Invoice Due

Your invoice for this half term is due for payment before Friday 10th June 2011.

Please ensure you pay on time as it helps us to reduce our administration.

Goodbye Year 6s

We would like to say a fond farewell to all the children and families in Year 6 who are moving on to secondary school in September. Several have been with us since their Reception year, and they will be missed.

You do not need to give notice if your year 6 child is leaving at the end of the school year.

Children currently in Year 6 are welcome to attend any of our summer holiday clubs.

Parent Form Feedback

We held our second All Club Parent Forum at St Paul's School on 18 May, and Sam and Tanya were joined by 10 parents from different clubs. The Parent Forum allowed parents to exchange their thoughts and ideas with us, and we are extremely grateful to all parents who attended.

Small Things That Make a Big Difference
We asked all the parents present to let us know small things that they notice happening in the club on a day to day basis that make a big difference. The feedback centred on communication and knowing how their child had got on in the club that day, the wide range of activities in the clubs, focussing on the children and how good the staff team are with their children.

We asked the Parents to help us set the agenda in advance, and the key topics were:

• Activities
• Communication
• Staff
  
  Activities
  Parents helped us to come up with loads of activity ideas which we hope to implement in the coming months, these ranged from specific dressing up ideas to suggestions such as more board games.
  
  Parents were also asked to provide their thoughts on how we can help younger children (and their parents!) settle into the club, and as a result of this conversation we will be completely revamping our process for welcoming Reception children into the clubs. If you have a child joining the Reception Class next year, you will receive lots more information and guidance.
  
  We also discussed how we can engage with junior children better and came up with over 30 suggestions, so we hope to be putting some of those in place soon too!
  
  Communication
  We discussed how to make the newsletter more accessible, and starting with this newsletter, archives of our newsletter will be available on our website. We will also summarise information at the top of the newsletter so parents are aware of what is included in each copy of the newsletter.
  
  Staff Team
  The feedback about the staff team was extremely positive although parents thought that they would like more male playworkers. We are fortunate to have several excellent male playworkers but we are always looking for more.
  
  Next Parent Forum
  The next Parent Forum will be on Wednesday 2 November. If you are interested, please put the date in your diary and we will send out more information soon!


New Reception Children

If you have a child in the Reception class, and you want them to start with us in September, you will need to complete a registration form for them. We will forward a Parent Information Pack to you upon receipt of your registration form which will advise about all the measures we have in place for Reception classes.

School Reception Parent Open Evenings
As the start of the new school year in September gets closer, parents are starting to find out which school their child will be going to in September. Sam and Tanya will be attending all new Parent Evenings to let parents know about the After School and Holiday Clubs and to encourage parents to sign up for the clubs in September. If you have a child in the Reception Class please pop over and say hello to us!

And Finally...Childcare Vouchers and Employer Perspective

In past newsletters we have focussed on how Childcare Vouchers are a good way for parents to save money on their childcare costs. If you are an employer, or a senior manager or a company that does not have a childcare voucher scheme, now may be a good time to investigate operating a scheme.

Childcare vouchers are an excellent benefit to offer parents as it allows them to pay for their childcare from tax free earnings. The schemes are reasonably easy to administer, and can either be administered in house, or via a third party organisation. The benefit to the employer is that the scheme is self financing as the employer saves money on their Employer NI contributions, so whether the scheme is self administered or via a third party, it usually will not cost the employer anything.

We accept any childcare vouchers, all the providers are good, we would not necessarily recommend one over another.

The main voucher providers we currently work with are:-

Care-4
Computershare
Edenred
Early Years Vouchers
Fideliti
Imagine Childcare
Kiddivouchers
Sodexho

If you would like more information about childcare vouchers, please contact us.