Removing barriers to affordable holiday activities for children (particularly in summer)

Hi everyone, this is just to remind you to remember to visit the Holiday Activities Pilot pages in the Learning Exchange Library - the link to your page is at the top of the list.
We'll add material, resources, news items and examples of good practice as they emerge throughout the pilot. Looking forward to seeing you sharing your ideas and questions here! 

Hi there, what LA'a are involved in the pilot?

Thanks Marian, I've made a note to ask Norfolk colleagues about this at the next regional meeting. I deliver holiday programmes throughout the year to my schools and would like to know more!

I'm Simon Bradley and I'm working with Walsall as their Continyou consultant on the holiday activities pilot.

I'm particularly interested in good practice relating to Family Information Services.  How can this be developed to engage more fully with parents/carers in order to encourage them to use holiday activities?  The sufficiency assessment in the Black Country shows that uptake of childcare is significantly lower than the national average and I was hoping for a few pointers.

 

Simon hi!

Interestingly when I was at my previous LA we worked very very closely with the FIS to ensure parents, children and young people could access the info about our huge summer activity programme.

The FIS were involved at the very beginning before we had even set the summer programme and came to meetings we held with providers.

They worked with us on the booklets that went to every single school age child in the town informing them of what was available in the summer. These went out in June through schools. The FIS had links on their website too. This year so I hear the FIS have taken most of the responsibility for the organising the programme and producing the booklet.

Some of the schools and childrens centres have the Parent Information Point pods so they can touch the scrfeen to find activities etc.

Jo

Thanks for that Jo.

Coincidentally I was talking with a consultant today who was particularly exercised about the fact that FIS in some instances were data rich in terms of sufficiency audits etc but information poor in the quality of their signposting.

This was particularly true in her view of info that was supplied to parents of disabled children.  Your experience was clearly not like this.

Thanks so much for responding

Simon

Thanks Paddy

Hi, I'm Vivien and I'm the Regional Development Manager for London. I support the Holiday Activities Pilots in Sutton and Ealing and  work alongside Jacqui Leith from 4Children, who supports Lambeth. Last week we held an early sharing event where all three London boroughs shared their projects and everyone found this really useful and interesting.

With regard to the TES article about schools staying open this summer, no teacher should be pressured into giving up their holiday time, but if teachers choose to work, then that should be their own decision if the oppotunity arises. In my early days of teaching, summer playschemes and holiday revision courses were a means of supplementing my income. The best school schemes often had a mixture of school teaching and non-teaching staff, parents and local community members working on the schemes. What do you think? 

Hi, I'm Vivien and I'm the Regional Development Manager for London. I support the Holiday Activities Pilots in Sutton and Ealing and  work alongside Jacqui Leith from 4Children, who supports Lambeth. Last week we held an early sharing event where all three London boroughs shared their projects and everyone found this really useful and interesting.

With regard to the TES article about schools staying open this summer, no teacher should be pressured into giving up their holiday time, but if teachers choose to work, then that should be their own decision if the oppotunity arises. In my early days of teaching, summer playschemes and holiday revision courses were a means of supplementing my income. The best school schemes often had a mixture of school teaching and non-teaching staff, parents and local community members working on the schemes. What do you think? 

I've got to agree with this Viv and Marian.  It has to be a balance though and there have to be protocols for working together.  The experts are often the providers, the school staff are very useful in if you like being a body.  there also has to be equality of pay scales.  Interestingly, Walsall is seeking to provide a staffing agency in conjuinction with a local university Campus to porvide young and enthusiastic undegraduates ready with training and CRB to staff summer holiday provision and to add to their CV with valuable work experience.

Hi I'm Linda Crayton and I am a Community Development Worker I am in the last week of a month long summer activity programme.

It has been open to year 6 through to 11 and adults. Its the first time the school has done this and I was concerned that numbers would be low. I spoke in assenblies, at parents evenings, at local community events etc but still did not get the numbers I would have liked. However, the numbers have increased throughout the weeks and I have some brilliant photo's that can be used for next years publicity.

The intergenerational aspect has worked really well. Our oldest was participant was 84 years and made cards with youngsters of 10years. Daily evaluations show all have enjoyed it and had fun within the groups.

Year 10 & 11 have not accessed at all so perhaps they would prefer to act as assistants rather than feel they are partaking in a school activity. 

Have to get back to it now - Fencing, archery and arts and craft timetabled for this afternoon. 

Linda Crayton's project sounds excellent.  The intergenerational stuff could be further developed via the model proposed through National Citizen's Service.  There's also some good video extracts on Teacher's TV about intergenerational projects.  what was good to see about Linda's scheme was that numbers built up during the month.  It's clear that word of mouth is important but it's also clear that quality provision is the way to generate the sutainability that comes with numbers.