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| One of four discussion groups at the seminar Click on image to enlarge |
This seminar was organised by staff from the City Council's Education Department and involved staff and committee members from the seventeen clubs in the city. This network of clubs provide good quality out of school care for over 1000 children. Their flexible service provides before and after school care and extended hours during the school holidays. This not only provides care for children, but also supports parents and carers who are working.
It is often not appreciated that each club is independently managed by a committee of parents who employ staff to run the clubs. Clubs are financed by a mixture of fees paid by parents and carers and fund raising together with grant aid from the Council as well as free access to school premises. So while the Council support the clubs and see them as a vital part of care and learning for children in our city, they do not directly run them like nursery and primary schools.
During the morning, it became clear that there are a number of challenges for the Out of School Care Clubs. First of these, on the road ahead, is that in few years time all managers of clubs will need to be qualified to degree level. Currently, most of the Managers across the city are not qualified to this level.
In The Ferry, each of our three primary schools has an Out of School Care Club. I have recently featured the very positive inspection reports on the clubs based at Eastern Primary School and Forthill Primary School.
