Den How to join
Three children sitting together and laughing.

After school, and the whole of the holidays

One hall, forty places, and the same four people every day.

Reception to year six

We are not a lesson. We are the bit afterwards, and it is meant to feel like that.

Children come out of school tired and hungry and they are not going to do anything useful for at least half an hour. So the first half hour is food and the floor.

After that there is something set up in each corner and nobody has to join in. Most of them do. The ones who do not are usually reading under the table by the window, and that is fine too.

See the three clubs
Term time and holidays

Three clubs, one hall

A child standing against a plain coloured wall.

After school

We collect from the school gate at ten past three and walk back together. It is four hundred metres and it takes twenty minutes, which tells you everything.

  • 15:10 — 18:00, term time
  • £13.50 a session
  • Food at half past three
  • Twenty places
A child in a bright shirt against a yellow wall.

Holiday club

Full days in every holiday except the two weeks at Christmas. One trip a week, on foot or by bus, and never anywhere that needs booking months ahead.

  • 08:30 — 17:30
  • £34 a day, £150 a week
  • Packed lunch from home
  • Forty places
A child outdoors looking towards the camera.

Breakfast

Toast, fruit and a very quiet room, for the families who leave before eight. We walk them to the gate for ten to nine.

  • 07:45 — 08:50, term time
  • £7 a session
  • Breakfast included
  • Twelve places
What a place costs
A weekday, start to finish

What actually happens

Not a timetable so much as the shape the afternoon always takes.

A child with paint on their face, laughing.

15:30

Food and the floor

Everyone eats at the long table, coats stay on the pegs, and nothing is organised for half an hour on purpose.

Two children standing together outside.

16:15

Four corners

Something to build, something to draw, something loud and somewhere quiet. Nobody is made to choose and everybody ends up somewhere.

A child playing outdoors in the late afternoon.

17:30

Tidying, honestly

The last half hour is putting it all away, which they are better at than you would think, and then waiting by the door.

Before you sign up

How to get a place
Email or phone. We keep a list, it is in the order people asked, and we will tell you honestly where you are on it rather than say “we will see”.
Paying
Monthly in advance, by standing order. Childcare vouchers and Tax-Free Childcare both work here; bring the reference and we will do the rest.
Cancelling a session
Before nine in the morning and there is no charge. After that we have already bought the food and booked the staff, so we have to charge for it.
Collecting
By six, and by the person on the form. Anyone else needs to be on the form before the day, not by text at half past five.
Allergies and medicines
In writing, on the form, and we will read it back to you at the door on the first day. Nothing goes in a bag; it goes in the locked box in the office.
If it is not working
Some children hate it. Tell us in the first fortnight and we will refund the rest of the month without a conversation about why.
A group of children sitting on the floor of a hall. A child outside with their arms up. A child looking straight at the camera.