Breakfast Club & After School Club
Tolleshunt D'Arcy Academy provides wraparound childcare for school age children, both before and after school.
The transition to school can be a difficult period for parents and carers for many reasons, one of which is the need to balance family and work commitments. Childcare needs do not stop for families once their children reach school age. The primary school day finishes much sooner than parents may have been used to in the early years, meaning that many parents find themselves having to change their working pattern or even leave jobs that they love. Equally, for those who are ready to get back into work after having children, school hours can be a barrier to finding the right role for them.
Tolleshunt D'Arcy Academy offers School-led wraparound care delivered by school staff on the school premises, managed by staff employed directly by the school. The provision is open to all children that attend the school.
The wraparound care provided at the D'Arcy Academy setting provides a safe and happy place for children, and for parents, carers, and families to feel confident that their child is well looked after and that robust safeguarding arrangements are in place.
Session Fees
All sessions are strictly payable and booked in advance on Arbor (or with Childcare Vouchers - see further details below).
A minimum of 24 hours notice is required to cancel a pre-booked session. Sessions cancelled with less than 24 hours notice will still be charged in full.
While this programme does not offer funded places, where parents are eligible, they should be able to receive support towards the cost of wraparound. Full details on eligibility can be found here .
Make sure that you have credited your child's Arbor account with fees for childcare before you book your chosen sessions.
If fees are being paid for with Childcare Vouchers, the vouchers must have been received by the Canonium Learning Trust finance team. Please forward any email confirmation or receipts from your voucher provider to office@darcyschool.co.uk to confirm processing of payment. They then be credited to your Arbor account to allow you to make bookings
Booking
All bookings must be made, confirmed and paid for in advance. This is to ensure that there are sufficient staff to provide the best care for your children. Places are limited depending on demand and not guaranteed.
To book sessions for your child, please log into your child's Arbor account. All childcare sessions must be booked and paid for online via Arbor in advance.
Click here for guidance on booking in Arbor parent app / portal
If fees are being paid for with Childcare Vouchers, the vouchers must have been received by the Canonium Learning Trust finance team. Please forward any email confirmation or receipts from your voucher provider to office@darcyschool.co.uk to confirm processing of payment. Your Arbor account will then be credited with this amount allowing you to then book your required sessions. (Proof of voucher payment must be received and credited to the account before sessions can be booked.)
Important information if booking sessions for your child
Please note the following points if booking Wraparound childcare sessions for you child:
24 Hours notice is required to cancel a booked session. (Cancellation within 24 hours will incur charges for the pre agreed session.)
We will notify you as soon as possible of any days we will be closed. Communication will be by text or email via the school’s communication platform. Please ensure that all contact details are kept up to date at all times.
School staff are obligated under child protection procedures to report to the Local Authority Safeguarding team and OFSTED any incident where we consider a child may have been put at significant risk. This may be done without informing the parent.
If parents enter into an agreement with a member of D'Arcy Academy staff to accept babysitting or child-minding services for parents outside of nursery operating hours. Tolleshunt D'Arcy Academy and the Canonium Learning Trust cannot be held accountable for any action.
You must immediately inform us if your child is suffering from any contagious disease, or if your child has been diagnosed by a medical practitioner with a notifiable disease. For the benefit of other children attending you must not allow your child to attend whilst they are contagious and pose a risk to other children during normal daily activities. A child should not return to nursery following sickness or diarrhoea until at least 48 hours have passed since the last incidence. (All school guidance regarding illness and medications applies to the wraparound care sessions; see parents / attendance tab on website for further details.)
You must keep us informed of the identity of the persons who will be collecting your child. If the person who is due to collect your child is not usually responsible for collecting them we will require password or proof of identity. If we are not reasonably satisfied that the person collecting your child is who we were expecting, we will not release your child into their care until we have checked with you.
You must inform us immediately if you are not able to collect your child by the official collection time. You must make arrangements for another authorised person to collect your child as soon as possible. A late payment charge will be applied; please refer to the current fee schedule for details.
To ensure the safety and wellbeing of all children who attend the school we enforce no personal mobile phone usage within our settings. Should you be on your personal mobile phone as you arrive at the school can we please ask that you conclude your phone call before entering the premises and do not use this again until you have left the premises.
In the event of late collection of your child, we reserve the right to charge for each additional 15 minutes, or part thereof, on a pro-rata basis.
Uncollected child
If a child is not collected by an authorised adult by their expected collection time, we put into practice agreed procedures. The child will receive a high standard of care in order to cause as little distress as possible. We inform parents / carers of our procedures so that, if they are unavoidably delayed, they will be reassured that their children will be properly cared for.
Procedures
Parents are asked to provide the following specific information when their child starts attending our setting, which is recorded on our Registration Form:
- Home address and telephone number
- if the parents do not have a telephone, an alternative number must be given, perhaps a neighbour or close relative.
- Place of work, address and telephone number (if applicable).
- Mobile telephone number (if applicable).
- Names, addresses, telephone numbers and signatures of adults who are authorised by the parents to collect their child from the setting, for example a childminder or grandparent.
- Who has parental responsibility for the child.
- Information about any person who does not have legal access to the child.
On occasions when parents are aware that they will not be at home or in their usual place of work, they inform us in writing of how they can be contacted.
On occasions when parents, or the persons normally authorised to collect the child, are not able to collect the child, they provide us with written details of the name, address and telephone number of the person who will be collecting their child. We agree with parents how to verify the identity of the person who is to collect their child.
Parents are informed that if they are not able to collect the child as planned, they must inform us so that we can begin to take back-up measures. Our contact telephone number is 01621 860523.
If a child is not collected at their expected collection time, we follow the procedures below: - The child’s file is checked for any information about changes to the normal collection routines. - If no information is available, parents/carers are contacted at home or at work.
- If this is unsuccessful, the adults who are authorised by the parents to collect their child
- and whose telephone numbers are recorded on the Pupil Information Form - are contacted.
- All reasonable attempts are made to contact the parents or nominated carers.
- The child does not leave the premises with anyone other than those named on the Registration Form or in their file.
- If no-one collects the child within 30 minutes of their expected collection time and there is no-one who can be contacted to collect the child, we apply the procedures for uncollected children.
- We contact the local authority children’s social care team: 0845 603 7627 Or the out of hours duty officer (where applicable): 0345 606 1212
- If the children’s social care team is unavailable, or as our local authority advise, we will contact the local police.
- After an additional 15 minutes if the child has not been collected, we will contact the above statutory agencies again
- The child stays at the setting in the care of two of our fully-vetted workers, or until the child is safely collected either by the parents or by a social care worker.
- Social care will aim to find the parent or relative. If they are unable to do so, the child will become looked after by the local authority.
- Under no circumstances will we go to look for the parent, nor leave the setting premises with the child. - We ensure that the child is not anxious and we do not discuss our concerns in front of them.
- A full written report of the incident is recorded in the child’s file.
Depending on circumstances, we reserve the right to charge parents for the additional hours worked.
Ofsted may be informed: 0300 123 1231