Jacqueline's Gems, Christ Church

Care that starts before the school day and picks up the moment it ends, in the building the children are already in. Jacqueline's Gems runs its Erith club inside Christchurch C Of E Primary School on Lesney Park Road, for children aged 4 to 11.

The anchor for parents is the report card published on 20 April 2026, from a visit on 3 March. Safeguarding standards are met. Behaviour, attitudes and establishing routines, and children's welfare and wellbeing, both reached the expected standard, while inclusion and leadership and governance were marked as needing attention.

Board games do more work here than they sound like they should. In March 2026 older children were helping younger ones through games such as snakes and ladders, and children volunteered to be monitors for jobs. Stories and bingo held their concentration; outside, they practised balancing and climbing. The session is settled rather than improvised: children are escorted from their classrooms, the older ones from the hall, hang coats and bags in a designated area, and sit for a register.

For the youngest children, those still in reception year, the framework behind all this is the Early Years Foundation Stage. It divides development into seven areas of learning, three prime and four specific, reached through play and everyday activity rather than taught lessons. In an after-school club, the games and the time outside are where that sits.

Younger children, and those with special educational needs and disabilities, are allocated a key person when they first start, and staff gather information from parents then, which is how a setting seeing a child for two hours a day knows them at all. Staff spark conversations about what a child has chosen, and children say they enjoy coming and that they feel safe.

The caveats sit in the same report card, and they land on one group of families hardest. Inspectors found that staff lacked knowledge about supporting children with SEND and provided limited targeted support, that alternatives were not always offered so a child could join in, and that parents were not kept updated as needs changed. Two actions followed, both due by 4 April 2026: strengthen the work with parents, special educational needs coordinators and the host school so support plans are updated regularly, and have leaders spot weaknesses alongside staff development. Hygiene routines were inconsistent too, with children not always prompted to wash their hands before helping with the fruit.

The club operates from Christchurch C Of E Primary School, Lesney Park Road, Erith, Bexley DA8 3DG, takes children aged 4 to 11, and runs term time only. In March 2026 it opened Monday to Friday from 07:00 to 09:00, and again from 15:00 until 18:30. The March 2026 Ofsted record puts the club at 35 places in total, and both ends of the day happen where the child already is, removing the handover that makes wraparound care fragile. Prices come in the provider's own written quotation.

• Support for a child with additional needs. Inclusion was marked as needing attention in March 2026: staff knowledge of SEND was limited, targeted support was thin, and parents said they were not kept informed. Ask how the club now shares information with the school's special educational needs coordinator.
• A setting on the way up rather than a settled one. Leadership and governance also need attention, although leaders had dealt with the previous actions by March 2026. Worth pressing them on what changed after the two current actions fell due in April 2026.
• Term-time cover only. This is care wrapped around the school day for 4 to 11s, answering the term-time working week rather than the holidays.

For a family already at Christchurch C Of E Primary School this is the least disruptive childcare going, and the March 2026 report card gives it a base: safeguarding standards met, routines children follow, staff children like. It suits parents who need an early start before work, an after-school session running into the early evening, or both. It is a harder call where a child needs targeted support.