ℕ𝕖𝕨𝕤 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕦𝕡𝕕𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕤
Easter Fun 2024!
Sunday, April 21, 2024 by Sam McCormick | Holiday Activities
Children from Spennymoor, Newton Aycliffe and the surrounding areas have been enjoying Easter activity sessions packed full of making new friends, learning new skills, and having lots of fun.
We welcomed school aged children to six sessions during the holidays. It was lovely to meet some new children as well as welcoming back those we had met before. Our leaders were particularly proud of how children familiar with the service welcomed those attending for the first time, and all the children showed kindness and encouragement to each other.
Every four-hour session was jam-packed with fun things to do, and the weather was just about kind enough for the children to have some brilliant time outside enjoying a range of activities. Spennymoor children explored their surroundings on a scavenger hunt and a trip to the park, whilst Newton Aycliffe children splashed through muddy puddles on one of their walks.
When the weather wasn’t so kind, indoor games were the order of the day as well as a choice of creative activities, including making spring pictures, cress heads, decorating tea light holders, windchimes and making (rather fiddly) dangly leg sheep! We also had some fabulous creations during our Lego challenges.
All the children enjoyed a meal and snacks during each session. The ‘make your own’ lunch station was a particular hit in Spennymoor, with children able to try new foods and learn food preparation skills. In Aycliffe the budding chefs tried their hands at making their own pizza, followed by a fruity pudding!
Across the six sessions we provided 111 meals, of these 75 meals were provided to children in receipt of benefit related free school meals (funded via Durham County Council) and 36 to children, whose parents had paid a small fee for their child to attend as they did not meet criteria for a free place. We were able to subsidise the cost of the paid places using National Lottery funding, working to ensure children did not miss out.
We asked parents and children for their feedback on the sessions and we received some wonderful comments, we don’t have room here to share them, but one that made us really smile was from a parent who told us their daughter was….’so happy, she said “I would like to be there every time when it's available”, she loved it so much, thanks to you all, to make my kids happy and feel like heaven.’
The table below gives a summary of how the sessions helped…
We would like to say a big thank you to all the families and children that helped to make the sessions such a success, and our funders too, Durham County Council and the National Lottery.
