Ballymena School Pickup Service | Ladybirds After School Club

One of the questions we're asked most often is a simple one: do you pick up from my child's school?

Here's the full list, along with what happens between the school bell and you finishing work.

The eight schools we collect from

• Ballykeel Primary School

• Carnaughts Primary School

• St Brigid's Primary School

• Broughshane Primary School

• Braidside Integrated Primary School

• Camphill Primary School

• Diamond Primary School

• Gracehill Primary School

If your child attends one of these, we can collect them. If your child's school isn't on the list, still get in touch. Routes do change, and if there's demand from a school we don't currently serve, we want to know about it.

How the collection works

Our staff are at the school at the end of the day. Children are checked off against a register at the school gate and checked in again on arrival at Seven Towers Leisure Centre, so there's never a point in the journey where we're unsure who's with us.

Staff collecting children are known to the schools and to the children. We're not sending an unfamiliar face to the gate.

If your child is off sick or being collected by you that day, you let us know and they simply come off the register for the afternoon.

What happens when they arrive

Straight in, coats hung up, snack. Then homework time with staff on hand to help, and after that the afternoon is theirs for play, games, crafts and general carry-on with their friends.

Pick up any time up to 6pm. No rushing, no standing in a car park at 5.55pm feeling guilty.

Children from eight schools, one club

Something we didn't fully anticipate when the club started is how much children get out of mixing across schools. A child from Gracehill ends up best friends with a child from Ballykeel. They'd never have met otherwise.

For quieter children in particular, having a second social circle outside their classroom can be enormous. It's a fresh start every afternoon, with a different group, in a place where nobody has a fixed idea of who they are.

Booking a place

Places are allocated by day and we hold a set capacity, so popular days can fill up, especially in September when a new P1 intake arrives.

If you'd like a place for the coming term, or want to be added to the list for a school we don't currently collect from, get in touch.

Ladybirds After School Club Seven Towers Leisure Centre, Ballymena Term time: Monday–Friday, 2pm–6pm info@ladybirdsafterschool.com | www.ladybirdsafterschool.com