Holiday Club 2018
On Tuesday 24 July, after months of planning and preparation, our annual three-week Holiday Club set off in full swing with an exciting and brimming programme of activities. In total, 31 children and young people with special needs took part, supported by 40 local volunteers and a dedicated team of 17 Leaders and Assistant leaders.
Week one saw drumming, craft and basket weaving, circus skills, singing, clay and foam modelling and even science experiments our school base, while trips took the group out to swimming and ice skating. Our third day saw temperatures reaching 33°C when we were enjoying a day of outdoor activities at Caldecotte Xperience, including archery, bush craft, climbing and zorbing. Because of the heat we returned to our school base at lunch for an afternoon of crafting animal masks to parade around the grounds followed by an ice cream (or two!).
Dance, drama and music saw to the beginning of week two, getting everyone up, moving and grooving, before splashing around in the pool for the afternoon. The musical theme remained for day two with a visit from Soundhoppers and their interactive workshop bring us lots of unusual instruments. Then we spent the afternoon at Thomley Activity Centre getting up to all sorts, including a bubble workshop, trampolining, pizza making, creating in the craft room, relaxing in the sensory room, chilling out in the teenage den and lots of fun outdoors on the adaptable bikes. We ended the week with a morning trip to the cinema to see ‘Despicable Me 2’ in a lights-up, sound-down, autism-friendly showing, with the whole auditorium to ourselves! Our afternoon was spent skiing at The Snow Centre in Hemel, requiring a lot of concentration to stay balanced and upright! Thanks to the dedicated instructors there were some very high achievers, and the use of the sit-ski enabled both those in a wheelchair those who are a little unstable on their feet to achieve the exhilaration of speed – hold onto you bobble hats!
And we kicked off our third and final week in style by heading to Big Rock for a morning of scaling a range of walls, each with a slightly different challenge. Many young people reached right to the top, and some went up and down and least 6 times! Swimming in the afternoon had a somewhat different pace and it was lovely to cool off in the pool. We stayed at our base for the morning of the second day to enjoy football skills, fondant making and a DJ workshop before returning to Xscape’s Snozone for some exhilarating tobogganing. Our final day of week three, and indeed our final day of Holiday Club 2018 was spent back at Caldecotte, but this time on the lake. The group got to have a go at sailing, canoeing, paddle-boarding and kayaking, and a turn on the lugger boat. But the star of attraction was the new, fully accessible ‘Wheelyboat’, the region’s first specially adapted power boat, which meant everyone could have a ride in a thrilling and really, really fast boat, making waves across the entire lake! And some even had an opportunity to drive!
We celebrated our Holiday Club with our annual party day on Thursday 9 August, and despite the drizzle, everyone remained in high spirits as they came together to meet each other and their families, take part in the activities and share a lovely lunch. The steel band, petting zoo, drumming workshop and magic show were all great crowd pleasers. And not forgetting a yummy ice cream to round off the festivities.
We hope everyone involved this year had a brilliant time; we certainly did! But the main question is, will you be joining us next year?
