Gingerbread Corner - Childcare | Croydon | Nursery | Out of School | Breakfast Club | Party Hire

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Out of school & Breakfast Club (4-11years)

Out of School

The Out of school scheme is our oldest project and was one of the first of its kind in Europe.

We provide 80 places for children of primary school age who attend all year round, with an additional 20 places for Holidays Only. The Out of School Coordinator runs this project with a team of 8 members of staff. Some staff have been trained in childcare, whilst others are working towards gaining this qualification.

The environment is organised, clean and well maintained. The scheme is a free play environment; children can choose which activities they wish to participate in. The activities stimulate and encourage development as well as teaches them to co-operate with each other.

As with our Early Years Scheme, our aim is to provide a safe, stimulating and happy environment for children in our care. The children are introduced to a variety of activities, which are planned. Our activities are carefully designed to ensure that all children have equal opportunity to participate in activities of their choice. Relevant support is provided to ensure that all our children's needs are met.

Age Groups

The children are divided into age groups to make it easier when using certain play areas (Romp/ Sensory rooms), snack and for other occasions where small groups of children are needed. The groups are as follows: RABBITS 4-5 years; KOALAS 6 years; BADGERS 7 years; PANTHERS 8-9 years; MONKEYS 10-11 years.

Breakfast Club

Cereals, toast, yoghurt and fruit juices are provided for children who arrive before 8.15am.

Before school, up to 30 children arrive from 7.45 a.m. onwards. A member of staff sets up activities in the Games Room. After they have had breakfast, the children can then play with a variety of table/board games and drawing materials. The play opportunities are limited to these as we do not want to hype the children up too much before school, where they should be arriving in a calm manner ready for the day of learning.
Infant children will be taken directly to their classrooms where as the junior children join their respective class line in the playground. Our Playworkers will not leave the school until the children are safely inside the building.

If children arrive after 8.30 a.m., unfortunately their parent will need to take them to school themselves because the register will already have been marked out and it is vital that our records are accurate.

The Breakfast club is run during term-time. It is open from 7.45 am untill 8.30. Breakfast is available to the children, which is normally toast or cereal and is on offer throughout the session. At approximately 8.30 the children are taken to school in a mini bus and are escorted to their schools. Playworkers will not leave the school untill the children are safely inside the building.

SCHOOLS THE BREAKFAST CLUB DELIVER TO ARE:

Broadmead Infants & Juniors
St Marys Infants & Juniors
South Norwood Primary
Parish Church Infants & Juniors
Woodside Infants & Juniors
Eccelsbourne Primary
Davidson Primary

Please contact us if your child's school is not on the list.

Afterschool Club

The scheme runs Monday-Friday from the end of the school day when the children are picked up from school, until 6.30pm during term time, and from 7.45am to 6.30pm during the school holidays, with the exception of Bank Holidays.

When the children arrive from school light nutritious snack is provided. The menus are on a four week rotation, which are reviewed every year and vary from summer to winter.

Typical snacks are as follows:

Beans on Toast, Tuna Pasta Bake, Carrot Cake & Yoghurt, Soup & French Bread, Cheese & Crackers.
After snack the children can then freely choose how they want to occupy their time with the variety of activities available.

The out of School Scheme has many areas that the children can access:

The Hall
The Hall is equipped with a kitchenette area, from which breakfast and afternoon snacks are served. In addition this area is used for morning snacks and lunch during the holiday periods. The Hall provides the perfect space for a variety of physical activities; team and racket games, gymnastics/ aerobics, messy play (including large collages) as well as children’s shows.
Children can access the deck area through the halls double doors.

The Deck
The deck area is an extension of the hall. An outside space with views of the Adventure Playground and a chance for the children to get some fresh air, sand and water play is available as well as table tennis.

The Games Room
The games room allows the children to take part in a variety of different play opportunities. For example: cooking, drawing, creating collages, playing board games, puzzles, free and imaginative play.

The Craft Room
The craft room is by its very name, the area in which all messy craft activities takes place, such as wood work, paper mache, collage, junk and clay modelling, painting, mod roc, play dough and plastercine.

The Quiet Room
The Quiet Room is an area where children can take time out from all the busy activities that are taking place. They can relax, read a book or concentrate on their homework.

The IT Room
The children have access to 12 computers for school work and playing games. Access to the internet can only be done through our ‘Playweb’; a supervised system.

The Romp Room
The Romp Room is a fully padded soft play room on two levels including rollers, giant musical cushions and a ball pool. This is an ideal environment for the children to have fun and burn off any excess energy safely.

The Little Den
The Little Den is for under eights only. A fairytale room where children who want to use their imagination to dress up or play house in the home corner come to have fun.

The Sensory Room
The Sensory Room is an extremely therapeutic space and is specifically aimed at children under eights, those with additional needs and older children who need a chill out zone, and is supervised all the time it is in use.

The Adventure Playground
Children over 3 years old are allowed to use our sturdy adventure play equipment. They develop skills such as balance, expanding their social development as well as face challenges and learn to assess risk.

Term Time

We are registered to collect 80 children from their schools. Most are collected in one of our four vehicles; three minibuses and a people carrier. Although our junior children from Broadmead and St Mary’s schools are walked back to club.
The infant children are collected from their classrooms or reception area from within the school where as our junior children meet at a designated place.

If there is any doubt as to whether we should be collecting a child from school, we will always bring them to the safety of our facilities rather than leave them outside a school.

The minibuses leave at around 2.45 pm and are out for approximately an hour.

SCHOOLS WE COLLECT FROM:

Broadmead Infants & Juniors

St Marys Infants & Juniors

South Norwood Primary

Parish Church Infants & Juniors

Woodside Infants & Juniors

Eccelsbourne Primary

Davidson Primary

Ryelands Primary

Elmwood Infants & Juniors

Heavers Farm Primary

Please contact us if your child's school is not on the list.

Holiday Club

For children who arrive before 8.30am cereal and toast will be provided.

Children bring their own packed lunches (no sweets, chocolate or fizzy drinks are allowed).

We also provide the children with a morning and after-noon snack. The morning snack would be typically biscuits, yoghurt or fruit, etc., while the afternoon snack would include similar meals to Afterschool. During the holidays the children are encouraged to make snacks as an activity and these activities are then incorporated into the snack menu.

Key Person

All children are assigned a key person when they start in Out of School. This person will be responsible for helping your child build relationships with the other children and adults.

Observations

The key person will carry out observation of your child throughout the day and use these to develop individual learning experiences for them. These will be collected in a profile record which you can access at any time.

Our Staff

We employ a qualified NVQ Level 3 Manager (in Playwork and Early Years) and our Playworkers are qualified in NVQ Level 2 & 3. All staff members are CRB checked.

Our staff have training in Behaviour Management, the Early Years Foundation Sage for Out of School provision, Safeguarding Children, Autism training, Understanding, working with, and supporting children’s behaviour, Understanding Play Types and First Aid.

Parental involvement

We encourage parents to be involved in all aspects of the their child’s day but we understand that this is difficult when working full-time so we are happy for parents to telephone or write to us any time.
We involve parents in fund-raising activities and on outings with the children and hold parents evenings that provide the opportunity to discuss your child's progress with the key person and members of the team.