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Members' Newsletter

The newsletter is sent via email to all OOSA members at the end of each month. If you have not received your copy, let us know by emailing and we'll ensure that you are added to the mailing list.


Issue: June 2011

Welcome to the June issue of the Out of School Alliance newsletter for providers of out of school care. This month we are launching our new online listing service for out of school clubs, as well as adding a new template policy on Safe Recruitment to our library. Continuing with our Forest Schools series we take a look at some knot tying activities, and we have a special offer on inclusion training from the KIDS charity. Oh, and we had a lot of fun putting together a multi-sensory den! Ofsted will not be split
In April this year the Education Select Committee published its report on The Role and Performance of Ofsted. One of its recommendations was that Ofsted should be split into two inspectorates, covering:
  • educational establishments, such as schools, colleges and nurseries
  • children's services and care, such as children's homes, adoption services, childminders and CAFCASS
The government has now responded to the report and has rejected the suggestion as being 'costly' and 'disruptive'. The government also said that maintaining a single inspectorate is necessary to reflect the set up of local council children's services departments.
Read the full response from the government and Ofsted

Drowning doesn't look like drowning
When browsing on Internet we came across this extremely informative article from a member of the US coastguard about how to recognise drowning. This is essential information if you ever have charge of children around water — and even if you don't — and we urge you to read it.
Read the blog article

New association of childcare voucher suppliers
The Childcare Voucher Providers Association (CVPA) was launched recently as the industry body to represent childcare voucher providers and to promote best practice within the sector. The CVPA has set out a code of practice for its members, detailing the levels of service voucher providers must meet. CVPA member companies will need to have an adequate fund protection policy in place to guarantee that they can pay the childcare settings. Currently only six organisations are members, but these includes the major voucher companies such as Computershare, Edenred and Sodexo, and more are expected to join. For more information, visit the CVPA website.
www.cvpa.org.uk

Free entry to new Glasgow attraction
OOSA members in the Glasgow area are very lucky to have a fantastic new attraction for children opening this weekend. The Forgotten Island, situated on a temporary island next to the new Riverside Museum, will include a beach area, a sound forest, picnic lawn and a labyrinth, and a range of other sensory areas. The first 50 visitors on each day of the opening weekend (Saturday 2 July to Monday 4 July) will get in absolutely free! For more information visit the Forgotten Island website.
www.theforgottenisland.com

New online listings for clubs
We now have a brand new Directory of Out of School Clubs on our website. This provides an opportunity for you to promote your club and its website (if you have one) to a wider audience online.

We currently have just a few clubs listed in the Directory in order to get things started, but we would like to see as many clubs as possible in the Directory so feel free to send us your details. Listing your club in the Directory is free to members of the Out of School Alliance.
Take a look at the Directory
Add your details to the Directory

New safe recruitment policy
This month we have added another new policy to our library of sample paperwork: a Safe Recruitment policy. Safe recruitment is a crucial tool in safeguarding the children in your care; following a safe recruitment policy will ensure that you have taken all practicable steps to only employ staff who are safe and suitably qualified.

As usual you are welcome to use this sample policy as the basis for your own club's Safe Recruitment policy, modifying the details as appropriate to your setting.
Download the new Safe Recruitment policy (PDF)
Download the new Safe Recruitment policy (Word format)

Member survey
A big thank you to everyone who took the time to participate in our member survey. We really appreciate your feedback — especially since it was (mostly) so complimentary! Catherine and I found ourselves quite overcome by all your kind words. We will be digesting the results of the survey over the next few weeks and will keep you informed of any new developments arising from it.

New business ideas for your club
If you are looking for ways to boost the number of children at your club, and you feel you have exhausted all the usual strategies for attracting more children from your local school (see our earlier article Marketing your out of school club for suggestions), it's time to start thinking about reaching new markets. This month's article looks at two potential sources of business for your club that you may not have considered before.
Read the full article

Forest Schools activities: knot tying
Continuing with our series on Forest Schools activities, we take a look at knot tying. The ability to tie a good knot is a useful life skill and also can be put to use in various other Forest School activities such as shelter-making.
Read the full article

Extending inclusion in out of school clubs
The charity KIDS has developed a new open-access course on inclusive practice for out of school clubs. Called 'Extending Inclusion Out of School', the one-day course aims to equip out of school club staff with the knowledge and skills to enable them to include disabled children in play settings.

KIDS plans to run this course during September 2011, and is currently looking for three suitable venues around the country, as well as delegates. The cost for the one-day course will be £85 per person.

Special offers for Out of School Alliance members: If you can offer a suitable accessible venue for the course free of charge, KIDS will give you two free places on the course. Alternatively, once venues are announced, if 8 places are booked and paid for on the same course at the same time, KIDS will give a discount of £5 per place. So if you get together with other local providers you can all book with a discount!

KIDS is also interested to hear from any local authorities which might still have the budget to offer this training course to all settings in their area.

Contact KIDS on training@kids.org.uk or telephone 0207 3593073 for more information about the course, venues or special offers.
Download the flyer for the Extending Inclusion Out of School course

We love Balls!
Now, it may be the influence of Wimbledon, or the delight expressed by my daughter as we visited Hawkins Bazaar, or the excited questioning of a fellow shopper, keen to find out where we had purchased the puffer ball that my daughter was compulsively squeezing, that persuaded me to take a closer look at, and invest a bit of money in buying, a selection of balls for our club.
Read the full Balls review

Two things to do right now!
  1. Planning for hot weather
    After the excessive heat of the last few days, you should consider how you keep the children safe in the heat/sun. Make sure that you have a completed sun cream permission form for all of your charges. Decide whether you are going to ask parents to provide sun cream or whether the club will provide it. Whichever option you choose, you will have to have a small supply, to accommodate those who forget to bring it in. When setting up, make sure that children are able to get out of the sun — if you have no shady areas, invest in gazebos or parasols — and always with free flow, so if the children choose to be indoors when it's excessively hot, don't try and force them to go outdoors, just as you wouldn't in the depths of winter. And make sure the children drink plenty!

  2. Update your records
    With the end of term rapidly approaching, now is the time to ask your parents to re-register their children for the forthcoming school year. This has several benefits: you will get a good idea of the numbers of children you are expecting, you will be able to make provisional staffing arrangements, and you will ensure that the information you have for the children is current — so that you don't find out the hard way that the phone number you were given eight months earlier is now out of date!

Activity idea: Make an affective play den
This month we look at building an affective play den, stuffed with multi-sensory resources. Affective play spaces are particularly good for younger children, and those with physical or learning disabilities, though all children engage with and enjoy them.
Download the Affective Play Den activity sheet

Current member offers
Don't miss out on these special offers for Out of School Alliance members from recent months: Competition winner: Digital photo frame
Congratulations to Tracy Hutton who won the prize draw for everyone who participated in our customer survey. The digital photo frame will be on its way to Tracy's club shortly!

Fact or fiction? No guns allowed
Many childcare workers believe that children should be discouraged from play involving pretend guns. Well, if you can point to an actual piece of legislation which says this, I will accept it without another word, but it doesn't exist. The reality is that children have and always will play with pretend guns — as a child, I did, and I'm happy to report that I have not turned into a gun-toting murderer, more a vegetarian pacifist!

Now I'm not advocating that you go too far the other way and start handing out replica weapons with gay abandon: let the children use their imaginations if they want to indulge in gun play. Just as we used sticks, Lego, even our fingers, let your charges choose for themselves if and how they play their fighting games. At our club K'nex is the construction toy of choice for creating inter-galactic weapons or on other days, just guns!

Children use these fighting games to work through emotional issues, some will have parents in the armed forces, others will be re-enacting films they have seen, or some just responding to things they have seen on the news. Playing these games is a natural part of childhood. We perhaps should stop projecting our adult feelings and sentiments onto the children. Playing at guns is not the same as using real guns and children understand that, it's the adults who tend to get confused!

Latest vacancies from OOSA Jobs
Job title Location Closing date
Playwork supervisor Bottisham, Cambridgeshire 29/7/2011
Playworker Bottisham, Cambridgeshire 29/7/2011
Play leader and day-to-day manager Barnsley, South Yorkshire 30/7/2011
Relief/bank playwork staff Swaffham Prior, Cambridgeshire 31/8/2011


Diary of events for the out of school club sector
1 July 2011
British Library, London		 Stonewall Education for All Conference 2011: Raising the Bar
www.stonewall.org.uk
1-3 July 2011
Newbridge-on-Wye		 International Playwork Camp
www.ipa2011.org
2 July 2011
Coram Fields, London		 Street Play Finale by London Play
www.londonplay.org.uk
4-7 July 2011
Cardiff City Hall		 International Play Association World Conference 2011
www.ipa2011.org
5 July 2011
Cardiff Arts Institute		 Playstock: The free play fringe event
plexity@onetel.com
11-18 July 2011
Nationwide		 National Childcare Week
www.daycaretrust.org.uk
3 August 2011
Nationwide		 Play Day
www.playday.org.uk
9-12 September 2011
Staffordshire		 Beauty of Play: The Dark Side of Play
www.ludemos.co.uk
16-17 September 2011
Ricoh Arena, Coventry		 Childcare Expo 2011
www.childcareexpo.co.uk
3-4 November 2011
Edinburgh		 Children in Scotland Annual Conference 2011
www.childreninscotland.org.uk
6-7 March 2012
Winter Gardens, Eastbourne		 The 10th National Playwork Conference
www.playworkconferences.org.uk/
15-17 March 2012
NEC, Birmingham		 The Education Show 2012
www.educationshow.com

If you know of other events that should be included in this list, please drop us an email with the details.