The Ark will accept children from Reception to Year 6 for Breakfast Club and from Reception to year 3 for After School Club. We can accept regular bookings and casual/ ad hoc bookings. Under this arrangement, the parent / guardian can email The Ark to request a ‘one-off’ place for a child, up until 24 hours before the required session. Provision will be based on availability and is not guaranteed. 

To enquire about availability for regular bookings please contact our Business Manager and for casual bookings please contact either the Breakfast or After School Leader depending on which sessions you require.  Details can be found on the Contact us  page.

For all new Ark users, an Online Registration Form must be completed upon joining, and for each subsequent year at re-registration in June.  The form for throughout the year can be found at the bottom of this page. Re registration forms and registration for September will be sent to parents' separately.

Children can be booked into the club as either ‘regular’ or ‘ad-hoc’. The Ark will operate a policy of admitting children in the following order of preference:

1. Looked after children or children who were previously looked after but immediately after being looked after became subject to an adoption, residence, or special guardianship order. (as per LEA guidelines) 

2. Parents being an Ark Director of The Ark for more than 3 months. 

3. Staff member of St Bede school 

4. Regular user (i.e. already make regular use of Ark sessions allocated to them). 

5. Siblings of above. 

6. Existing users changing days. 

7. New users 

8. Chronological order of application (date registration form received at re-registration time/position on waiting list throughout the rest of the year).

The Breakfast and After School Club are treated separately so if a child attends the Breakfast Club and they require an after school place this does not give ‘regular user’ priority (and vice versa). The link for re-registration will be sent out yearly in June/July by email firstly to existing Ark attendees and siblings, then those on the waiting list and then new users. There will be a date for forms to be returned by and then spaces will be allocated according to the above criteria.

To ensure children feel settled and happy at The Ark, children can visit The Ark a few times before starting sessions with their parents, we also 'buddy up' children to ensure your child has another child to look after them and ask parents to help their children complete an 'All about me' form so your child's keyworker can find out children's interests before they start. All children are allocated a Keyworker who will keep an eye on your child and who you can talk to about your child at anytime.

Should you be unable to secure your child a place for the day you would like, your child will be placed on The Ark waiting list. You will be contacted by the Business Manager if a place becomes available.