AFTERSCHOOL CLUB – FRIDAYS (TERM TIME)
Friday Club is back!! We last held Friday Club pre-2020 but had to close due to the pandemic but we are so excited that it is now back up and running.
Friday Club is our afterschool programme for primary aged children which runs when? On a Friday! It is a chance for all primary aged children to get together, have fun, listen to stories, do craft and games, have refreshments and make lots of new friends.
FAQ FOR FRIDAY CLUB
Held? Friday evenings (term time)
Time? 5pm till 6.15pm
Where? St Mary’s Eaton Socon Church
Is it drop off? Absolutely – drop your child off and come pick them up later. Please tell us if someone else is picking your child up or if they are going home with a friend otherwise they will not be allowed to leave without us phoning you to confirm. Children attending Friday Club must be walked into the church and picked up from the church, they cannot be dropped off/picked up in the car park or walk home by themselves.
My child has additional needs – can they still attend? Yes! We would love to work with you to put support in place for your child to able to attend. If your child has high care needs we may need a little while to get everything in place for them so please bear with us whilst we organise this. As a starting point we can provide a visual timetable, visual communication board, a cool down space and timers for transitions – further accomodations may be possible dependent on staffing and your child’s needs. Please get in touch with our Children & Families Worker to discuss this.
How old does my child need to be? To start Friday Club children need to have started primary school or be at least 4.5yrs old IF they have a deferred start (so their peers are already at school). Children leave Friday Club at the end of year 6. During the last term of year 6 they are invited to attend both Friday Club and/or Fusion (Friday night club for secondary school aged children) to experience the next group. Moving up is decided on a child by child basis and accommodations may be able to be made if it’s felt a child is not ready to move up.
Cost? £2 per child – payment can be made in cash or card and you can bulk pay for a month / half term / term in advance if it’s easier
Do I need to book? No! Just turn up and if it’s your first time you’ll be asked to fill in a registration form for your child
Positive points, what’s that about? At Friday Club we love to encourage positive behaviour amongst the children, this includes kindness to one another, good listening skills, sharing, speaking politely, helping without being asked and looking after one and other (to name just a few). When children arrive they are split into one of two teams and they can earn points for this team by exhibiting the kind of behaviours mentioned above, with the aim to create a peaceful and welcoming atmosphere at Friday Club. At the end of each half term the team with the most points gets a small reward and the other team get highly praised for their efforts as well. Points are never used a bribe to get the children to do something and are never taken away as a consequence of other behaviour choices.
Do you have a behaviour policy? Yes we do. We find this is necessary for the safety and wellbeing of all children who attend Friday Club. At the beginning of each term we discuss with the children which rules they feel are needed so that everyone can have fun and be safe, these usually include – keeping your hands to yourself (i.e. no hitting, pushing), allow others to speak, use kind words when talking to others and respecting the hall and the equipment. This is done to allow the children to take ownership of their group. If a child is struggling to make positive behaviour choices then the following will be implimented:
1. The child will be given spoken to about their behaviour by a leader
2. If the behaviour continues the child will be spoken to again and told they will be moved if they continue
3. If the behaviour still continues the child will be moved to be near a leader to remove them from the situation they’re struggling in
4. If even next to a leader the child struggles to make positive choices they will be removed from the activity for a short period of time. No child will be sat by themselves, they will always sit with a leader.
5. If once the child is allowed the return to the activity they continue to make poor choices they will be removed for the rest of the activity and sat with a leader
The aim is to remove the child from the situation they are struggling with and to work through what has led to their choices with a leader so that they can make a more positive choice for the rest of the session. Age of the child, level of understanding and how long they’ve been at Friday Club is always taken into account when implimenting this policy.
We very rarely are in a position where we need to speak to parents about their child’s behaviour and prefer to deal with situations within Friday Club and move on but if your child continues to end up at stage 5 we will discuss it with you on pickup and work together to come up with a plan as to how they can best enjoy their time at Friday Club whilst also allowing the other children to enjoy their time too. The only exceptions are where a child has been violent to the extent that they have deliberately injured another child or leader or deliberately broken a piece of equipment, in which case the parent would recieve a phonecall and we would need to agree which safeguards need to be put in place before the child returns to Friday Club.
Who runs Friday Club? Friday Club is led by our Children & Families Worker and staffed by volunteers who have experience of working with children. All volunteers have been through our safer recruiting process, are DBS checked and have had safeguarding training in line with both our own safeguarding policy and that of the local diocese.
What do they need to bring? Nothing! We will provide refreshments and anything else your child needs. Please do not send your child in with food without prior approval due to potential food allergies. If your child has a food allergy which may require them to have a different snack or has food-related needs please get in touch prior to arriving – we can cater for most allergies if we know about them in advance. We will be playing games and potentially doing messy craft so please send your child in appropriate clothing.
My child is sick, can I send them in? If your child has been off school due to an illness, please do not send them to Friday Club – there is a 48hr exclusion period for any child who has had sickness or a stomach bug. This is for the safety of all the other children and staff.
Who can I email for further information? You can contact our Children & Families Worker here