Junior section information

Whether you and your children are new to Radcliffe Olympic or have been coming down to our Saturday morning sessions for a while, we thought it’d be useful to have a list all in one place of frequently asked questions covering the various aspects of how we operate.

If there’s anything on here that we haven’t covered, please let us know!

FAQS

Scroll down for answers to the following questions:

-WHAT’S THE ETHOS OF THE RADCLIFFE OLYMPIC JUNIOR SECTION?

-WHAT TIME DO SESSIONS RUN ON A SATURDAY MORNING?

-WHAT DIFFERENT AGE GROUPS DO YOU RUN SESSIONS FOR?

-HOW DO I SIGN MY CHILD UP, HOW MUCH DO SESSIONS COST, AND HOW DO I PAY?

-WHERE DOES THE MONEY GO?

-WHAT DOES MY CHILD NEED TO BRING ON A SATURDAY?

-ARE YOUR COACHES QUALIFIED?

-WHAT MEASURES DO YOU HAVE IN PLACE TO KEEP CHILDREN SAFE?

-DO YOU HAVE ANY RULES ON BEHAVIOUR?

-HOW WILL YOU KEEP ME UP-TO-DATE?

-HOW CAN I GET INVOLVED?

-HOW DO I CONTACT YOU?

WHAT’S THE ETHOS OF THE RADCLIFFE OLYMPIC JUNIOR SECTION?

We are part of the overall Radcliffe Olympic Football Club, which has been running since 1876 – which makes us older than a lot of the teams in the English Premier League! We offer weekly coaching sessions on a Saturday morning to children from pre-school age to those in year three (ages 7 and 8). All boys and girls aged 4 to 8 are welcome, regardless of ability, where you live or what school you go to.

We run on a non profit-making basis, and all our coaches and staff are volunteers. The aim of our sessions is to provide a safe, fun, friendly and inclusive environment for young children to develop both their football and social skills.

Children finish being part of the junior section at the age of 8 - at the point when they finish year three at school - & many of those who wish to continue playing football move up and join a Radcliffe Olympic team, playing in the local intermediate leagues (often referred to as ‘inters’). To try and prepare them for this transition, we do a lot of work with our eldest groups in the junior section that's focused on getting them prepared for competitive football. As part of this we ability group them to ensure each child is playing football at a level with the right level of challenge.

WHAT TIME DO SESSIONS RUN ON A SATURDAY MORNING?

Our sessions run from 9.30 until 10.45 every Saturday morning on the all-weather football pitch at South Notts Academy (Glebe Road, Radcliffe-on-Trent, NG12 2FQ). The actual coaching runs from 9.30 to 10.30, and then we have a presentation at the end where prizes are given out – including ‘players of the day’ from each age group.

We run the sessions all-year round, but we do have a winter break – we usually have our final session of each calendar year in early December, before resuming again in February. We also don’t run a session on the August Bank Holiday weekend.

WHAT AGE GROUPS DO YOU RUN SESSIONS FOR?

On Saturday mornings we run sessions for four different age groups:

-for children who are in reception at school (plus pre-school children who have turned 4)
-for children who are in year one at school
-for children who are in year two at school
-for children who are in year three at school

All the groups are mixed between boys and girls. However, we do also run two girls-only groups – one for girls who are in years one and two, and one for girls who are in years three and four.

Our boys' year one, year two and year three groups are currently full.
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HOW DO I SIGN MY CHILD UP, HOW MUCH DO SESSIONS COST, AND HOW DO I PAY?

Each session costs £4, although new children are allowed to come along for a free trial. For them to sign up to attend regularly, you need to complete registration and pay a new starter registration fee of £15.

All new starters get a pair of shin pads and a branded Radcliffe Olympic water bottle.

In terms of paying for sessions, we ask parents to pay in advance for 10-week blocks. We only however charge for sessions attended. For instance, if you pay £40 in advance for 10 sessions but your child only attends 7, their ‘account’ will remain in credit by £12. If you’re not sure where you’re at with payments, come and talk to our volunteers on the registration desk – they’ll be able to check your account for you.

We administer all registrations and payments through an app called Teamo.

WHERE DOES THE MONEY GO?

All the money we receive through registration fees and weekly session fees goes back into the club – our overheads include pitch hire, equipment, ‘player of the day’ trophies, and the 10, 20 and 30 week prizes we award to children to reward commitment. Each year when we resume sessions after the winter break, the number of weeks that children have attended resets to 0.

WHAT DOES MY CHILD NEED TO BRING ON A SATURDAY?

Please ensure your child comes to sessions dressed appropriately for football and also the weather! They must wear shin pads for their safety. Please also make sure they bring a water bottle, and that they have sun cream on if the weather is sunny.

Please also make sure you check them in at the registration desk when you arrive – this is important from a safeguarding point of view. Also, if you don’t check them in, they might not be marked down as having attended, and as such will miss a week towards achieving their next 10/20/30 week prize.

ARE YOUR COACHES QUALIFIED?

As a minimum we ensure all our coaches have all completed safeguarding training. Many of our coaches also go on to complete the FA level 1 coaching qualification – which the club funds. We aim to ensure each group has a minimum of one FA qualified coach to lead the sessions.

WHAT MEASURES DO YOU HAVE IN PLACE TO KEEP CHILDREN SAFE?

Children’s welfare is of critical importance for us. All our coaches are DBS checked, and all of our level 1-qualified coaches have basic first aid training. As stated above, all of our coaches also have also completed the FA’s safeguarding training.

To help us keep everyone safe, we also have the following rules in place for our sessions:

-All kids to bring drinks and shin pads
-No smoking on site
-No dogs on site
-No boots with metal studs
-No eating on the playing surface
-No heading practice (in line with recent FA guidelines)
-For each child, a parent or guardian is required to stay on site for the duration of each session, to support their child in the event of injury or distress and to facilitate toilet trips.

Please let us know if your child has any medical conditions that we need to be aware and keep a record of e.g. if they have an epipen.

If you have any concerns that you would prefer to take outside of ROFC, then please contact the FA/NSPCC Child Helpline on 0808 800 5000.

DO YOU HAVE ANY RULES ON BEHAVIOUR?

We support the FA Code of Conduct, and we have also devised our own set of expectations to ensure our sessions are safe, fun and run smoothly... which we hope as parents and carers you’ll support us with.

These expectations apply to everyone involved – parents and carers, children and coaches.

For children:

-Try your best and have fun
-Play fairly – no cheating, complaining or wasting time
-Listen and follow instructions of the coaches
-Treat other players, coaches and referees with respect
-Talk to one of our coaches or someone you trust if you’re unhappy about anything at the club
-Look after the school property and training equipment

For the parents/carers:

-Keep off the playing surface whilst coaching is taking place
-Be encouraging, and applaud during the prize-giving at the end of the session
-Please respect all our volunteers, who are giving their free time to support the club
-Whilst it is fine for you to take a photo of your own child, for instance if they are chosen for a player of the day trophy, do not take photos of any other children (some of our members are not consented for having their photo taken, and in some cases this may be for sensitive safeguarding reasons)

For coaches and volunteers:

-Act as positive role models
-Place wellbeing, safety and enjoyment above everything
-Promote fair play and high standards of behaviour
-Adhere to the laws and spirit of the game
-Ensure all activities are appropriate for players’ ability/age

In order to ensure the smooth running of our sessions, we may at times need to deal with disruptive behaviour. Our coaches are briefed on a process which we feel is fair and which we aim to consistently apply across all our age groups:

Step 1 : Child taken to one side by the coach – spoken to 1 on 1 about the behaviour causing an issue and told that the next time will mean sitting out

Step 2 : Child is asked to sit out – with the coach explaining this is what was made clear as the consequence in step 1

Step 3 : If after returning to the field the child continues with the disruptive behaviour, the child's parent/carer will be asked to take the child home

HOW WILL YOU KEEP ME UP-TO-DATE?

We use several channels to keep parents up-to-date – for instance, if we need to cancel a session at short notice due to extreme weather. These channels include our Facebook page, and also parent/carer WhatsApp groups for each of our age groups. If you’re not part of the WhatsApp group for your child’s age group, please let us know and we can arrange for you to be added.

HOW CAN I GET INVOLVED?

We are always keen to hear from parents and carers who would like to get involved in what we do. That could be helping with coaching, or whether you have any other type of skills you could offer to help us – whether that be being part of our committee, helping out on our front desk on Saturday mornings, or helping out with events or fundraising.

If you’d like to get involved, simply come and have a word with any of our existing coaches or volunteers or drop us a line at rofcjuniors@gmail.com .

HOW DO I CONTACT YOU?

You can get in touch with us via our email address. Or come and have a word with any of our existing coaches or volunteers on a Saturday morning.