Timings 

Please see our main group page for the timetable.

Arrival:
Please aim to arrive in the car park 10 minutes before the group starts (to drop off) and 5 minutes before the group ends (to collect). 

What you need to bring

Food & Drink

All groups:
All young people need to bring a full water bottle.  If young person doesn’t not like water – squash is fine.

Mondays, Tuesdays & Thursdays:
If a young person is booked on more than one group in one day, we encourage them to bring a snack.

If a young person is booked on a session just before and just after lunch, they are welcome to bring lunch and stay.

Skills & Social (Weds & Fri):
Young people will need to bring lunch, snack and a drink (as above).

Please do not bring:
Fizzy drinks or sharer/family packs of sweets.

Clothing/Footwear

All of our groups could involve going outside – even maths and English!  So please ensure young people have coats/footwear appropriate for the weather (they are encouraged to bring spare shoes or wellies in the winter months or on wet days).

Young people can wear whatever they are comfortable in, but please note the following:
– Please ensure any slogans/writing on clothing is suitable for all ages.
– If wearing tops where back/belly is exposed and young people are attending a group that could be cooking (Life Skills, Skills & Social), please ask them to bring something to cover during that activity (top or apron).  This is for health & safety.

Sensory Aids

Young people are more than welcome to bring quiet fidget toys or ear defenders.  If they would like to bring any other sensory aid, please just get in touch with us first to discuss.  We do not currently have a quiet indoor space – but we do have sofas that young people can use, with ear defenders if wanted, for some quiet.  Outdoors has quiet spaces and big beanbags etc for relaxing.

Mobile Phones / Tablets / Laptops / Smart Watches etc

Keeping young people safe and protecting privacy is very important to us.  

For this reason, we do not allow mobile phones or smart watches that have the ability to take photos or access a web browser.  

We strongly discourage young people from bringing in phones or devices, if it is essential, they need to be turned off and handed to staff who will keep them safe until the end of the session.  

If your young person is upset, worried, or concerned at any point – we are more than happy to call parents on our staff phone and for young people to talk to them.

Laptops/Tablets for Accessibility

If your young person needs to use a device to be able to access learning – please get in touch ASAP so we can discuss.

Please note, if they are planning on taking a GCSE examination in English or Maths, they will need to write by hand, unless they are granted an access arrangement via Form 8 (accessed via the Forms on JCQ Joint Council for Qualifications website).

This means that even if they are just taking Functional Skills at the moment, if it is likely that they will take the GCSE in the future – they need to write by hand unless the Form 8 has been agreed or is likely to be, in order to ensure they have the skills to pass.

If we agree for devices to be used, we will ask for the camera to be covered and for both young person and parent/carer to sign a safe device use agreement.

Vaping/Smoking

Both smoking and vaping are strictly prohibited on our site and young people are not able to leave the site to do this during our sessions. 

Maths Groups

Please bring:

• Basic maths set (eg compass, set square, ruler, protractor) – you can buy as a set for around £5
  
• Pencils, Pens, Eraser, Sharpener
  
• Calculator (GCSE requires a scientific calculator)

You will also need at least one official workbook – this will be provided by us and will cost around £5.  We will email you with details once term begins.

We will provide all exercise books free of charge. 
These are available for all our young people from any group, so if you want some for-home use for writing/drawing/maths etc – just let us know.

English Groups

Please bring:

• Pencils, Pens, Eraser, Sharpener, Highlighter

You will also need at least one official workbook – this will be provided by us and will cost around £5.  We will email you with details once term begins.

We will provide all exercise books free of charge. 
These are available for all our young people from any group, so if you want some for-home use for writing/drawing/maths etc – just let us know.

Feedback & Home Learning

Parents / carers will receive a summary email after all of our sessions, giving a brief overview of what was covered.

For Maths and English, this will also include any home learning (they will also be told this in the group).  
Home learning is strongly encouraged (in addition to self-study that you choose to do), but we understand that it can trigger negative feelings.  If your young person will not be doing home learning – please get in touch to let us know.  

If young people forget or struggle with home learning they will not be shamed or criticised. 
It is for them, and our team will not be upset with them if it does not happen.

Please ensure you forward Maths and English emails onto your young person as a reminder!

Payments and Personal Details

Rama Life is a not-for-profit CIC.  Like any other business, we have to pay staff, pensions, training, insurance, equipment, resources, premises costs, software and more!  In order for us to do this, all sessions need to be paid for (even if you are on holiday or unwell) as you are paying to secure your space.  Payment is monthly in advance.

Monthly Payments
To make budgeting easier for ourselves and families, we spread the payments evenly across the year.  To do this we take the cost of your weekly groups, multiply it by 38 weeks of the year (that we run – or the number of weeks left if you join mid-year) and then divide by the 11 months that young people attend (or the number of months left if you join mid-year).

New to a Group?
If you are new to Rama Life, your young person will initially be attending on a trial basis, these sessions are weekly paid.  After we are happy that your young person has settled in, we will offer an ongoing space and move you to monthly payments.

You can join a group at any point in the year.

Bank Details
Our bank details will be emailed to you when we confirm the payment.

Making Changes
If you want to join a group during the year – this is totally fine.  We will tell you what the new payment amount is.

If you want to leave a group during the year this is also fine, but we do require 4 weeks-notice in order for us to advertise and fill the space.  Your young person does not need to attend during this notice period. If you have just started with us and are in your trial weeks you do not have to give us any notice to stop.

Please note, you cannot automatically rejoin the group you have left in that academic year. 
But it might be agreed on a case-by-case basis.

Our Rates
All our displayed prices are subsidised by grant funding that we try to apply for – this means we are offering them at a lower cost, in order to support home educating parents.

If your young person receives LA funding, they will pay our FULL rate.  This includes if they have an EHCP or an EOTAS package or any other funded packages.

If you are unsure which rate is applicable – please get in touch.

Siblings receive a 10% discount on full day Skills and Social bookings only.

Personal Details
All of your data is protected by our GDPR policy.  We use a system called Magic Bookings to hold all of your young person’s information and to manage our registers.  Although the system can be used to book some activities – all home education groups need to be booked directly through us, via email.  Your booking will be added as “no charge”, as we do not want the system to ask you for payment.  We deal with payments offline, via bank transfer as above.

Please ensure you have added your young persons details here: BOOKING SYSTEM