Problem With Roomsharing

[Guest MaryEMac]

I'm just going to run this by you and see if anyone has any ideas. Basically we are a small village playgroup and we run in a purpose built (for us) room which is on the school site. We moved into the room in 2000 and for 4 years we were happy but then school informed us that an out of school club would be using the room as well. We also run a Tots group in there as well so there are 3 groups trying to store equipment in a store room that was meant for one group.

We work 4 mornings and 1 afternoon at the moment but want to open some extra afternoons in September. We have the room every day from 8a.m. to 2.50 p.m. Session times are 9a.m. to 11.30 a.m. and 12.20p.m. to 2.50 p.m. The leader of the out of school club is now kicking off because she can't get into the room to set up at 2.45. Bearing in mind that the first part of their session is spent on the playground or field or if wet they use the school hall. We are prepared to start at 12.15 so that we are finished at 2.45 but that then gives us no clear up time. Today we were actually clearing up around the children which I feel is unnacceptable, and I'm sure that it would not be approved of by Ofsted. I don't think that we could start any earlier because we have to clear away morning session, set up for afternoon session and also grab some lunch. It will be the same staff for both sessions.

We all feel that whenever the out of school club have a problem it is always us who have to find a way round it. Can't talk to the school because they have nothing to do with it and our committee have tried to make contact with the other committee but they don't seem to have the same dedication and we get nowhere. Has anyone out there got any ideas or been through the same sort of thing?

Really sorry for the long post but I couldn't get it shorter!!!!!

 

Mary

[Inge]

the bane of everyones life..room sharing..

a friend of mine runs an afterschool club and toddlers is her problem, not that they want the hours just that they take and use all her stuff and leave the place in a 'poor state' for want of a better word.

 

sorry no real solution , just always an uphill battle with others seeing compromise as something never heard of.

 

In our situation, we just stuck to our guns, as we were using the room and put up with the complaints and kicking off, telling them to speak to the committee and in our case the hall committee as well, which helped as we pay rent for set hours so they had to give in, in our case it was an adult group wanting to set up during the afternoon while we were in there!!

 

we do however pack away with children present because of hall booked, just have a group time or outside time while it is done away from the children, only way we could fit in the hours. So long as standards not compromised and you have risk assessments in place Ofsted did not question it.

 

next problem to arise will be the increase to 15 hours a week, we could not fit in 2 x 3 hour sessions a day even if we tried. we only have 15 mins between our sessions to do setting up etc, but as we have lunch club staff happily sit with children to eat, and just need the 15 mins break with no children.

 

hope someone will come up with a helpful suggestion other than just sticking to your guns and putting up with the flack.

 

Good luck

 

Inge

[bubblejack]

I also used shared accommodation, in a church hall. Our sessions are Session 1 -9.00-11.30.

Lunch club 11.30-12.00. Session 2 -12.00-2.30.The hall is cleared whilst the children are present. The children are very involved in the clearing away. Very messy activities are cleared away first with children helping to wash tables. These are replaced by puzzles and hand/eye co-ordination toys.At 1.45 children clear away toys into boxes.Two adults store toys away at side of room and lift heavy equipment whilst 2 adults supervise children at snack time. At 2.10 all adults and children do a physical activity finished by story/ singing time.

We don't change the toys during the day unless the children ask or something is not being used.

When the funded time increases to 3 hours I shall have to have a re-think.

[Lucie]

Tell the after school staff to let the children get their own activities out instead of them doing it for them, then they wont have so much to set up!!!

 

sorry not the most diplomatic solution, but i also run the after school club and cant get in the roomto set up untill 3:15, so just imagining what the extra time would mean!!!!! haha

[Guest MaryEMac]

Soon after I started this thread, my chairperson rang me to see if I could go to a meeting tonight to see the chairman and leader of the out of school club to see if we could sort it all out. I was a bit unsure as the osc leader had been very anti playgroup last night but I went and it was a good meeting. She is still not over keen on us having afternoon sessions but we compromised by agreeing to start and finish 5 minutes earlier so that she would have 15 mins set up time.

We also discussed the storage because the osc children can't access their activities because they are stored in a small shared store room which wouldn't really be safe for them to go into. We are going to look into putting in floor to ceiling cupboards in the room, some for them and some for us which would mean that both lots of children could access their own toys and activities. This will only happen if the school governors agree though so we could have another battle to win

 

Mary

[Deb]

Glad you seem to be well on the way to sorting this out.