ACORNS ACTIVITY CLUB

Acorns Activity Club is open from 7.30am for the morning session, then your child will be taken to school. For afternoon sessions your child will be collected from school (or club at 4:15) and we are open until 5.30pm weekdays, during term time. We are based at Hambleton Village Hall, next to the social club.

Aims

At Acorns 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. There will always be a focused art and crafts activity and the opportunity to complete homework.

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 always available. 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.

Staffing

Our Club is staffed by the owner Sarah Goldie, with 18 years of teaching experience and playworkers, depending on numbers. Our aim is to provide a smooth transition between school and club. All our staff have experience of working with children and have appropriate DBS checks. 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 Sarah Goldie (contact details are at the bottom of the page).

Organisation

Acorns is run as a private business. We enjoy a close working relationship with Hambleton Primary Academy to ensure continuity of care, and to maintain good communication links.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS
Admission

Our Club aims to be accessible to children and families from Hambleton Primary Academy. Admission to the club is organised by the owner and we use a waiting list system when the need arises. The waiting list will be operated on a first come-first served basis, except for siblings who will have priority for the same days as a sibling already attending. 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.

Payment of fees

The current fees are £3.95 per child per breakfast session, £7.95 for the after-school session Discounts are available for siblings at:

X2 Siblings for morning: £6.00
X2 Siblings for the afternoon: £14.00
X3 Siblings for morning: £9.00
X3 Siblings for the afternoon: £21.00

Fees are payable in advance by cash or bank Transfer. An invoice will be sent to your email address for next month’s fees. Any extra sessions your child has done will also be included in the invoice. 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). We do not charge for bank holidays and professional training days. 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 Sarah.

Changes to days and cancelling your place

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 Sarah. We try to accommodate such changes wherever possible.

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. If you know in advance of any days when your child will not be attending during the following week, please try to let the owner know by THURSDAY at the latest. In cases of illness or emergency when notice cannot be given, please call as soon as you can.

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 Sarah to arrange this. 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.

Arrivals and departures

Our staff collect children from Hambleton Primary Academy 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. 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 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. The club finishes at 5.30pm, if you are delayed for any reason please telephone the Club to let us know. A late payment fee of £5.00 per 15 minutes will be charged if you collect your child after the Club has closed. If your child remains uncollected after 6.00pm 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

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.

Equal opportunities

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.

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.

GENERAL INFORMATION
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 have a clear Behaviour Management Policy, a copy of which is distributed to all
parents and carers:

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 cooperative
play and sharing; talking to children with the courtesy that we expect from them
and engaging children in activities.

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 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.

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.

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.

Accidents and first aid

Every precaution is always taken to ensure the safety of the children, 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.

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.

Complaints procedure

If you have any queries, comments or need to discuss any matters concerning your child, please feel free to speak to a member of staff. All written complaints will be acknowledged within five working days of receipt and a full written response will be given within 28 days.

Privacy Notice

At Acorns 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. 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,
so that we can send you information about your child, our Club and other relevant news, and 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:

• 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 (e.g. 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.

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).

* 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

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

CONTACT INFORMATION

Acorns mobile number: 07914879287 (Please leave a voice message if there is no reply.)

Correspondence Address:
3 Wolsey Close,
Thornton-Cleveleys,
Blackpool,
Lancashire,
FY5-2NZ