Newsletter July 2015

Survey

Thanks to everybody who gave us feedback in our recent questionnaire. It really helps us to understand your needs and worries.
There were 2 suggestions that we fell worthy of highlighting and sharing amongst you all:

Food in particular snacks and pricing from September 2015.

We will serve snacks at 3.15 straight after school.
If you would like your child to have a snack at 4.15 after school club please let us know and book it in advance.
Some parents asked us why the price for a snack is the same as for a hot tea.

Parent: Curious about the price of a snack being the same as the hot tea, as would assume the snack would cost less?

For clarity the cost include the price of food and time for preparation (wash and cut fruits and
vegetables, making sandwiches and wraps).
We are serving for snacks:
A selection of freshly prepared sandwiches, wraps and baguettes with soft cheese, marmite, ham
and cheese.
Wide range of vegetables with dips including hummus, carrot, cucumber, tomato, celery, sweet
pepper and salad leaves.
A range of seasonal fruits such as apples, grapes, bananas, mandarine, nectarine and kiwi fruit.

There are strict nutritional requirements for after school clubs, incidentally the guidelines for us are
much stricter than for school lunches, we are following these and absolutely support them. We
simply can’t give children biscuits or virtually any pre-packaged snacks.

There is a question about difficulties experienced to have a private conversation with the
Manager or a member of staff about your child.

Parent: If you wish to talk to the Manager, she is often on her own and as children come and go regularly it would be good if there is another member of staff on duty to operate the code operated door as well as enabling uninterrupted talk about your child?

This is a valid point and one we need to work on – we are trying to pay attention for all parents and
speak with them about their child/children.
We are able and happy to have 5 minutes conversation with a parent during the session time as
we should look after children and take part in club’s activities. If you require a longer conversation
we are happy to arrange the time before or after club session hours.

Here you can find answers for other questions raised in our survey.

Parent: Will you be doing knitting/ sewing during winter months?

Yes, we are happy to repeat this. The children enjoyed it.

Parent: I understand tidying up is a pain and everyone wants to go home asap but there should be things to do or play with if your child is being picked up at 6.30pm. I have regularly helped to tidy up when I arrive a little earlier but sometimes there is nothing or little out. The staff also appear to do most of the tidying up maybe a good idea to encourage the children to help too?

Yes, we starting to clear up when the last booking time is over and even if a Parent is late we still
leaving something to play with.
We have an obligation on Mondays to leave the Hall at 6.15pm because there are lessons that
start at this time. We need to clear up earlier and children are encouraged to play outside on the
playground for the last 15 minutes.
We are trying to encourage children to clear up the toys before they go home. We would like to ask
you to help support us with this with your children upon collection.

We are happy to share the feedback with you, just go to:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-CJB37M7Y/

September 2015 Bookings

We are keen to try and plan as much as possible for Tour first term back to school from now. We
are sensitive to the fact that we may not be in a position to offer a full 5 day a week service though
without upfront commitments from some of you. As some of you maybe aware we have a low
attendance figures on Tuesdays and Fridays. Given our strong emphasis on flexibility to cancel
booking with just 24 hours notice, sometimes we have ended up with only 3 or 4 children attending.
It is simply not economically viable for us to continue on this basis and we are also mindful of the
fact some of the children are disappointed as they haven’t got sufficient friends to play with. We
can really only be open if we have a minimum commitment of 12 bookings per day.

We would appreciate if you can give us information about your intended bookings for Term 1 by
Tuesday 21st July. After that we can confirm if we will be open 5 days a week or some days will be closed and we can give you sufficient notice and you can plan your childcare accordingly.

Informing us of any changes
It is a Kent County Council requirement that After school clubs need to have ‘starting points’ of
information on those children attending. We will be asking you all to please complete a Starting
Points Form and send it back to us.
We will also be asking you to complete new Registration Form and Medical Disclosure Form if
any changes have taken place i.e. address changes or phone numbers, especially!

You can download these forms from our website www.bidborout.co.uk or pick them up from the Club.

Reminders
Please call us on Bidbor’Out phone 07983 218305 if you need to contact us with urgent
information – we can’t receive any e-mails after noon each day, given the use of smart phones is
prohibited on the school premises.

We need 24hours notice of any cancellations this we must now apply rigorously,
without any exceptions.
We have tried to be even more flexible and cancelled bookings in some instances just the night
before. Unfortunately we can do it from September 2015.

Finally

Thanks so much to all of you for your support and fantastic feedback about our service.

We really do appreciate it very much.

We are doing all our best to help you and make children happy.

We love all the children and happy to take care of them in our club!

Bidbor’Out! Team