FULBRIDGE SCHOOL

Children's Centres

A Children's Centre at Fulbridge School

Bringing Services Together

A Children's Centre brings together a wide range of service for children from birth - five years and their families/carers. The Centres create a one-stop shop within the community for parents and providers of childcare and family support.

Parents with young children often have difficulty traveling to different places to access services; the aim is that Children's centres provide a whole range of information and activities. By bringing together a range of services for children and families/carers, from early education and childcare to health and family support, the Centres will make it easier for parents to access services for their children and themselves and help more families benefit in the critical early years of their children's lives.

Examples of service provided by a Children's Centre include:

• Childcare for children from birth - 5 years from 8am-6pm to support working parents and others.
• Early education led by a teacher for children aged 3 and 4 years.
• Child and family health services e.g. ante natal and post natal support.
• Family support e.g. advice and support with parenting skills, dads clubs, learning courses etc.
• Links with Jobcentre Plus e.g. support in accessing training and employment.
• Children's Information Service e.g. details of playschemes for older children.
• Services for Children with Special Educational Needs and disabilities.*

*All Children's Centres are fully inclusive settings with support for children with Special Educational Needs and disabilities and are committed to promoting equality of opportunity for all children.

But activities will vary at each centre according to local community needs.

Will every ward have a Children's Centre?

Children's Centres will be developed to cover every ward in Peterborough.

Children's Centres need to include the following services:

• Easy referral to health Professionals
• Support and Outreach services
• Information and advice
• Support to childminders
• Drop in sessions
• Links to Job Centre Plus

There is no target for the creation of childcare places so each new Children's Centre will not necessarily have a new full day care facility. In areas where there is already sufficient full day care we shall look to work in partnership with existing providers and with existing childminders.

Extended Schools

The Government wants to see strong links between extended schools and Children's Centres. Extended schools will provide a range of
services and activities, often beyond the school day, to help meet the needs of children, their families and the wider community, such as primary schools providing childcare between 8am - 6pm all year round. The extended services offer may also include: study support; parenting support; family learning; referral to social care and health care services (such as speech therapy, child and adolescent mental health services; family support services; intensive behaviour support; and sexual health services for young people).

The relationship between Children's Centres and the network of Extended Services for Schools is an important one.

How will I access services while a Children's Centre is being developed?

Parents and Children will still be able to access health, childcare, early education and family support service from the usual places whilst Children's Centre are being developed.

What does it mean at Fulbridge School?

We are working towards providing the services above and this may take some time. Our Children’s Centre opened in May 2008. As a school we are working with a number of other local schools, the Local Authority and the Greater Dogsthorpe Partnership to provide Extended School provision over the next few years.

As a school we had a new entrance foyer built at the front of school on Keeton Road. This includes consultation and meeting rooms. The Children’s Centre has taken over three of our classrooms and we had a new year two class room built near our year three entrance on the main playground. Another class room that we will use as our sensory circuits room has been built near the year four entrance, near year six and the large sports hall.

In addition to our 0-2 Nursery we now, from September 2007, have a 2-3 year old Nursery (Little Gems Nursery). This is in addition to our long standing Fulbridge Gems Nursery for 3-4 year olds.

Year 1 class rooms now have external doors and a fenced in play area at the front of school where parents are able to drop off and pick up their children.

In addition to these improvements we have worked with the Home Zone initiative to develop the front of school and the roads around our school.

Click on the link below to see the latest exciting developments that have happend to our school in preperation for us becoming a childrens center.

School Building Work Photos