Committee News – New Building
Moving Date
With the new building finally becoming a reality, the
committee will be meeting soon to firm out our tentative plans for running
Pre-School in it. The building is due to be completed by Easter, after which we
need to fit out the interior and gain OFSTED approval before we can move the
Pre-School into it. Realistically this probably means September, but if it
possible to move before the summer holidays we shall.
We currently have the following plans in mind. They will
be discussed and possibly modified at the next committee meeting (26th
February). We would welcome any feedback from parents or staff before making a
final decision. If you have any comments please contact Kate Croudace (kmc@btinternet.com; 858014).
Opening Hours
We received lottery funding on the understanding that the
building would be used to provide wraparound childcare facilities for the
community (as well as internet access for the village). If the demand is there
within the village, we are intending to build towards the following
(provisional) hours:
Breakfast Club: 8:00-9:00
Morning Session: 9:00-11:30
Lunch Club: 11:30-12:30
(with lunch at 12:00)
Afternoon Session: 12:30-15:00
After-School Club: 15:00-17:30
We envisage there may be some flexibility within lunch
club, with an additional pick-up / drop-off point at midday to cater for
children who attend St Laurence school part-time.
From September, the current
intention is to initially only offer provision between 9:00 and 15:00, with
SLOSH continuing to run After-School Club on its usual days.
If we move into the new building before September then it
is likely that we will change to the new times for the morning session (and any
lunch club). This will allow staff, both at Pre-School and St Laurence’s, to
iron out any bugs in the system. We may also trial some afternoon sessions – if
you are interested in these please speak to Nikki.
Fees
We will continue to accept vouchers, both for morning and
afternoon sessions. Due to the fact that children may end up with a complicated
arrangement of voucher funded and unfunded sessions, it seems simplest to
change the fees to an hourly rate. The level of fees has yet to be set but will
be comparable to our current rate and to other local Pre-Schools.