Before And After School Club

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Introduction

This report has been conducted from a recent literature review on the importance of play in children’s development play. This report forms part of a small scale evaluation of the Waddington Kids Club before and after school club service, provided by 4Children. The Kids Club is located on a Royal Air Force (RAF) camp located in Waddington Lincolnshire and predominantly used by RAF personnel. The rationale behind this for this was to see why parents sent their children to the club and how important play is for their child / Children. While the results and conclusions drawn here are drawn from the primary research undertaken and can be summarised from the results, it should be noted that they will be presented in a wider context in a larger report to be published in the future the organisation the author is employed by.

Background:

Wadddington is a large rural village situated in the North Kestevan district of Lincolnshire and is located four miles from the south of Lincoln. And is also home to one of the most important Air Force bases in the United Kingdom RAF Waddington is located to the east of the village (Shane Chapman 2013) http://www.shanechapman.com/books-wanted-waddington.htm

According to the 2001 census Waddington village had six thousand and eighty six (regarding population). (Statistics about Waddington 2013) http://www.research-lincs.org.uk/lro/documents_lro/Site_Text/2001_Census/Parish_Profiles/PDF/32UE068.pdf

Of which houses three hundred and ninety four serving families of whose children attend the Kids

Club (Hive 2013). http://www.raf.mod.uk/community/support/rafwaddingtonhive.cfm

The United Nations Convention (1989) state that all Children have the right to play according to Article 31 which states:

Children have the right to participate and engage play. http://www.playfulcommunities.org.uk/why_play_matters/childrens_right_to_play.aspx

Children have the right to play

"All children and young people have the right to play and need to play: free to choose what they do – lively or relaxed, noisy or quiet – with the chance to stretch and challenge themselves, take risks and enjoy freedom. The right to play is enshrined in Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child" (Play England 2009 p3)

http://www.playengland.org.uk/media/71062/charter-for-childrens-play.pdf

Methodology

The parents of the children attending the before and after school club were the targeted group for the research. A total of 60 questionnaires were sent out to those families and carers whose children attend the before and after school club in January 2013. A copy of the questionnaire can be found in Appendix A.

Results

Of the 60 questionnaires sent out, 36 were returned giving a response rate of 32%. The following chart details the reasons parents gave for putting their children into the before and after school club. Parents were allowed to choose as many options as they felt applicable.

Chart 1: The most frequent reason for attending Waddington Kids Club

Parents Stated: They are able to go out to work and their children are able to socialise with a larger group of children. Parents found the location very accessible with it being in the same vicinity of their place of work and easy access to the local primary school that their children attend.

Chart 2: Will show how parents rated what the Kids Club had to offer for their child / Children

The two main characteristics rated most favourably are the staff at the sessions and the equipment provided. After that the other factors of the sessions are rated almost the same. Only one ‘poor’ response was made and this was referring to the snacks provided at sessions.

However some parents made some comments when they returned questionnaires and some of these are included below.

Snacks

"These are healthy"

"more fruit…"

"would like to see fresh fruit every week"

"…a lot of variety"

Equipment

"not so much Sand"

"in some sessions there are not enough"

"always a wide selection for all ages and child preferences"

"as my children have got older they have found them less stimulating"

"some different ideas on the odd occasion to stimulate play"

"Children are able to choose what they wish to play with"

Structured activities

"helps to develop concentration and to follow instructions"

"child too young"

"need to be more seasonal i.e. water play in summer not winter"

Unstructured play

"Help children to explore find their own space and learn through play"

"Children are able to run round and enjoy themselves without worrying about hurting themselves"

"It gives the children a chance to play with what they choose"

The parents were asked if their child’s behaviour changed when playing outdoors and if they felt outdoor play was important. When asked most parents’ believed that outdoor play is important for their child’s development.

Chart 3 – Children’s behaviour change whilst playing Outdoors

The majority of parents did feel that their children had benefited from attending the Kids Club sessions and believed that it had helped with their child’s behaviour and has given them some freedom for more outdoor play. Department of transport (2006) Children today do not get out to play that often as times have changed fewer children are playing outdoors due to the dangers. There was only one person that disagreed on their child concentration whilst playing outside most

parents agreed that their children play outside better as they are not confined to one particular space.

Discussion

The response of the questioners sent out to sixty parents was quit poor as only thirty six where return for research purpose this is quite low. In future when questioners are sent out to the Kids Club parents the author will need to look at a more effective way in getting the information back.

Information gathered from questionnaire shows why the children attend the kids club with the most popular being parents at work and easy access as the Kids Club is located at RAF Waddington and the majority of those children that attend the club live on the camp.

The structure of the sessions is favourably reflected in parents’ responses to the individual aspects. Although only one aspect was rated poorly by a single

respondent, the qualitative comments made on the questionnaires do provide a richer context to view the individual components of the sessions. Singing was rated favourably by all parents that attended it bar one who made the comment that their "children were scared of the singing". While this is only one respondent out of 36, to provide as inclusive a service as possible all parents should be offered extra support if there is any part of the session they feel unable to access. With children afraid of the singing session small sessions with just the parent and staff may help them build the confidence to participate in the larger group exercise. It is clear from the comments made

by other parents that the singing is a valuable exercise for their children’s learning and development, so every effort should be made to make it available to all. One very promising comment made by one of the parents offers a clear justification for the whole concept of Stay and Play sessions."I learn new songs as well." Stay and Play sessions were designed to encourage parents to interact and play with their children in a quality environment with expert advice and support available. It is hoped that the skills they learn/observe at the sessions are taken home and practised there. This comment would suggest that exactly this is happening. Snacks provided at

the sessions were the only aspect of Stay and Play to receive a ‘poor’ response. In addition many of the comments suggest are think of the snacks being provided is called for. At the time of the

questionnaire biscuits were being offered at every session with fruit being

offered at snack times frequently but not each time. The feedback received from the questionnaires is indicating that the parents want the Stay and Play sessions to be supporting a healthy eating culture by providing a variety of fresh fruit at each and every session. While the toys provided at each session were rated favourably on the scale responses the comments made were more mixed. A section of parents felt that there were not enough at some sessions. What cannot be determined here is whether a session has not enough toys or too many attendees. Further research is needed in this area to plan the best course of action for future service delivery.

In addition there was one comment made that water play should be used less. It is not the remit of this report to make recommendations outside the author’s expertise, but one suggestion may be that the parent would be happier with the water play if they were forewarned it would be happening. An issue with water may be that it requires a change of clothes that the parent does not necessarily have with them. The structured activities received the most ‘average’ comments, which compared to the other aspects does indicate there could be improvement in this area. Again the comments made provide useful information as to issues with this part of the sessions. While those that did participate felt the activities were valuable to their child’s development and learning not all children were old enough to participate, which may be a reason for the slightly less

favourable ratings. In addition staff planning the activities need to bear in mind the season so that they are not perhaps creating discomfort for the children, e.g. getting them wet during winter. Again, though, forewarning would enable the parent to bring a change of clothing. From the comments made by parents it would appear those planning and running the sessions have got the unstructured aspects and the duration just right. No unfavourable comments were made by any of the parents nor were there any suggestions for improvement. The comments made about staff were almost overwhelmingly positive with the vast majority of the parents offering high praise for those facilitating the sessions. Only one negative comment was made but what cannot be explored here is whether this is a single comment due to on-going poor experience of staff interaction or just a single incident that has been reported here.The results displayed in Table 3 are interesting for the fact that many of the professions are being reported as seen frequently, while others rarely. This is interesting because the professionals within the team attend the Stay and Play sessions approximately equally. The professionals that form the core team and regularly facilitate the sessions are the community support worker,

midwife, health visitor and nursery nurse. In addition the teacher, who runs

sessions alongside Stay and Play will also have been seen regularly. This

suggests there needs to be more transparency at the sessions about the

expertise of each team member so that families know what is available and

who to talk with to access them.

To illustrate this point clearly there is a nursery nurse at every, single session

yet only two out of nine respondents were aware they had seen one. What

would be an interesting future research area would be to investigate why the

midwife and health visitor are much better known than the other team

members.

Table 3 also contains information for future session planning. When asked

who they would like to see at sessions the four clearly most popular requests

were health visitor, nutritionist, employment/training advisor and dental

advisor/hygienist. While a health visitor does regularly attend sessions, many

respondents feel that there should be a health visitor attending more

frequently. The employment/training advisor is an upcoming recruitment for

the team so future research will need to look into how they best deliver their

service.

At present there is no provision for a nutritionist, nor are there any plans.

There is however plans to employ a dental hygienist as part of children’s

centre planning. MORI research completed in the area, due to be published

shortly, has shown dissatisfaction with dental services in the area, with access

being a primary difficulty. This evidence suggests it’s a role that is desired by

Sure Start families now.

A primary focus of all Sure Start work is to provide notable outcomes for those

families accessing the services. Table 4 evidences the positive differences

Stay and Play has made to the families attending. Out of 36 respondents, 30

felt that their child now played better as a result of attending Stay and Play.

With play being such an important part of a child’s development and learning

this is a very promising outcome. The majority of parents (24 out of 36) also

felt that their child shared toys better and 21 out of 36 parents felt their child

concentrated on tasks more. While these are still good outcomes they are not

as widely acknowledged as the child playing better, which suggests there may

be a need to plan future activities around these two areas.