Toolkit: Unit 6 - School-based aftercare.

Creating a Caring School A Toolkit for School Management Teams Unit Six School-based aftercare for learners SAIDE

UNIT SIX
School-based aftercare

Tool 23: What kind of aftercare service can your school
offer?

To find the answer to this question you can oganise a brainstorming activity with your
school management team. Brainstorming is a well-known and useful tool that we can
use to come up with creative solutions to problems. It is particularly useful if you want
to break out of the usual patterns of thinking in order to take a fresh look at a problem
or challenge. Brainstorming with a group can be particularly effective as it stimulates the
members to share their experience and creativity. If well oganised, group brainstorming
can enable the team to develop ideas in more depth than if individuals are left to come
up with ideas on their own.

IDEAS FOR ORGANISING A PRODUCTIVE BRAINSTORMING ACTIVITY

1. Clearly describe the challenge or problem for which you want to find an answer.

2. Make sure everyone understands the ‘rules of the brainstorming game’
• Everyone’s contribution is accepted and respected
• No attempt must be made to evaluate the ideas
• No sequential train of thought is followed
• The focus must be on the problem or challenge
• All ideas are recorded.

3. Encourage people to be creative and to come up with as many ideas as possible, practical as well as
impractical ones. All ideas are welcome.

4. Encourage everyone to contribute. One way of doing this is to get people to write their ideas on cards.
The participants write one idea per card. The cards can be placed on the wall or stand with prestik.
The cards also serve as a record of the ideas and there is no need for someone to record them on
flipchart paper.

5. Put a time frame on the brainstorming activity. This helps to keep the momentum alive and prevents
people becoming introspective and falling into the trap of evaluating the ideas.

6. Let people have fun with the brainstorming activity. The more they enjoy the activity and relaxed they
are, the more their creativity is stimulated.

7. Encourage people to use other people’s ideas to create new ones.

8. Once you have completed the actual brainstorming activity, you can shift the cards around and order
them under specific headings. You may then want to take a critical look at the ideas and start thinking
about how to use them to come up with a workable solution to the problem or challenge that you had
identified.

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Purpose
To use a brainstorming technique to come up with creative ideas respond to the
challenge of providing aftercare support for vulnerable learners.
To use the ideas from the brainstorming session to inform the development of a
draft set of ideas for an aftercare strategy.

What to do
Introduce the planning activity and make sure that each member of the team
understands the purpose described above.
Explain that the planning activity consists of four parts:

1 2 3 4

Describe the challenge of Brainstorm to come up Discuss the context Compile list of workable
providing aftercare for with creative ideas report compiled by a ideas for an aftercare
vulnerable learners at your SMT member strategy
school

1. Describe the challenge of providing aftercare for vulnerable learners at your school
in the table on the next page. Give a detailed description of your reality as you see it.
The description of the challenge will help to remain focused when you brainstorm
ideas.
2. Brainstorm ideas. You can use the brainstorming guidelines to assist you to oganise
the activity and to create an atmosphere where everyone can contribute ideas.
Record the ideas from members inside the block on the next page.
3. Discuss the context report. The SMT member can give a brief presentation to kick-
start the discussion. The purpose of the discussion is among others to find out
whether it is possible to link up with existing initiatives and what the implications
might be. It is also to probe what types of support the school can harness in its
efforts to offer aftercare support.
4. Examine the ideas from the brainstorming session critically. Select those you think
are feasible, and use the table provided to record your ideas.

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TOOL 1. Description of the challenge of providing 2. Record of ideas
aftercare for vulnerable children at your
school

Describe the nature and scope of the challenge:
• Numbers of vulnerable learners
• Their needs
• What you need to run the aftercare (people,
funds, resources)

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Questions Draft ideas for an aftercare strategy
TOOL

1. How many vulnerable
learners would need
aftercare support?

2. What are their most
urgent needs?

3. What aftercare option is
most suitable [Check the
options diagram on page
131 in Unit 6]

4. What internal resources
can you use?

5. What resources can you
get from the community
and external organistions?

6. What activities could you
offer?

7. Who will get involved in
the aftercare programme?

8. Who will manage the
aftercare programme?

9. What are the biggest
obstacles to geting
started?

10. What would you prioritise
at the start?

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Tool 24: Some ideas for aftercare activities

It is ideal for any aftercare facility to have a planned programme of activities for each
day. These should include a balance of more formal, structured and informal or free
activities. Structured activities may include, sitting down together to eat, supervised
homework and general academic support, a slot for reading practice (in primary
schools) various creative activities like singing, music, drama, visual art as well
asorganised games and sporting activities. Informal or free activities like playing board
games or allocating time for outdoor play should also be included into a weekly
programme of activities.

Here are a few ideas for some creative activities that are particularly aimed at also building
identity and are therefore not only fun, but are also considered to have some therapeutic
value, especially for vulnerable learners.

Activities to build identity and creativity

Many of these are creative activities and/or are based on the observation of nature.
They encourage children to express freely (and value) who they are and what they feel
and see. Some of them focus on cherishing memories of a parent or loved one who has
died. Most will require:

Time: Enough time to choose, imagine, remember, talk, make and remake. It is
especially important to talk with children as they work.

Focus: Noisy, confused or aggressive children may need a starter activity like a bit
of deep breathing, or some singing while they work to calm and focus them.

A non-judgemental approach: Facilitators can help children learn some techniques
but should focus on meaning rather than accurate or perfect work. (In creative work
there is no right or wrong.)

Care: Some activities need gentle handling as deep feelings may come up.

Some free or low-cost resources: Facilitators and children can collect:
• recycled material such as: cardboard sheets, cylinders and boxes; bright foil
and patterned paper; old glossy magazines and newspapers; bottle-tops,
buttons, small bottles, beads wire, scraps of fabric, empty cans and plastic
bottles;
• simple art materials such as coloured chalk, wax crayons, paper (even paper
used on one side), pencils, poster paints;
• natural materials such as seeds and pods, grasses and reeds, clay, leaves, dry
flowers, feathers, shells;
• glue: Make your own by mixing two tablespoons of flour with four
tablespoons of water in a bowl until smooth. Then add two cups of boiling
water and stir well again. Keep in a cup or jar. (It’s not very thick.)

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Some ideas for activities
TOOL

SPECIAL NAMES: Give each child a sheet of paper and put out wax crayons. Children must:
• Bring the two longer sides of the paper together and fold it over.
• Smooth the fold quite flat.
• Open the paper and write their name in big letters on one half, using the fold line as the line to write
on. Do clear, strong letters in thick crayon.
• Fold the paper over again with the name inside. Place on a book or desk and rub the thumbnail
firmly all over the outside.
• Open the paper and see how the crayoned name has rubbed onto the other side of the paper too
so that there is a lovely symmetrical pattern.
• Decorate the name with other colours etc. – but keep the shape clear.
• Make a beautiful display with all the names stuck on the wall. (Use prestik.)

Children love this activity. They can also do it using the names of loved ones to make birthday cards or
memory cards. Some may need to learn how to write their name. While they decorate their names, ask
who gave them the name and why, what it means, what different forms it has, and so on.
______________________________________________________________________________________

MEMORY BOX: Explain What a memory box is: a small box containing things that remind us of someone
we love very much. They can be things (often very simple) like something small s/he wore or used,
something s/he wrote, a photo, a scrap of fabric from a dress, a card, something s/he made, or things
we make ourselves to remember some part of the person. Children/youth and facilitators can bring
small strong boxes, one for each person. They can be decorated in different ways: e.g with coloured
paper, pieces of fabric, shapes or pictures cut from magazines, seeds and dried leaves, drawings, pretty
buttons, shells, paints. The loved one’s name could be part of the design. The boxes could also be
varnished to preserve the decorations. Each child can collect items that remind them of the loved one
to put in the box. Think of a place either a the aftercare centre or where the child lives to store the
memory box safely.
______________________________________________________________________________________

PORTRAITS: Children can form pairs and do drawings or paintings of one another. For drawing they
can use wax crayons, pencil crayons, pencils, or pieces of charcoal from the fire or bits of coloured
chalk that has been dipped in a glass of sugar water which helps to make the colours brighter! They
should look carefully at each other and do an outline of the other person that nearly fills the page. Then
they can take time to fill in details. Encourage them to talk about the shapes on someone’s face and
how to draw parts like noses, shadows under the chin or lips etc. They should try different effects.
Display the portraits.

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NATURE PICTURE: Let children make pictures using only natural materials like clay, seeds, grasses,
leaves, bark, flower heads – use flower heads to draw with – as you press them the colour comes out,
charcoal, sof clay mixed with water to produce earthy colours etc. rather than man-made materials. You
will need glue to stick some items on. Collecting the materials could make an interesting outdoor activity
by itself. The pictures could be of landscapes – mountains, trees, fields etc. – or the materials could be
used to depict a house and garden, or a person.
______________________________________________________________________________________

OBSERVING PLANTS/ANIMALS/BIRDS/INSECTS: (This can be done at home or in aftercare or
workshops.) Together find a place such as a clump of bushes, the edge of a forest or a swampy area
that is used a lot by birds, animals or insects (for food, for making nests or homes, or for resting in).
Use children and adults who do watch nature to help show the others such a place. Watch what is
happening there over time. Children can do so every day, every week or just two or three times.

• They can observe one plant or animal especially closely, or they can observe everything.
• They can report back on what the plant (s) or animal(s) look like and what they do, and find out their
local names and uses from adults who know.
• They can describe what changes take place overtime. They can watch to see what animals eat, how
they make nests or homes, which plants are used or eaten etc.
• If they can write, some may enjoy making short written reports (just a sentence, perhaps with a
drawing), or they can just tell. Help them make a list of the animals and birds they see.
• Make the children aware that all creatures need one another, and the more that are destroyed, the
more danger the world is in. Also, the knowledge they may have of their local natural life has
economic value in the wider world (e.g. in eco-tourism).
______________________________________________________________________________________

CARD-MAKING: Regularly collect thin cardboard from packaging (soap powder, cereal and tea boxes
etc.) and get others to help collect or donate sheets of white or coloured card. Children can use it for
card-making in workshops and at home for birthdays, Christmas and other religious occasions and
especially for love ones or friends who are sick. They can use the name patterns, portraits, nature
drawings etc. or new drawing as cards. They could draw their home and/ or family, the person the card
is for, something that person likes to eat or do, a picture of themselves with the person. They can stick
things on the card e.g. sees, leaves, dried flowers, buttons, paper cut-outs etc. to decorate it. Talk to
them about the pictures and the messages they want to write. (Write messages for those who can’t
write.)

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SPAZA STORE: Collect lots of strong cardboard boxes and old containers and ask families to keep
theirs. Get the children to make their own spaza stores in groups. Each group will need some boxes
and containers to set up their store. They can decorate the store with drawings and signs, and act out
sales transactions together. They can make money from bottle-tops and scrap paper and be
encouraged to add up purchases and work out change.
______________________________________________________________________________________

AN ‘I CAN’ AND ‘I LIKE’ STREAMER: (For young children) You need 6-10 metres of coloured plastic
cord or string and sheets of A4 paper for the children. Question and talk to the children about things
they can do (e.g. stand on their head, climb a tree, tie a bow, run fast, write their name, braid hair, make
a wire car, sew etc.) or what they like especially well (soccer, cake, skipping, etc.) Help each child to
fold the paper in half with the short ends together and make a sharp fold. Each child can then draw
something s/he can do on one half and something s/he likes a lot next to it on the other half. As each
child finishes, hang their picture over the string at the fold and stick or staple the two halves together
so that the pictures are on the outside. Hang the pictures all along the string/cord in this way so that it
looks like a gaily coloured streamer. Hang it up for all to see (also at a community function).

(Source: MiET Africa (2006) HANDBOOK A resource for turning your school into a centre of care and support.
Africa Ignite: Kwa Zulu Natal).

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Toolkit: Unit 6 - School-based aftercare.

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Toolkit: Unit 6 - School-based aftercare.