The Playcentre Playgroup

The Playcentre Playgroup
The Garden Classroom
Buckfastleigh
Primary School
Bossel Road
Buckfastleigh
Devon TQ11 0BJ

As a prospective or new member, we would like to welcome you and your child to the Playcentre Playgroup. We hope this web page will useful.

Basic aims

For many children, our playgroup will be the first contact they have with other adults and children outside of their immediate circle of family and close friends. For some children this can be an anxious time. Bearing this in mind our primary aim is simple; we want your child to be happy with us. We want them to enjoy coming to playgroup. We also aim to:

provide a safe, stimulating play environment
to treat all children as an equal and valued member of our group
develop an affinity between children and members of staff
ensure that parents are always directly involved in the running of the group and the progress of their child..
provide the opportunity for children to develop at their own pace towards all six early learning goals

Parent’s role

We strongly believe that when it comes to your child you know best. We will always listen, respect and respond, as best we can, to your comments and suggestions concerning your child. We also feel that your input and help at the playgroup is a valuable resource so if you want to spend time with us please feel free to do so.

How the playgroup is managed

We have a charitable status, so a group of interested parents run the playgroup. These parents carry out a number of tasks, for example,

They employ on behalf of all the parents, the supervisors who organise and run the playgroup sessions.
They are responsible for the financial welfare of the playgroup. As part of their role they organise fund raising activities.
They will listen if you have any grievances about the playgroup or any member of staff.

Staffing

The playgroup employs three qualified members of staff who receive on going training.

Key workers

When your child starts playgroup she or he will be allocated a key worker. The key worker is your first point of contact. She will spend time getting to know your child and making sure she/he is settled and happy at playgroup. The key worker is also responsible for recording your child’s path through Playgroup.

General information

Snack time

All of the children are given a snack half way through the morning. We try to keep the snack as healthy as possible so it might consist of fruit or raw vegetables, cheese and bread sticks. All children under 5 are entitled to 1/3 of a pint of milk per day and we try to encourage the children to drink milk at snack time. However if a child has an allergy or real dislike of milk we will provide juice.

Clothing

We suggest that children wear cloths that are comfortable for physical play, but also suitable for messy activities. Although we keep some clothing we would appreciate it if you could provide a spare set for your child. The children love playing with the water but as you can imagine they often get very wet.

All footwear should be suitable for physical activities..

A typical session at playgroup

9.00am	Arrival.
9.15am	Registration.
9.30am	Free play and adult guided activity.
10.00am	Prepare for snack/ rhyme time and snack.
10.35am	Out door playStory time.
11.05am	Small group activity.
11.25am	Prepare for home time.
11.45am	Home time.

Contact number

You can contact us via the school during 9am and 11.45am on 01364 643304. Please ask for the ‘Garden Classroom’. For enquiries outside of these times please contact Elaine on 01364 642322.

Opening times

We are open Mon-Fri between 9.00am and 11.45am . (During term time only).

Cost

The government has introduced a policy to provide free part-time education for every child in Devon from the term after their third birthday until they enter school. You will need to complete a simple form to register detailing how many sessions you would like them to attend and give a commitment that your child will attend those sessions . More details are available upon request.

‘An aspect of outstanding practice’

‘Children are treated with great respect and are involved in the planning of the activities. They are calmly enabled to understand the reasons for expected behaviour and helped to work out solutions to situations. As a consequence they are themselves, calm and well behaved.’ (Taken from our recent Ofsted report Jan 2004).