August 9th-15th Highlights

Posted: 16th August 2021

Science was the hot topic in a lot of our groups last week which made for a lot of fun for the children and young people at SELFA as you may have seen on our social media channels. It wasn’t all science however, with other groups having a great time with many unique activities. Read on to find out all about what went on at SELFA last week. 

Starting off with our Youth group, they got to enjoy a scenic train ride to Airebounce Trampoline Park in Bradford thanks to Northern Rail who have been so supportive of SELFA’s summer activities already. We are so lucky receive the help that we do from some big and amazing organisations! Once the group got to the trampoline park, they had the best day ever. The bouncing put smiles on the faces of everyone and with so many of them doing rebound therapy across the last term, going back to the trampoline was welcomed by all!

One of our other youth groups was sports leaders who were our latest group to enjoy a trip to the Skipton Fire Station. The group were lucky enough to learn all about what the life of a fireman looks like as they had a go at all of the duties that a fireman must go through when doing their job. The whole group got stuck in to the activity and had a great time. The fire station has been fantastic to all of our groups so far this summer holidays and we can’t wait to go back and visit in the future.

For our other two youth groups, they were back to their ongoing summer projects. Up first, our North Craven Youth group continued to work on their John Muir award with as they completed a 2 mile hike along the Bentham Heritage trail. As the group was walking along the trail, they had a think about what they liked about it and what they think might improve it. This is a major part of their award as it is all about improving our local community and the nature within it and so, to see them thinking about changes so freely means that they have learnt so much already!

Our second youth group that were continuing their ongoing project was Girls Rock as they got back to their DJ workshops with DJ NikNak. Last week, there was a smaller group which meant that the girls could get some more in depth feedback about how they can improve their DJ technique which really helped them out! The group also had some time to be mindful; with our staff member Karen providing a wonderful mindfulness session for the Girls Rock group. 

After finishing their puppet themed stay & play sessions, our SEND group had a new focus last week as they were getting involved in our healthy eating summer holidays. The group got to make smoothies with our healthy foods coordinator, Nichola. The children and their families had a great time and loved watching the fruit get blended. For many of the children, they have never had the opportunity to make or even try smoothies which made it our absolute pleasure to provide them with this first time experience. 

Our SEND group and their families also get to go on a trip each week alongside their stay and play sessions and this week, the group got to go to Eureka! in Halifax. Eureka! is a wonderful museum made for children and the SELFA children had a great time there. They got to experience history, art and science in the interactive museum which made for a great day out for the children, their families and our staff. 

One of our 8-11’s group were fortunate to have a bike session with Claire and Becky from Hope Academy. They provided us with top spec bikes bikes so that all of the children could take part in the session. The children learnt vital bike skills like braking and manoeuvring corners. The children also learnt a lot about the different parts of the bikes so that they can understand how they work which may be important if they are out on a bike ride and something goes wrong. To end the session the children also got to take part in a bit of friendly competition as they did some ramp and balance tests to see what they had learnt in the session. This session created a star of the week for SELFA as Logan pushed himself to learn how to ride a bike for the first time as well as teaching other children how to play chess. What a star.

Over at our other primary groups Science was the main topic at hand for the children as they got enjoy all of the wonderful experiments that our staff member Laura brought in. Laura led these sessions expertly well and the children absolutely loved it. They learnt so much which is always an added bonus! As well as these group experiments, the primary groups also got to go to the Strong Woman Science Show which was an interactive show where the children got to try even more fun science activities as well as watching how the professionals did it. We had a great week of science and can’t wait for this new week at SELFA!

Our Star of The Week, Logan!