Behind the Inspection Rating: Out-of-school club earns its stripes

When it comes to encouraging good behaviour, Cat Hirst can sum up the approach of the out-of-school club she manages in a single word: Buddies. Buddies, she explains, are why Ofsted’s latest inspection deemed the behaviour of children at Badgers Out of School Sett “exemplary”.

The approach is simple but effective. Before a child starts at Mickle Trafford Primary School, which doubles up as the club’s home, they are paired with a year five or six pupil who becomes their buddy.

“The buddies are there when they first enter the school to spend some time with them and that continues in the club,” says Hirst. “It’s daunting starting school and then going to an out-of-school club with a whole new load of children. But 99 per cent of the time their buddies will also be in the club as well so they have consistency with them. We brought in the buddies because we found some children were a bit upset at the end of the school day, but having that familiar face there helped settle them down a lot.”

The older children are keen to be buddies too. “They are so willing to be helpful with the younger ones,” she says. “You don’t have to ask for it to be done, they love being the older role model. They thrive on the responsibility. I think that’s why the behaviour here has improved so much over the past couple of years. When they get to years five and six they want to show you how good they are at being buddies because they’ve been looking at the older children thinking ‘I’ll be doing that next year’.”

Behaviour is not the only thing that has improved at Badgers. In fact the whole setting has improved, moving up from the satisfactory rating Ofsted gave it four years ago to good.

One aspect of the club that impressed the