We had two visitors to open evening last night - a 14 year old and his mum - sorry I didn’t get their names - looking for somewhere he can do electronics. Talking to them and seeing a similar post on here this morning about a 13 year old made me realise there is a bit of a gap for this age group. South London Raspberry Jam goes up to age 15 and we start at 18. It got me wondering if we should try to organise something for people in this age group who aren’t looking for a casual beginners workshop but for somewhere they can bring & develop their projects and work on stuff collaboratively in the same way adult members do. Maybe we could host a drop-in session during the school holidays? Or does this already exist somewhere? Any thoughts? @electrotechs
Electronics for 13-18 year olds?
We had a lot of Kids coming in during the Arduino Day, there is a lot to talk about, like:
When , who and how we manage that?
How we ensure that the SLMS is kid safe?
Do we need DBS check for the adults presents?
How we cover a different bracket age?
I’m interested in helping this happen. I actually have an enhanced DBS check, and perhaps others will have too? I’d be happy to try and get something happening one day next week, but I’d be more capable of helping beginners and younger ones with stuff like scratch and probably some pi projects. We have an 8 year old girl. I would also happily be present so older and more experienced young people could get on with a project.
That sounds great. Maybe we could do one Saturday morning a month, with no particular age restrictions, but mainly aimed at under 18s with a serious interest in electronics / coding. My son is nearly 7 and has just started playing around with scratch. I have zero skills in this area but do have a DBS check and would be happy to co-host once a month and would bring my son along too. I might even learn something myself!
It’s true there are lots of considerationsfor keeping everyone safe. Would we require parents to stay too? (Maybe say parents should stay for under 12s? We don’t want it to turn into free childcare!) What are the legal considerations re who is responsible for who?
Indeed. for various reasons.
This is absolutely something I would love to do and support (on the list of how I’m going to keep busy when I win the lotto 
)
Unfortunately my weekday time is almost zero so I could only really do a weekend.
Like the idea of a Saturday PM once a month or similar…
I’ve also been approached on a couple of occasions with people asking where they should go so it’s defo has legs…
I believe we’re ok for kids to be unaccompanied if we have one ‘leader’ with a full DBS (preferably female) and the rules then state that this person is the designated carer for all things pastoral…(Inc toilet stops !) also I believe the DBS checks are not transferrable.
If we can’t garentee this then they must be accompanied.
Courty
Most DBS don’t seem to be transferable. But if someone could find out for sure that would be great.
Makerspace could organise DBS for a couple of members.
13 to 18 year olds may be reluctant to have a parent with them!
We’ve been approached by ‘Mr C’ about a similar scheme with RasPi, I’ll paste some details later. Might be worth tying it all together?
Great! I had a feeling you would be up for this Courty!
That sounds like the policy they follow at my sons school re DBS checks. Anyone can help in a classroom or on a trip, you just can’t be alone with a child or supervise toilet visits. @directors what is the official view on this?
To avoid it becoming chaotic, maybe we could say it’s primarily aimed at (say) 14-18 year olds, but younger children with a serious interest are also welcome if accompanied by a parent / guardian?
Sounds great!
We have some people at the football club who have 3 or 4 DBS checks. The system is terrible and not very flexible
Courty
I’ve found schools to be spectacularly inconsistent on DBS checks. But the system your son’s school follows seems to be the most sensible
An enhanced DBS check should be enough. We would have to look into ratios for the age group. I’d love to do this one Saturday a month! My DBS check is with the woodcraft folk and soon will also be as a STEM ambassador. Both are volunteer roles with kids of all ages.
Just to reiterate, with the enhanced check, you could be alone with a child but actually most safeguarding policies state that you should always aim to be with another adult when accompanying a child any place, or you need to tell another adult. I’d be happy to go over some safeguarding policies and even check out some documentation we could use if we go ahead with something.
Brilliant! 
my understanding is that you can agree to have your DBS transferred, but the organisation you’re transferring it to, must also have made an application.
DBS is a living nightmare to administrate though.
As soon as I’ve sorted out a few more steps, I’ll be able to register for the update service. This apparently makes a DBS certificate transferable, but you’re right, there are some hoops to jump through.
I’ll look into it properly this afternoon but I’m pretty sure there’s a way to make it work.
https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service
The webpage gives information about the workplace, but I have found this regarding organisations and volunteering:
'Using a DBS from another organisation
To use an existing DBS from another organisation the individual must be registered with the DBS update service. By registering with this service as soon as you receive your DBS certificate you will not have to make future applications so long as your circumstances do not change. ’
I’m hoping/planning that lowering the barriers to making by various outreach projects such as this will be a strong feature of the Space as we mature.
So if we don’t have enough members with DBS checks then we’ll get the admin side sorted from here.
Also feels like time we brew up a safeguarding policy?
Yes, sounds perfect. As I mentioned, unless you have someone who usually deals with this, or someone who does it regularly for work or something, I’d be happy to write up a safeguarding procedure.
So w.r.t. safeguarding etc - CodeClub stipulates you must have the DBS check done through STEMnet if you want to run a club. (side note, Code Club is totally a thing we should do). Makes administration way easier on their side.
I wonder whether something like this would be good to talk to STEM about - they might be up for helping in some way? From what I remember the E(ngingeering) and M(aths) parts are often in high demand.