Camp notes

My name is Ali Kahn, and I am the Director of Big Comedy Shop.

Below is all the information you need to know about Big Comedy Shop and what we do at our Holiday Comedy Club days. Please do have a thorough read through it all.

BIT OF BACKGROUND:

Big Comedy Shop runs Improvisation Comedy After School Clubs in several primary schools in Manchester. We also deliver bespoke comedy issue-based workshops in primary and high schools as well as our run Holiday Comedy Club days.

Big Comedy Shop was founded in 2007 by Ali Kahn who is an award-winning comedy actor and writer whose work includes being a series regular in CBBC comedy 'Still So Awkward' and a main cast member in series 6 of CBBC comedy sketch show ‘Class Dismissed’ and a guest star in series 2 of ‘Andy and the Band’. All are available to watch on BBC i player.

FACILITATORS:

At Big Comedy Shop we have several brilliant, funny experienced comedy drama facilitators who are all professional comedy performers as well having a background working with children. Every facilitator has an enhanced DBS and sense of humour!

Here are the mobile numbers for our facilitators that will be delivering our Summer Holiday Comedy Club days:

Aug 16th, 17th, 18th
Charlotte: 07383 620236
Layla: 07938 596568

Aug 23rd, 24th, 25th
Jade: 07582 732206

WHAT HAPPENS AT OUR HOLIDAY COMEDY CLUB DAYS?

At Holiday Comedy Club, we use comedy as a way of getting creative, playing, and learning about ourselves as well as performance technique.

Available for young people aged 6-12 our groups will take part in a drama style workshop where we focus on the funny, whilst creating comedy characters and sketches rather than stand-up comedy.

We use improvisation games and exercises to focus on being in the moment, building resilience and increasing the confidence of our students all through a comedic lens and storytelling.

We encourage children to express themselves and share their observations of the world in a safe and fun environment.

Our sessions are filled with fun games and comedy drama techniques where we learn, develop, and show our work back to one another: therefore team work is a big part of what we do.

Every day at our Holiday Comedy Club we cover different content so your children can attend any number of days.

We ask that you please do not send your children in to our sessions should they have any Covid symptoms or test positive for Covid.


COLLECTING AND DROPPING OFF AND TIMES:

Children will be met by our facilitators in the Underhall room which is the first room on the right as you enter the Stretford Public Hall building.

We ask that you do not drop your children off before 10.20am if starting at 10.30am.

If an early drop off please do not drop off before 8.25am.

Whether your child / children are collected at 3.30pm or you book for a late pick up time of 5pm we ask that you please be on time.

For our Early Drop Offs and Late Pick Ups, there are a limited number of places available.

During these extended times (8.30am-10.30am and 3.30pm-5pm) your children will have a more relaxed experience where they will get to participate in Comedy games and some arts based and writing options will also be available.

The main bulk of the day will take place from 10.30am-3.30pm each day.

Should you be running late if you could please ring one of the facilitators who will be running that day.

We ask that if you are collecting your child and park in the car park that you please come and physically get them rather than them walking to the car park to see if you have arrived as we can't see the car park from the main entrance.

Please see the venue notes section for information on parking and the venue itself.

PACKED LUNCH, SNACKS AND DRINKS:

All children must bring their own packed lunches and snacks and drink too please and they will not be allowed to share any of these with anyone else.

We have a NO NUTS POLICY to protect any students from allergies.

We will not be providing any drink or snacks.

Please provide a water bottle which we will make sure is topped up throughout the day.

There is an opportunity to purchase a drink or snack from Victoria Park Cafe whilst we visit it after lunch so please feel free to provide your child with some spending money should they wish to buy anything as some children do this.

TRIP TO THE VICTORIA PARK AT LUNCHTIME:

Weather permitting the group will be taken for a post lunch walk and visit to Victoria Park in Stretford which is a few minutes walk away.

Please get in touch if you have any issue with this.

SHARING IS CARING:

It would be great if you please share the news about Holiday Comedy Club with your children's friends' parents on any social media or parent WhatsApp groups you may be part of. Word of mouth really does help, and we would very much appreciate it.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS:

Please read through the Terms and Conditions below for our Holiday Comedy Club.

- Your booking will not be confirmed until payment has been received using your Class 4 Kids account or via direct bank transfer.
- Please note that you can book for any number of days and that when it says on the system that you have booked for “a week” it is referring to a booking for the full 3 days of the week and NOT the 5 day week of Monday-Friday.
- Big Comedy Shop or any of their team are not responsible for any loss or injury during a session.
- Big Comedy Shop reserve the right to remove from our sessions, without refund, anyone who is found to be bullying, misbehaving, or displaying disruptive behaviour.
- You must declare all medical conditions during registration and keep us up to date should this change by emailing bigcomedyshop@hotmail.co.uk or calling Ali on 07793 956228.
- You must declare if you do not give permission for your child to be photographed / filmed for marketing use and keep us up-to-date should this change using the given email address or phone number.
- By making a booking you are giving permission for your child to be brought to Victoria Park during lunchtime (after the group have eaten, and weather permitting). Please get in touch if you have an issue with this.
- Parents / Guardians should ensure prompt collection of their children at the end of each day at 3.30pm or at 5pm is a late pick up.
-Please get in touch if you know you will be running late. Phone numbers of all our facilitators are available above.

BIG COMEDY SHOP’S REFUND POLICY:

We understand that plans change, so please review the following information before registering so you're aware of your commitment to Big Comedy Shop.

We use bookings to predict whether a Holiday Comedy Club day will happen or not, so last-minute student cancellations can impact other students enrolled in the session as well as our facilitators who are planning to teach. We also have to make payments upfront to the venue.

Therefore please note that payments are non-refundable once made and this includes if your child is unwell.

• We don't issue refunds for missed sessions due to your own circumstances.

• If a session needs to be cancelled on the day itself for example due to the unexpected illness of a club facilitator, we will notify you as soon as possible and a refund will be given for the session missed.

We've created the behaviour policies below to be fair to everyone involved in our sessions:

Behaviour Policy:
Comedy Club is a heavily interactive activity that is based on working in pairs and groups, therefore how children behave and treat one another is imperative to the success of our sessions. We will always try and be as inclusive as we can be however, our facilitators are not specialised in working with children with additional needs. If your child has additional needs or any behavioural issues, we ask that you please inform us in as much detail as possible beforehand.

Workshop Disruption:
Big Comedy Shop facilitators will liaise with Director Ali Kahn and notify of any students struggling with behaviour at our Holiday Comedy Club days.

Examples of class disruption are students who are severely off task, bothering other students, being too continuously noisy, overly physical etc.

We will contact you regarding the situation so you can address the issue with your child. After that, if your child is booked to attend further days at our Holiday Comedy Club and a behaviour issue continues, we will contact you regarding withdrawal from the day with no refund.

Extreme Behaviour:
In the case of extreme physical or abusive behaviour towards another member of the group or facilitators (hitting, kicking, fighting, screaming, etc), your child would need to be removed from the session with no refund.

Many thanks and we look forward to some fun comedy shenanigans!

All the best

Ali
Director of Big Comedy Shop
07793 956228 (mobile)
01942 556006 (office)
Facebook & Instagram: @bigcomedyshopuk.