This code was drafted in consultation with the children and it continues to be reviewed on a regular basis, to reflect children's views and the way that they wish to express the rules.
For instance, part of the 'respect' ground rule is 'No swearing, cussing or name calling'. As Jackie explains, 'cussing' is the word that the children currently want to use. It is local slang and they know what it means.
The rules are set out on an A5 folded leaflet and include a 'Street Behaviour Code' to ensure safety when the children are walked from their primary schools to the family centre.
Rules such as always walking with a partner make sense to the children and the playworkers remind them courteously each time they approach a road that everyone stops talking in order to pay attention as they all cross the road. The adults obey the rules, too, and the centre's playworkers have been complimented by local people on how well the children behave when in the street.
After the Latchkey Rules were in place, the team felt they needed to work on guidelines for adult behaviour. The result was a policy (one page of A4) that makes a clear statement about adult actions.
The guidelines say, for example, that the centre's adults should always try to be consistent, actively encourage desirable behaviour from children and communicate clearly that some behaviours are unwelcome in the club - although the individual children carrying out the behaviour are welcome.
