Upset As Ofsted Close Workshops Down At My Little Play Place
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00:00My name's Alice, I am the founder of My Little Play Place.
00:04And I am Jessica and I am the owner of Aspired Dance Company which runs at My Little Play Place.
00:10I opened My Little Play Place on the 14th of August this year.
00:13The project took us around 15 weeks from the day I got the keys.
00:18So we've been open just shy of three months.
00:20We are a children's role play centre.
00:22We offer fitness classes for mums so their children can play supervised
00:27whilst they invest in themselves and take a fitness class.
00:30We also have a wellness cafe and I'm also on board with Aspire.
00:35So we offer dance classes and holiday camps.
00:38Aspire has been running for about a year now and we've just recently moved here.
00:41And it's been absolutely amazing.
00:43We've loved our dance classes here and the kids love it and the mums love the cafe.
00:47So the kids can come and have a dance class and the parents can have a little bite to eat and a coffee.
00:52So it's lovely, it's worked really well.
00:54Aspired Dance Company are holding holiday camps here for our business.
00:59Me and Alice had a really lovely conversation in a meeting about holding holiday camps here for the children.
01:06And on the morning of the holiday camp Ofsted came and shut us down basically.
01:12So the kids had to go home and we were absolutely devastated.
01:16It's just something that we don't fathom.
01:18Ofsted came unfortunately due to a complaint.
01:22We don't know who that is but it's just one of those things and we were absolutely gutted.
01:27So when me and Alice met we had all of our ducks in order, we did our research.
01:33I've been in the teaching industry for nearly eight years now and you've been in this sort of business for a long time.
01:40We spoke to Ofsted on the phone and asked if we had everything in place and we had the go ahead.
01:45So under our knowledge we were fine to go and there's lots of holiday camps in Shropshire that run just the same as we do.
01:54The research is out there, you can do holiday clubs as long as they're offering performing arts and arts and crafts and that's exactly what we did.
02:02And we explained that to Ofsted when they came.
02:05We had all of the documentation, risk assessments, everything that was needed to be in place.
02:11But unfortunately they just didn't want to hear it and they definitely come with a loaded gun.
02:19It's absolutely devastating, we just didn't fathom this happening because it just doesn't happen.
02:25With regards to the holiday camps singularly, children need to be able to come to places and feel safe and well nurtured whilst their parents work.
02:35And I think parents really struggle, particularly in the local community, to find affordable holiday workshops, something that's accessible for everybody.
02:43And that's why our price point was one of the lowest in the areas.
02:46We weren't here to make money, we were here to be a pillar in the community and offer something that is so desperately needed.
02:53With regards to our customer base, they've been absolutely fantastic haven't they?
03:00We decided to put a video online just to explain the scenario, we didn't want to hide away from the problem, we wanted to face it head on.
03:06And with that we have been supported in an overwhelming way by so many people that have visited me and the people that come to your classes.
03:16And it's emotional to see that many people support us.
03:21The last few days have been really hard but this last day has been really encouraging hasn't it?
03:26And that's exactly what we all needed I think.
03:29We just go on, we crack on and we try harder and we just do what we carry on doing.
03:34Just offering an amazing service for the children and for the parents.
03:39We've got a Christmas workshop coming up so we're already planning that together aren't we?
03:44And we've just come back bigger and stronger.
03:48I would like to stress that we have lodged a formal complaint with Ofsted.
03:51They have heard from us and we will continue to pursue some type of justice because we feel that we've been extremely mistreated.