Best of all
This year's Excellence in Childcare Awards, run by Kids' Clubs Network with Nursery World and Prima magazines, saw even more inspiring good practice in childcare. Anne Wiltsher reports
Playworker of the year
Kelly-Ann Fitzgerald
Cuddles Eager Beavers, Walthamstow, London
When Kelly-Ann Fitzgerald took over the running of Cuddles Eager Beavers last summer she wanted to run it 'on a more common sense basis', she says. The parent who nominated Kelly-Ann for the award says that she has developed the after-school club 'in a very positive way' since she took over and made a 'huge difference to the atmosphere and philosophy' of the club.
For example, Kelly-Ann has simplified the information pack and the equal opportunities policy. 'There was a pack but it was a bit long-winded and highbrow,' she says. 'I wanted to get the message across so the children could understand it - after all they're the ones who have got to keep to the rules. We have three rules only - treat each other well, treat the staff well and treat the environment and equipment well. This is easy to remember.'
Kelly-Ann reduced the equal opportunities policy from one and a half pages to a paragraph, basically saying that discrimination of any kind would not be tolerated. 'I discussed all the policies with the children beforehand. A lot of interesting things came out of our talks - the children have got different family backgrounds and they were able to share experiences. They grasped exactly where I was coming from.'
A wide ethnic mix of children attend Cuddles Eager Beavers, which is run in a girls' secondary school in Walthamstow, east London. There is both an infants and a junior club with a total of 30 children aged five to 11. Most children come to the club five evenings a week.
Runners up
- Beryl Blackmore, Rofft after-school playscheme, Wrexham, Wales
- Lynne Smith, Wakefield Prison play facilities, Yorkshire
Best out of school club
Balham Latchkey Project
Balham, London
The Halloween sleepover is something of a highspot for the children who attend the Balham Latchkey Project. Organised to raise money for the after-school club, which also runs holiday playschemes, two or three staff give up a Friday or Saturday night to transform one of the playrooms at the old Victorian house in which the club is housed into a witches' coven. They black out the windows, hang cobwebs from the ceiling and put rugs on the floor. A supper, disco, scary movie - 'not too scary!' says deputy supervisor Debbie Lapham - and spooky stories are told to 16 children.
Housed in the old three-storey house in the heart of Balham in south London, the Balham Latchkey Project, which has been running for 24 years, is just five minutes walk from the four schools that it serves. One parent, who has two children who attend the club, says that the fact that the core of the staff team have been there for over 10 years 'provides a wealth of experience and stability which is rare in children's projects'.
Taking 48 children aged from four to 11, the club runs a six-weekly children's meeting when the children decide what they want to do for the next half term. Outdoor activities include roller-skating, skipping and gardening in the gardens. Indoor activities include sculpture, puppet-making and cooking. Imaginary games are also popular. 'There always seems to be a fantasy corner with children rapt in conversation in a range of scenarios in an office, hospital, hairdresser or post office,' says one parent. There are also two outings a week and the children plan their own menus for hot snacks. The club fosters care and respect for the younger children among the older ones by asking them to take the younger ones' hands when walking along the street, and to help them hang up their coats.
Runners up
- Buccaneers out-of-school club, Buckden Primary School, Cambridgeshire
- Cambridge University and Anglia Polytechnic Universities' Holiday Playscheme, Cambridge
Prima Childcarer of the Year Samantha Morris
Ammanford Infant School, Wales
'Samantha is someone who if she starts something, does it well,' says Mary Griffiths, head teacher at Ammanford Infant School in the small town of Ammanford, 16 miles from Swansea. 'She was making such a good job of the Learning Club for six- to seven-year-olds on Wednesday afternoons, where she's responsible for three co-workers, that - although we interviewed other people - she was the obvious choice to take over the running of the new out-of-school club that we started at Easter and which runs every afternoon until 5.30pm.' A qualified NNEB, Samantha has worked for the school for eight years as a classroom support worker looking after special needs children on a one-to-one basis. At present she is carer to a six-year-old boy with Down's Syndrome, whose mother says she has 'a special talent for understanding what makes individual children tick'. Her involvement with playwork started at a Saturday morning club for special needs children set up by parents where she was employed as a playworker.
'Setting up the clubs has been hard work but I've got a lot out of it as well,' says Samantha. 'They have a long day at school so we try to make it as different from the classroom as possible.' She is particularly pleased that a Welsh TV company will be visiting the Learning Club - the difference between this and the out-of-school club is that it has more structured activities - to film the children dressed up as circus performers. 'They were working on colour at school and I took forward the theme,' she says. 'They've made their own hats and badges, and they'll have their faces painted. Everyone will do an act like juggling or walking on stilts.'
Runners up
- Childminders Jenny Irving from Huby, Leeds and Estelle Wright from Okehampton, Devon
- Most creative activity programme by a childcare scheme
'A Sense of Movement' exhibition
Rollercoasters Playcentre, Camden, London
'Art can give children an outlet for their emotions and help them understand their feelings, which is especially beneficial for those who do not have conventional communication,' says Jay Nelson, play co-ordinator at Rollercoasters Playcentre. Run by Camden Council, the centre offers an after school and holiday play service to children with special needs aged between five and 12 years. All the children have learning difficulties and some also have physical disabilities, complex care and medical needs, or challenging behaviour. The centre has about seven children each afternoon and 18 in the holidays - most having been referred by the disabled children's team in the council's social services department. The staff/child ratio is almost one to one.
Recently the centre mounted an art exhibition of the children's work called 'A Sense of Movement' at the International Gallery of Children's Art in London. 'It was a huge success,' says Jay, who describes how the staff are inspired to find ways in which the children can be creative. Most do not have the skills to hold a paintbrush or make a model. 'Our ideas come from working with the children,' she says. For example, one huge fabric canvas at the exhibition was created by laying the fabric underneath a paint-filled bucket with holes in it that had been strung up on some rope on the football pitch. The children then pushed the bucket back and forth!
The children also made paintings for the exhibition by rolling the tyres of bikes and wheel chairs through paint and on to stiff fabric. 'We fill plant sprays with paint so that they can do spray painting too,' says Jay. Another technique is to boil and cook spaghetti and then add paint. The children use the medium to paint a picture, giving them both a tactile and colour experience.
'Many of the children find it difficult to transpose an image on to paper,' says Jay. 'So we've devised a method of fixing up a Perspex square so that a child can sit in front of it, either in a wheel chair or an ordinary chair. Someone else sits the other side and the child can literally copy what he sees.
We photographed some of these paintings and hung them at the exhibition.' Not surprisingly, the children loved seeing their work on show and, says Jay, 'it was a wonderful confidence booster for them.'
Runners up
- 'Mosaic Magic', Vine Play Club, Belfast
- Monty's Skate Park, Pocklington, Yorkshire
