LINDLEY OUT OF SCHOOL CLUB
Registered Charity No: 1067540
GLEDHOLT METHODIST CHURCH, EDGERTON GROVE ROAD
GLEDHOLT, HUDDERSFIELD, HD1 5QX
Tel 01484 421714 / 07894 587130
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Annual General Meeting October 20th 2015
Chairperson’s Report
Staffing:
Our Business Managers Vanessa Moorhouse and Elaine Nixon, and administrator Vicki
Hemingway are a strong, dedicated and committed team, who the Committee rely on
heavily to run the club on a day to day basis. I trust their judgement and integrity on day
to day club matters and decisions and have confidence that they will contact me at
appropriate times to raise issues or concerns when they need to be discussed further.
On behalf of the committee and the club, thank you to all three of you - we very much
value your support and guidance on club matters, your commitment to the children and
families who use the club and the way that you manage the business.
Emma Roome, our Early Years and Childcare Manager, is a driving force in how we
care for the children and in the day to day management of out of school club and
Playscheme. Emma has had a whole change of staff at team leader level this year and
has shown that she is well able to handle such change in a positive manner. Emma is
currently working towards her Level 5 in Playwork which will be of great benefit to the
team and the children.
Eldin Huskic has been in the role of Junior team leader for the full year; Eldin has
brought new ideas to the club and has involved the children in diverse range of
activities from making a go-kart to growing potatoes which enhances the experience
that the children have whilst at club. It's been fantastic to watch Eldin develop and
grow in the role and to see how seriously he takes his responsibilities whilst
maintaining good relationships with the children and encouraging them to take part in
the various activities.
Mark Nicholson, our longstanding Team Leader at the Infant Club, left us in December
2014 and whilst this has been a loss to the club it has allowed other employees the
opportunity for promotion and development.
Ruth Steadman was successful in gaining the Infant team leader job in early 2015;
Ruth already had a lot of experience of working with this age group and has brought
strong organisational skills to the role.
A decision was then made to create a Breakfast Club team leader to work 'downstairs'
with years 4 - 6, and Wendi Armstrong was appointed as acting Team Leader. Wendi
is proving to be efficient and organised in this role and she works well with the age
group who attend these sessions. Wendi will be confirmed into this role in the not too
distant future.
Thanks to Ruth and Wendy for putting yourselves forward for these roles, as it was
very encouraging that our existing staff wanted career development.
The current staff teams consist of:
Business Team: Vanessa Moorhouse, Elaine Nixon and Vicki Hemingway
Early Years and Childcare Manager: Emma Roome
Team Leaders: Ruth Steadman (Infant Team Leader), Eldin Huskic (Junior Team
Leader), Wendi Armstrong (Acting Junior breakfast club Team Leader).
Contracted Play Workers: Pauline Clavert, Gywnne G Shaw, Lauren Utley, Keziah
Curlis (who we welcomed back after mat leave), Vicky Bott (currently on mat leave).
Apprentices: Kia Allert & Hayley Beaumont. This is the first year that we have
appointed apprentices and we are looking forward to 'growing our own' future team
members.
Current Bank Staff: Mehvish Shahbaz, Haleema Shahbaz, Sarah Nixon, Zoe Roberts,
Katie Calvert, Saman Naz
Students: Jamie Wood, Sophie Hibbert, Hollie Burns
Staff who have left this year: Zdenka Todd-Peckova, Justin Preiestley, Robert Palmer,
Kathryn Dyson, Victoria Moorhouse, Bryony Kaba and Jacob Chitham.
We have a strong core of contracted and bank staff, with a range of qualifications,
experience and many of whom have been with us for many years. This year 5 staff
have updated their Food Safety training, 3 staff have updated their First Aid training,
Ruth has undertaken Senco training, Eldin has undertaken Introduction to Fire Building
and Lauren has undertaken 'Wild Outdoors' training - all of this ensures that we are
able to run the club with confidence as well as being able to offer the children a range
of activities.
We rely on the flexibility of all levels of staff within the team to cover out of school club,
open evenings, school and club events and the Playscheme - and you are greatly
appreciated. You have a big influence on the behaviour and wellbeing of our children;
thanks to all of you for your contribution to the continued success of the Club and the
quality of the care you provide to all the children who attend.
We are keen to ensure that our staff have opportunities for continued development and
training and that our pay structure is competitive. The Finance sub-group agreed a
bonus payment to all staff at Christmas 2014, pro rata on hours worked during the
2013/2014 academic year. It is the first time we have made such a payment and we
cannot unfortunately make it a guaranteed annual event. The bonus was in recognition
of the performance of the club during that year and the Finance sub-group felt it
appropriate that staff should directly benefit from this.
Events since the last AGM
We held the Lindley Talent Show on 22nd March 2015 and it was great that children
from both the infant and junior clubs took part. Thanks to everyone who helped to
organise this event, and for your time in organising rehearsals and supporting the
children on the day.
The staff have enjoyed their Christmas meal at John Smiths stadium, and team building
this year was held at Lindley craft workshop followed by lunch at Bubble & Squeak
Home visits took place week commencing 31st August; these were done by Emma and
Ruth who visited 16 of our 26 new starters. We found that the take up for home visits
was lower amongst those families who already had a child attending the club although
next year we aim to promote the benefits of the home visits to such families as they do
help children to settle more quickly into the club.
This year we held our New Parents evening on 3rd Sept 2015; in recent years we have
held the open day during the summer holidays but attendance has been poor so this
year we held it during an after school club session. The open evening is intended to
help new children and parents to get to know their key worker before the start of term,
in the club setting, and to familiarise themselves with the room and the activities on
offer. We were really pleased that so many new parents and children attended. We
used the open evening as an opportunity for committee members to meet new parents
and to introduce them to the committee with the hope that we can recruit new
committee members for forthcoming years. The feedback about the open evening has
been positive from new parents, staff and committee members; thank you to everyone
who made it such a success.
The Junior club was inspected by Ofsted in March 2015 although no early years
children were present at the time so a full inspection was not possible; the report
showed that the club 'met' all the requirements of an Early Years Setting, the highest
rating possible in these circumstances.
Playscheme:
The Playscheme continues to be a popular choice for local families and has again
attracted a higher number of non LOSC children than the previous year. Overall 165
children booked onto the summer playscheme, 82 of whom have never used the club
before. It's fantastic for the club to be attracting such a broad spectrum of local families
and very encouraging for the playscheme to be doing so well. It is recognised that the
increase in 'non LOSC' children has brought challenges to the staff team, notably the
lack of knowledge as to which child a parent or carer may be collecting, (because of the
way our shifts operate, the afternoon staff will not have been present in the morning
when the child was dropped off) however we have a robust process in place for this
and hope that we get to know these children and parents better over the years as they
continue to use the club.
The team organised a range of activities to cater for all age groups throughout the year.
Trips have included Snow Zone, McDonalds & Roller blading & Rex Cinema,
Pondersoa, Cannon Hall, Greenhead Park, Forest school, Eureka, Cheeky Monkeys,
Coal Mining Museum, Manor Heath Farm and Bradley Woods. We have also held
stagecoach and art workshops at the club.
We review the attendance, profit and loss of each playscheme and have been able to
identify that some trips have been more popular than others; this will help inform the
planning for this future Playschemes.
Our Playscheme fees remain competitive in the local area. The Finance sub-committee
met in July 2015 to review fees and decided not to increase the fees for 2015/2016. We
will meet again before the end of the academic year to review pricing for 2016/2017.
The staff team spend a lot of time and effort planning and the playscheme so thank you
to all those involved and for arranging a variety of activities to suit all age groups.
Out of School Club attendance:
Both Clubs operate at near full capacity on most days and the Business Team have
worked hard to manage the numbers at each Club to ensure that existing families do
not have to re-apply for their places year on year. The Business Team manages the
waiting list effectively, and offers casual places where possible.
We had approximately 130 families attending our out of school clubs during 2014/2015.
The infant club benefits this year from the installation of toilets upstairs which have
proved very popular with the children! We have increased our capacity at infant
breakfast club to 45.
Community Contribution:
In the past year we have contributed to the purchase of Astro Turf to enhance the
outside play area at Lindley Methodist Church; the Boiler replacement at Geldholt
Methodist Church and towards the installation of the upstairs toilets at Lindley
Methodist Church. We also continue to contribute to the monthly upkeep of the outside
area at Birchencliffe.
Whilst we are not a profit making organisation it is important that any profit we do make
is used to benefit the club whilst also considering how we improve the local community
resources that we use.
Looking to the year ahead, the appointment of a new Headteacher at the Junior school
gives us an opportunity to re-visit our request for a sheltered 'waiting' area in the
playground for after school club children ... ...
The Committee:
The Committee currently consists of Caroline Henderson (Chair & Trustee), Katrina
Cliffe (Vice Chair), Emma Fairbank (Treasurer & Trustee), Kenny Simpson (Secretary),
Debra Mistry, Kate Chamberlain, Vikki Wilford, Helen Harris, Anneka Pettican, Ginny
Augustine, Victoria Bilcliff and Syka Sheikh, Sarah Smith (new member)and Kathryn
Catterson (new member).
We have welcomed two new Committee members in 2014/5; Sarah Smith & Kathryn
Catterson and this time around we say thank you and farewell to Anneka Pettican who
has been a general committee member since 2009.
The core committee attended a meal out in lieu of their time and commitment to the
club.
The club relies in the participation, ideas and time of the committee so than you to
everyone who has taken part this year to assist withe running of the club. Your time is
much appreciated.
It's very important for parents to take an active role in the clubs future by attending
committee meetings - all parents/carers are welcome and if we don't have a committee
we don't have a club. If any committee member is aware of another parent who is
considering coming along, please encourage them to do so!
It's been a year of change, as we know, and our aim throughout has been to maintain
the quality of care and the experience that the children have, both at out of school club
and at Playscheme - thank you to all the staff and the committee for achieving this.
Caroline Henderson
Chair
October 2015