Parent Handbook

P.L.A.Y.

Physical Literacy Activities for Youth

Our goal is to provide a healthy living focused program with structured and unstructured sport and recreation activities, promote positive social interaction in a safe and fun environment and nurture the overall well-being of each child.

Key points of our program include:

PLAY offers both structured and unstructured supervised activities each afternoon
PLAY strives to provide a minimum of 45 minutes of structured physical activities daily
PLAY offers outdoor physically active play opportunities each day, weather permitting (bring appropriate attire)
PLAY will bring in special sport and activity leaders

Benefits to Schools:

Utilization of community resources in a positive productive manner
Promotes community health needs by keeping kid’s active
Creates revenue for school/school board to be used for crucial educational needs
Meets community need for after-school day care; supervised, regulated and professional
Creates employment opportunities
Alleviates traffic
Fully insured
Well-developed policies for a safe environment

Registration:

All children interested in attending the PLAY Program must register for each new school year. This is to ensure PLAY staff have immediate access to current student, parent and emergency information. Incomplete applications will be returned to the parent for resubmission. Confirmation notices will be emailed to parents as verification of your enrolment status. Please note that students may not begin attending the program until either emailed or verbal confirmation of acceptance has been received.

Acceptance to the program will be based on the date and time applications are received in our office.

We are open to flexible schedules; however, full time participants will have priority of acceptance in our program over part time participants. For example; Full timers 1st, 4 days a week 2nd, 3 days a week 3rd. etc.

Parents are asked to notify the Registrar of address changes occurring throughout the school year as well as any changes to payment methods. All applications must identify emergency contacts in case of illness and/or cancellations. Please inform the PLAY Registrar and program team leader immediately of any changes to these contacts.

At time of registration parents are asked to identify and detail any special needs (mobility, allergies, toileting etc.) that their child may have. To fully explore the scope of the needs identified and the potential accommodation required, it may be necessary to arrange for a meeting with PLAY staff at the child’s school.

Communications

When sending correspondence to Play4kids staff, please reference the account holders name and the name of the child.

Fees for PLAY

PLAY is $19/day - 2nd child 10% discount, 3rd child 15% discount

Payment of Fees

All fees for the PLAY After/Before school program must be paid on or before the 20th day of the preceding month, beginning August 20th. You will receive an Invoice for fees around the 15th of every month. Options for payment include email transfer, or post-dated cheques. Changes to payment methods must be received at least 5 business days prior to the 20th of the month.

Post- dated cheques beginning with August 20th must be supplied at the time of application.

Parents/guardians who are cost-sharing fees with another parent/guardian may elect to pay separately. Individual applications would need to be submitted, each identifying the agreed upon cost-sharing arrangement. The creation of multiple accounts enables Account Holder to receive individual Income Tax receipts.

THERE ARE NO REFUNDS FOR NON-ATTENDANCE FOR ANY PLAY PROGRAMS.

If paying by E-transfer, please ensure you reference the Invoice # previously sent to you.

Payments can be made to payments@play4kids.net

Please use the password play4kids for E-Transfers or if that does not work for your bank, the first name of your eldest child.

If paying by cheque, please note the name of the person holding the account and the child’s name on all cheques. NSF cheques will be subjected to$16.50 NSF charge. Make cheques/money orders payable: PLAY

Income Tax Receipts

Official income tax receipts will be issued for each calendar year in Jan/Feb, in accordance to Revenue Canada regulations. The receipt will be in the name of the Account holder on the application form. Receipts will be emailed to Account holders via the email address provided at the time of application.

Accounts in Arrears

All transactions are processed on the 20th of each month. Consistent payments in arrears may result in the suspension of your child until your account is brought current.

Withdrawal from PLAY

PLAY requires 2 weeks written notice of intended date of withdraw from our program. You will be billed for the days within this 2 week period where sufficient notice wasn’t provided. Please contact the PLAY Registrar or Assistant Registrar to give notice of the effective date of withdrawal.

The Registrar or Assistant will discuss with the Account Holder any refunds owing or any fees outstanding to close out your account. Unused post-dated cheques will be voided and returned to account holder.

Exceptions to the 2-week notice will be considered for extenuating circumstances such as, family illness or loss of employment. Proof of such circumstance may be required for refunds. Please discuss any extenuating circumstances with the Registrar.

Program Overview

Hours of Operation & Holidays

PLAY After School Programs begin immediately following afternoon dismissal and operates until 5:30pm depending on the school.

The PLAY program does not operate during Christmas break, all holidays and storm days.

We will be closed for the following holidays:

October 14th - Thanksgiving
November 11th - Remembrance Day (observed)
December 23rd - Jan 3rd - Christmas Break
February 17th - Nova Scotia Heritage Day
April 10th - Good Friday
April 13th - Easter Monday
May 18th - Victoria Day

PLAY offers - 8 week all day active Summer Camp

Sample Day for After School Care:

1:55 pm bell rings to end school day.

1:55 pm – 2:15 pm PLAY staff confirm everyone has signed in

2:15 pm – 3:00 pm Unstructured supervised time (indoor/outdoor weather dependent)

3:00 pm – 3:20 pm (snack time)

3:20 pm – 4:15 pm Structured time (Activities leader/Sports leader or group leader) group activity

4:30pm – Structured outdoor play (weather permitting)

5 pm – 5:30 pm Supervised unstructured play/homework time while parents arrive for pick-up

Late Fess

Our PLAY After School program ends at 5:30pm each day. If a child is not picked up within the allotted program time, the following procedures will be followed.
There will be a late pick up charge of $15/family per 15 minutes or part thereof;
Should the first incidence of late arrival be within 5 minutes of the 5:30pm program ending time, there will be no fee charged. Parents later than 5:35 pm, on the 1st incident of late arrival, will be charged $15/family fe3e per 15 minutes or part thereof;
Late fees will be billed to the method of payment provided for your monthly program fees;
Late fees are billed to cover the cost of the instructor’s wages to remain with your child(ren).

We would ask parents to carry the PLAY program phone number with them always, so that when you are running late you may communicate with staff of your expected delay in arrival. You may also wish to synchronize your watch with the school clock to avoid confusion.

PLAY will not operate on storm days.

There will be no refunds in the event of school closure due to storm days.

PLAY will not be able to operate our programs during power outages and water shut – offs. When possible, the school and PLAY coordinate with the utility companies to arrange any planned discontinuation of services during periods PLAY is not operational. Should emergency utility interruptions arise that conflict with our program times, PLAY will be required to contact parents to arrange for immediate pick up of their child due to inability for our program to operate.

Emergency Contacts

All applications must identify individual’s other than the parents or legal guardians that PLAY may contact should we be unable to reach you. These individuals may be required to be responsible to pick your child up from PLAY due to unexpected program closures or illness.

Vacations

There will be no refunds issued for student absence due to family vacations. Please advise program staff of planned absences.

Sick Days

If your child is too sick to attend school, then they are too sick to attend PLAY. If your child is sick 5 consecutive days or more, a refund will be issued upon receipt of a doctor’s slip indicating the dates and length of illness.

Required Notifications

For the safety of your child, PLAY requires written or verbal notice, advising PLAY staff, that your child will not be attending the program. PLAY is not in partnership with the school, we operate independently. Contacting the school Administration staff is not enough.

If a designated individual, will be picking up your child during program time. This notice must be provided by the parent or guardian. Your child will not be released without proper consent from the parent or guardian. We regret any inconvenience this process may cause, but we consider the safety of your child as our primary responsibility.

Health Concerns

Parents are responsible to identify all pertinent allergies or medical information that PLAY staff should be aware of, to ensure the general health and well-being of your child while under our supervision.

Some children have life-threatening allergies to peanuts and other foods. Please check with your school to determine what foods are not appropriate to send.

If your child contracts a contagious disease or illness, please advise the PLAY school staff and keep your child at home until a doctor certifies your child can return at no risk to other children. Parents may wish to refer to the CCRCE website to review the specific CCRCE policies with respect to communicable diseases, etc.

If your child requires a prescription medication, PLAY staff will administer such medication according to the CCRCE administration of medication policy with necessary forms having been completed and submitted. Forms are available on the CCRCE website.

PLAY leaders will notify you if an illness occurs during PLAY time.

Accidents

If a child has an accident while attending PLAY, the staff will assess the situation and act accordingly to the following procedures;

If a serious accident occurs which might require medical attention, the PLAY staff will contact you immediately for instruction.
If you are unavailable, PLAY staff will call your emergency contact.
If neither contact is available, staff will call for emergency transport as PLAY staff may not transport any child in their personal vehicle.
In the event of any accident that is identified as being possibly life threatening or that requires immediate medical attention, staff will first call for emergency assistance and then inform the parent.
PLAY staff are responsible for all children in the program and may not be able to accompany your child in an ambulance but will make every effort to contact someone to accompany your child.
There are always PLAY staff on site that are trained in emergency first aid and CPR and will administer any necessary treatment as required.

General Procedures:

Parents must inform PLAY staff if their child will be absent from the Before and After - school program. It is very important that you do this; otherwise we must assume that your child is lost in transit and take appropriate measures. Please write your schools PLAY phone number on the front of this handbook for easy reference.

Parents must notify staff if they wish to have individuals, other than those listed on your registration form, pick up their child. A child will not be released to any unauthorized individual for any reason. If authorization cannot be confirmed and the individual persist, police may be contacted to intervene.
Parents are required to sign their name to the parent sign in / sign out sheet along with the pick - up time at the end of each day.
The PLAY program cannot be responsible for any child that is not signed in or out of the program by a parent, guardian or individual, that has not reached a minimum of 19 years of age, in the interest of safety. If you are requesting an exception to this policy, please contact PLAY office to discuss your exception request.

Behavior Expectations:

To ensure a safe, secure and healthy school environment for all students, the Minister of Education has established a Provincial School Code of Conduct. To provide consistency in the lives of students, staff of PLAY supports and follows the school code of conduct at each site, which will be communicated to you by the school.

PLAY strives to provide a nurturing, respectful, supportive and responsive environment for our participants. Inappropriate behavior will be addressed, and a range of proactive interventions will be used to promote positive behavior. Consequences will be appropriate for each individual student and will consider factors that include the student’s age; stage of development; special needs; social/emotional needs; and level of cognitive functioning, etc. Consequences will also reflect the frequency, severity and intensity of the inappropriate behavior.

Communication between PLAY staff and parents is essential to identify a solution to deal with the persistent inappropriate behavior. The PLAY staff believes in dealing positively with situations every child will be treated on an individual basis. There will be on-going dialogue with parents to reach a positive conclusion to the situation in the best interest of the child and the program. Confidentiality will be maintained in all situations. As a last resort when all avenues have been exhausted, a child may be withdrawn from PLAY.

Respect for SELF

Give your best efforts each day
Dress, Speak, Act appropriately
Follow the school’s and PLAY’s program behavior expectations
Be prompt and use your “listening ears” always
Report problems or concerns to PLAY or school staff

Respect for Others

Be considerate of others
Use respectful tone of voice and appropriate language when addressing others
Keep your hands and feet to yourself
Use good manners always
Walk, not run in hallways, classrooms and stairwells
Respect personal space of others
Practice fair play (i.e. wait your turn)
Items that can be thrown to remain on the ground (i.e. rocks, snowballs)
Return things to where you found them when finished
Follow safe and proper procedures for use of equipment
Encourage others to do their best
Follow safety rules
Demonstrate courteous behavior and respect choices of others
Ask for permission to use the washroom or fountain.
Abide by your school policy on foods that are not to be brought to school (ie nuts)
Remain seated while eating
Always show respect to others

Respect for Learning

Be a good listener
Follow instructions and rules
Respect the efforts and contributions of others
Be positive with others
Share materials and equipment as needed
Follow the CCRSB technology policy
Demonstrate listening skills
Follow fair play principles
Use “indoor voice” in halls and stairwells

Respect for Environment

Recycle, using appropriate recycling containers
Help keep the school clear of debris/litter
Respect equipment and property of others
Take care with school property and equipment
Flush toilet and wash hands when using the bathroom
Keep areas tidy
Clear eating space when finished and push or stack chair at end of J4K program times

Parent Feedback:

If you become concerned with any aspect of the PLAY program, PLAY staff will be glad to discuss it with you. If you have a program concern, we would encourage you to discuss it with the on-site staff. If you are not satisfied, you may address your concerns to the Recreation Programmer and then to the Coordinator.

We are committed to ensure that PLAY staff will deal with concerns professionally, courteously and diligently.

PLAY Administration Contacts:

Donald MacLean
Founder/Executive Director
902-818-5045

Annette Morris
Accounts
902-483-5360

Diane Hurlbert
Director of Operations Maple Ridge Elementary School
902-476-0155

Mary Anne Gallant
Director of Operations Elmsdale District Elementary School
902-221-0338

jodysgirl20@hotmail.com

Office Address:

24 Feather Lane
Enfield N.S.
B2T-1G9

General Contact –

Website –

Payments - payments@play4kids.net