Accidents and first aid

Every precaution is taken to ensure the safety of the children at all times, and the Club is fully insured. Our staff are trained in first aid and a first aid kit is kept on the premises. If your child has an accident whilst in our care, you will be informed when you collect your child. For full details see our Illness and Accidents Policy. We record all accidents from the shoulders up as a ‘head injury’ and therefore, parents will be informed by telephone as well as receive an accident form.  Occasionally, for whatever reason, if the parents don’t receive the accident form, staff have been informed to screenshot the form and the information to be sent to the parents via text or whatsapp.

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Medication

Please let the Manager know if your child is taking prescribed medicine. If your child needs to take medicine whilst at the Club you will need to complete a Permission to administer medication form in advance. See our Administering Medication Policy for more details. We will require parents to complete our own medication form with dosage and information clearly stated and signed for.  Two of our members of staff will witness the administration of the medicines and will sign and date the medication book.

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Complaints procedure

If you have any queries, comments or need to discuss any matters concerning your child, please feel free to speak to your child’s key person, the Manager, or any other member of staff.

Verbal complaints will be brought to the next staff meeting for discussion and action. 

All written complaints will be acknowledged within five working days of receipt and a full written response will be given within 28 days.

A full copy of our Complaints Policy is available on request.

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Privacy Notice

At The Young Explorers Club we respect the privacy of the children attending the Club and the privacy of their parents or carers. The personal information that we collect about you and your child is used only to provide appropriate care for them, maintain our service to you, and communicate with you effectively. Our legal basis for processing the personal information relating to you and your child is so that we can fulfil our contract with you.

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Any information that you provide is kept secure. Data that is no longer required* is erased after your child has ceased attending our Club.

We will use the contact details you give us to contact you via phone, email, text or whatsapp, so that we can send you information about your child, our Club and other relevant news, and also so that we can communicate with you regarding payment of our fees.

 

We will only share personal information about you or your child with another organisation if we:

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• have a safeguarding concern about your child

• are required to by government bodies or law enforcement agencies

• engage a supplier to process data on our behalf (eg to take online bookings, or to issue invoices) have obtained your prior permission.

You have the right to ask to see the data that we have about yourself or your child, and to ask for any errors to be corrected. We will respond to all such requests within one month. You can also ask for the data to be deleted, but note that:

• we will not be able to continue to care for your child if we do not have sufficient information about them

• even after your child has left our care, we have a statutory duty to retain some types of data for specific periods of time* so can’t delete everything immediately.

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If you have a complaint about how we have kept your information secure, or how we have responded to a request to access, update or erase your data, you can refer us to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).

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* We do need to retain certain types of data (such as records of complaints, accidents, and attendance) for set periods of time after your child ceases to be in our care, but we delete as much personal data as we can as soon as possible.

                                                                                                                  

Pledge to Parents

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We value our relationship with parents/carers and are committed to working in partnership with you to provide top quality play and care for your children. 

 

We will:

• Welcome you at all times to discuss our work, have a chat or take part in our activities.

• Keep you informed of opening times, fees and charges, programmes of activities, menus, and procedures.

• Be consistent and reliable to enable you to plan with confidence and peace of mind.

• Share and discuss your child's achievements, experiences, progress, and friendships.

• Be available to discuss decisions about running the club.

• Ask your permission for outings and special events.

• Listen to your views and concerns to ensure that we continue to meet your needs.

 

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Contact Information

Trinity Primary School: 

Tel: 07931957515   Email:  tyec@hotmail.com

 

Our Lady of Lourdes: 

Tel: 07452773838

 

St. Georges Primary School:

Tel: 07859000675    Email:  stgeorges.tyec@hotmail.com

 

 (Please leave a voice message if there is no reply.)

Correspondence Address:

The School address

 

Early Years and Childcare Service

Early.years@lewisham.gov.uk

Tel: 020 8314 6000/020 8314 3682

Early Years Services:

Old Town Hall,

London

SE6 9SJ

 

Ofsted:

 

Piccadily Gate
Store Street
Manchester 
M1 2WD

Tel: 0300 123 1231

Email: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk