September 2018 Newsletter

Dear Families,

OCTOBER HOLIDAY CLUB We are very excited to announce that the October Holiday Club is now open for bookings! We have a week of spooky activities planned, including making witches brew, Halloween cake baking and decorating and a pumpkin carving competition. We will also be taking the children off site to the park and the cinema, as well as tie dying t-shirts. Along with the planned activities there will be table football, air hockey, Wii, den building and both in and outdoor sports available all day. As always, we strongly recommend booking early!

AFTER SCHOOL CLUB INFO Every September we like to give you a bit of information about After School Club! We run three activities every day at After School Club- one in the main room, one in the quiet area and one outside. The activities offered change daily, giving the children opportunities to try out different activities and develop different interests and skills. Every week we offer a variety of sports, crafts, food activities, games etc. The children are heavily involved in selecting the activities we offer, and they can choose if they would like to participate in them. We are a free flow, free play setting, with the children able to move freely between the inside and outside areas and direct their own play. We also provide a daily snack, alternating between cheese and crackers, breadsticks, hummus and crudités and pitta breads. Every day there is a large selection of fruit and fresh drinking water is always available. Newsletter September 2018 School’s Out Henleaze is a company limited by guarantee and is registered in England and Wales (No. 5757674). Registered address: 236 Henleaze Road, Henleaze, Bristol BS9 4NG

SUMMER HOLIDAY CLUB We had our busiest summer yet, with almost every day completely full. It is great that the holiday club is so well used. We would like to say a huge thank you to all the children who came to holiday club this summer- we have loved seeing how imaginative, kind and funny you all are. We thought you might like to hear some highlights of Holiday Club according to the children: Niko 6: We can play all day! Panos 9: One thing I really like about this holiday club is that no one feels lonely. Lucy 5: I like snack time, I am going to eat all of the strawberries! Zoe 13: I have loved helping look after the younger children. Sophia 6: I built a really big tower with my friends. Susie 6: My favourite thing about holiday club is being able to play with my friends. William 10: I like that Jenny is here! Tilly 13: I like helping with the activities and I like helping the playworkers look after the children with disabilities. Hari 6: I like Liam doing death rope the best. Ed 7: My favourite thing about holiday club was definitely not the time I was sick! My favourite days were the trip days. Thanos 8: I liked playing on the Wii, especially when everyone played the game I chose. Emily 10: The playworkers are all so kind!

AFTER SCHOOL CLUB PLACES As most of you are aware the After School Club is really popular and most days remain heavily oversubscribed. You can have your name added to the waiting list. The current waiting lists are between 6 months to a year long. We would love to increase the number of children we accept but unfortunately our numbers are set by a number of factors including space we have available and insurance. If you haven’t done so already, please can you text the after school club mobile: 07847 479 626 with your child(ren)s school extracurricular activities that run on the same afternoon as their after school club session. We can then make arrangement for collection and not call you. Please ensure that mg@mg.libacura.co.uk is on your accepted email address list so that your statement does not go into your junk file. Thank you. Newsletter September 2018 School’s Out Henleaze is a company limited by guarantee and is registered in England and Wales (No. 5757674). Registered address: 236 Henleaze Road, Henleaze, Bristol BS9 4NG

RECEPTION INDUCTION If you have a child in Reception starting at After School Club and you haven’t already done so, please pop in and have a chat with Jenny. It is helpful for us to meet your child and learn a little about them before they start with us. It is good for them to meet us and have a look around too! All Reception children are allocated a keyworker and are given lots of support during their first year with us. Please make sure you let Jenny know when your Reception child will be starting at After School Club.

GOOD LUCK TO THE CHILDREN IN YEAR 7 We had lots of fun over the last couple of weeks at After School Club celebrating and saying good bye to all our year 6s. There were tears (ours) and lots of hugs and promises to keep in touch. Please do come back and visit us! It is sad for us saying good bye to our year 6 children- many of whom we have had every week since Reception! However, it is reassuring to see what amazing children they have grown into and what wonderful, caring role models they are to our younger children. We wish you all the best in year 7.

WHO’S WHO

Kelly is one of our deputy managers who has been working on and off with us since 2005. Kelly works part time as an art teacher in a secondary school. She also has an NVQ in playwork. Kelly’s favourite parts of the job are running the activities, as she loves watching the older children help and inspire the younger children, and helping out at snack time, seeing so many children laughing and chatting together whilst feasting on huge plates of fruit like pineapples and watermelons. In her free time she is usually joined with at least 2 of her 3 children, who all enjoy trips to the park, playing in the garden and having ice creams in the sunshine! On the rare occasions Kelly is child free, she enjoys going to fitness classes, eating out and watching box sets! Next time you see her please stop and say hello! Newsletter September 2018 School’s Out Henleaze is a company limited by guarantee and is registered in England and Wales (No. 5757674). Registered address: 236 Henleaze Road, Henleaze, Bristol BS9 4NG

AGM 12th November 2018 Our AGM is coming up on 12th November 7:45pm for 8pm start; venue to be confirmed. All parents of School’s Out Henleaze are warmly invited even if they are not interested in joining the committee to find about a year in the life of School’s Out! Refreshments are provided.

NEW COMMITTEE MEMBERS WELCOME We are run by a management committee made up of parents who use our scheme. We are keen to for new members to join. Could you help us? Committee members get priority for After School Club places. Contact the administrator, Roberta (sohenleaze@gmail.com) if you are interested.

WHAT’S INVOLVED We have six committee meetings a year, one is preceded by our AGM in November. Each meeting is about 90mins long; the AGM is a bit longer. You would be required to be a director of the organisation as we are a company, limited by guarantee, complete an OFSTED DBS, with consent and declaration and take on a role within the committee. Sometimes there may be a need to work with a small group within the committee to achieve the goals of the organisation. Often these are not big pieces of work but require some commitment and consistency to see through to completion. It is helpful to have comments and input from the committee.

STAFF NEWS Congratulations to Ben W, Cam, Ella, Lucy and Ben L, who are all off to University to start their degrees. We would also like to wish good luck to Sophie B who has moved to London to complete a masters in Speech and Language, and Ellison has started teacher training. We look forward to seeing you all back in the holidays.

FACEBOOK PAGE Please do check out our Facebook page! It is a great way to keep up to date with our news, and to see what your children get up to whilst you are at work. Newsletter September 2018 School’s Out Henleaze is a company limited by guarantee and is registered in England and Wales (No. 5757674). Registered address: 236 Henleaze Road, Henleaze, Bristol BS9 4NG

YOU SAID, WE DID Each newsletter we will share with you how we have responded to feedback from either an adult or a child. Your feedback is very important to us, and we welcome your comments.

YOU SAID: The children loved tie dyeing t-shirts over the summer and would like to do it again in the October holiday club.

WE DID: We are running this activity again in the October Holiday Club. We are always keen to hear your views. There is a suggestions box at the back of the dining hall or pop in for a chat.

THANK YOU for your continued support.