Out of School Care can be variously known as breakfast clubs, after school services and holiday clubs.

At Chatterbox, we offer breakfast club and afterschool club across the school year.

Out of school care (OSC), also known as after school care (ASC), or school age childcare, is the provision of a safe, caring environment offering a range of active, stimulating and restful activities for school age children before and after school and during holidays. Out of school care enables parents to take up employment, education and training opportunities.

Out of school care schemes take parental responsibility for the children in their care. OSC services must register with the Care Inspectorate All workers must have a police disclosure check through the Protecting Vulnerable Groups scheme and have to register with the SSSC and gain qualifications relevant for their role.

Chatterbox provides a service starting at 8.00am until 9.00am to provide childcare before the start of the school day. This consists of a breakfast and simple activities before the school day starts.

At the end of the school day, Chatterbox provides an afterschool club from 3-6pm.  This consists of a healthy snack, lots of different activities and outdoor play

All of our staff are fully qualified and participate in yearly continuous professional development to enhance their skills.

We accept all government Tax Free childcare vouchers and families who have a lower income can access the universal credit childcare costs element to assist with fees.

For children OSC provides:

• safety and security with care provided by experienced, trained and qualified staff
• a range of activities and play equipment all different from, but complementary to, the school curriculum
• the opportunity to socialise and play with other children
• Access to social, leisure, rest, recreational, cultural and play in terms of their rights under Article 31 of the UNCRC
• Space for physical activities in doors and out
• Healthy snacks

For parents OSC provides:

• support to enable them to take up work, education or training opportunities
• peace of mind, knowing that their children will be well cared for, and therefore greater effectiveness at work

OSC benefits employers by providing the means to recruit and retain a stable workforce. It also draws new people into the labour market and improves staff efficiency and staff morale. Within communities OSC provision assists in the creation of employment and training of local people and provides opportunities for economic development and regeneration, through the creation of new business and new jobs.

Thus, by providing a service which meets the needs of children, OSC also contributes to economic and community development, to the quality of life and families and has a major part to play in the promotion of "social inclusion".

Chatterbox Childcare Ltd philosophy is to be as enthusiastic and passionate about every activity your child has the opportunity to participate in so that they feel inspired to try new things in a safe environment. We hope that this creates a relaxed atmosphere which helps your child to feel comfortable, make new friends and have fun the whole time.

At Chatterbox childcare Ltd your child’s well-being is our top priority so we make sure that all activities are carried out in a safe and controlled environment with the supervision of our trusted staff.

The activities we run are low risk in order to help minimise the number of accidents which may happen. Although, we actively encourage our children to risk assess their own danger as this is an important aspect of life. We will allow your children to try risky play under supervised conditions. This may at times lead to a bump or a scrape from time to time and children are likely to fall or bump into each other which cannot be avoided. If this does happen, your child will be in good hands as every one of our staff are  a certified first aiders.

We run to Care inspectorate ratios for staff and children and all of our staff must be part of the Protected Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme and registered with the SSSC.

Chatterbox is provided in the wonderful and beautiful country of Scotland and as such we cannot guarantee good weather all the time. We will always try and have some outdoor time every day and so it’s important to bring warm layers to wrap up for when you may be out in the cold. However, for the days the sun does show up, remember to pack sun cream and plenty of fluids. Trainers and clothes that they don’t mind getting dirty can be brought and stored at the service to change into.

Mobile phones or watches that can call or take pictures are not allowed in the service.  We have a room phone where you can call if needed and we upload daily pictures to our social media for you to see the fun we are having.

Yes, we are fully insured with Morton Michaels a specialist childcare insurance company. We also hold ICO certification for our data protection policy.

The majority of our staff are fully qualified. We may at times have playworkers who have skills in other areas like tv and film or technology who will work alongside us and at times we will have students who are looking for work experience or who are on placement however, these members of staff are not included in our ratios and will be regarded as additional staffing.

Yes you can. Click here to download the current Parents Handbook

It's important for all our children to feel comfortable and at home at Chatterbox and as a first step we really want to get to know each individual child so we ask all our newcomers to complete "My Book of Important Things" so we can welcome to the Chatterbox family as seamlessly as possible.

All our staff hold first aider certificates and their paediatric first aid certificates as well.  So, if your child has an accident we will be in safe hands.  An accident report will be written up which we will ask you to sign.  This will state what happened, how many children were present, how many staff were present, what treatment was given and what follow up treatment may be needed.

If your child is ill and unable to attend school please notify our team on 07943848230.

If you child falls ill whilst with our staff, we will contact you to collect them.  We will only call if we feel the child is in distress and unable to stay with us.  We are very aware of the stress that can occur when parents have to leave work to collect and so we do try our best to manage sore tummies or children who feel a little under the weather.

Unfortunately, if your child is ill we cannot offer a refund.

YES, OF COURSE THEY CAN.  If your child has a bad allergy or a medical condition please stipulate this on your registration form.

You will be asked to complete a medicine administration form to allow staff to give medication should this be necessary.  Please note that you will need to give both the school and our serviced their own medicine as we can’t share this daily.

All medical information is confidential and details will be passed to all staff  for safety purposes.

We do our best to return lost items, there will be a basket at our entrance where we place all lost property, please check this before leaving at the end of the day. 

Please ensure that clothes and belongings are clearly labelled with your child’s full name. Due to the nature of our activities, we recommend that children do not wear their best or most expensive clothing for Club.

Please note we are unable to keep and hold lost property indefinitely. We have a regular purge of lost property where we encourage you to collect.  Any items that are left we send to local charity shops.

Yes of course, just let us know with as much notice as possible by contacting us via email at [email protected] we will do our best to accommodate changes in days if we have availability.

We have access to outdoor facilities and we will get the children outside as much as possible (weather permitting!), so please bring shoes for both indoor and outdoor activities and appropriate clothes for the weather.

No, we can provide part week placement however we do have a minimum use policy of 3 morning sessions, 2 afternoon sessions or 2 morning and 1 afternoon.

The youngest child we take is age 4.5 and the oldest is 12.

We can take children who attend Wallace Nursery from the point of them turning 4.5 years and provide nursery wrap around.

We will never leave a child on their own so if you are late, we will stay with them. If you know you will be late, try to let us know by contacting the team on 07943848230.  Late fees are in effect for parents/guardians, these fees are charged at a standard rate of £20 – insurance does not cover any individuals after 6pm and buildings close at this time meaning staff and children will need to sit and wait outside.

We expect any chatterbox staff member or child to show respect and courtesy. We operate a strictly no bullying policy and we will take a hard line on any bullying we find in the service.  We wish each child to have a great experience and therefore bullying will not be tolerated.

Children must be signed in and out on arrival and departure by nominated guardians. We have highly qualified staff who are experts in the field of play work and play theory.  Our children stay within the school environment during term time and so you can be confident they will be safe with us. Our staff undertake daily risk assessment on the environment and equipment we use and have strict food hygiene and allergy guidance in place.  That being said, we do still encourage our children to make their own decisions around risk and so you should be prepared for the odd bump or scrape as they learn where their own unique limits are. 

We are very active on social media! All of our social media platforms post regular updates, photos and videos from our days.  Please note you can specify on our registration form if you do not wish your child to be photographed.

Follow us here;

• Instagram: @chatterboxchildcareltd
• Facebook: chatterbox childcare ltd

We will also upload photos and videos, weekly diaries and be in contact with you via our parent portal that you will create an account for when you register.

We have a 4 week notification policy if you no longer wish to use the service or wish to reduce days.

Registration can be submitted online by clicking here.

Our Parent Portal is used to securely maintain all the important information about your child such as medical history, emergency contacts and pick up contacts. We also use this to communicate with our parents and you can also book and pay for extra sessions and holiday clubs quickly and easily using the service.

You will be given login credentials by the Chatterbox team when your child starts using our service.

Login for existing parents is here