• Phone : 01234 345636
  • Opening Time : 8:45am - 3:40pm
  • Address : Manton Lane, Bedford, MK41 7NH

GEMS After School Care

Wraparound Care – After School Care Club (Gems)

Gems After School Care Club provides after school care for children in Years Reception to Year Six. The Gems After School Care Club will be held in Topaz Classroom from 3:30pm until 5:30pm. Parents must collect their children using the outside door that faces the car park (access via wooden gate by the kitchen door) and sign their child/ren out.

A healthy snack will be provided after 4:00pm and staff will regularly seek views of the children on what they would like to eat and then they will have a range of quiet activities such as drawing, puzzles, games and reading.

There are 24 places available at in the After School Care Club. Bookings and payment can be made on Parent Pay by midnight before the session is required.

Booking prices will now vary between online ParentPay and cash/ad-hoc bookings. In an effort to encourage parents to use our online ParentPay payment system, the cost is less than cash/ad-hoc bookings and will be charged at the following rates:

Parent Pay Booking Late Booking
1st hour of care

3.30 – 4.30pm or 4.30 – 5.30pm

 £5.25 £5.45
2 hours of care

3.30 – 5.30pm

 £9.75 £10.45
Post club extended

4.30pm – 6pm

 £7.50 £7.95
Extended hours

3.30pm – 6pm

 £12.00 £12.95
If pre-booked Late Booking
1st hour of care £5.25 £5.45
Per hour after 1st hour of care £4.50 £5.00

A registration fee of £5 for After School Care and or Breakfast Club will be charged per child per school year (Sept – July). This fee is non-refundable.

Places for After School Club can be booked and paid for using your ParentPay account at www.parentpay.com

ParentPay step by step guide on how to make a After School Club booking.

Tax-Free Childcare

Are you aware of Tax-Free Childcare?

Tax-free Childcare is a UK wide offer to eligible working parents with children under 12 who can get up to £2,000 per child, per year towards childcare costs, such as breakfast and afterschool club.

Parents who wish to use the scheme, must open a Tax-Free Childcare account online and for every £8 you pay in, the government will pay £2. More information can be found here: –

https://www.gov.uk/tax-free-childcare

Using Tax-Free Childcare to pay for Breakfast Club and/or After-School Club

All bookings for Breakfast Club and After School Club must be made through Parent Pay. The funds on Parent Pay are managed per child and per type of session meaning that

  1. The funds loaded for one child cannot be used to pay for another child’s booking.
  2. The funds allocated to a type of session (eg. Breakfast club) cannot be used to book and pay for a different type of session (eg. After School Club).

This means that all the sessions for each of your children need to be pre-loaded individually.

There must be enough credit allocated to each type of session to cover the cost of the whole booking for each individual child. (E.g. Breakfast Club and/or After School Club – 1st hour, 2 hours, Extended hours.)

Parent Pay is unable to accept Tax-Free Childcare or Childcare Voucher (CCV) funds directly, so there is a process in place to enable you to use your vouchers to pay for Breakfast Club and After School Club. The funding is sent directly to Edith Cavell’s bank account and this is then allocated to your child’s Parent Pay account.

Please allow up to 10 working days for the funding to be allocated to your child’s Parent Pay account.

Process for allocation of funds.

  1. You will receive an email from Tax-Free childcare which will include a transfer reference to advise you that the funds have been sent to Edith Cavell. This reference number cannot be amended and will be used to identify the funds sent to the school.
  2. Send an email to the school wraparound care email address wraparoundcare@ecls.org.uk to advise where you would like the money allocated. In the subject line please state: Tax-Free Childcare amount and the reference number.

In your email, please include the name of the child, class, date of transfer and the name of the session/sessions that you would like the funds allocated to.

E.g. Breakfast Club £ xx

ASC – 1st hour of care £xxx

ASC – 2 hours £ xx

Total £ xxx

  1. Edith Cavell finance department will either receive an email from the CCV provider or will identify funds received from Tax-Free Childcare / CCV providers during the weekly bank account reconciliation.
  2. The finance department will allocate the funding to your chosen sessions for each of your children.
  3. Once the allocations have been made to individual session types, you will be able to book places at each of the sessions – up to the value of your credit balance.
  4. If you need the credit balance from one session type eg. Breakfast Club, transferred to a different session – eg. After School Club, please contact the school as you will be unable to do this yourself. Please clearly state the child’s name, class and amounts that you wish to transfer. Note: This can also be done between sibling’s accounts if requested via email.

Any problems please contact the school office.