12th January 2023
The Youth Council provides an opportunity for young people to be involved in shaping SELFA, and to be active in making change happen in the local community on issues that matter to them. The group is user-led and champions youth voice and participation.
22nd November 2022
At SELFA this week, we have been spending most of week 4 with Nick and Joe from Project Wild!
We’ve spent time meeting some Animals and learning about them. We also learnt about sustainability and the environment.
We also had a trip to S and B Sensory for our SEND families, as well a trip into the forest. Our Wellness group also had a visit to Eshton Grange.
22nd November 2022
Santa is coming to SELFA on 16th December for our Christmas Party!
Join us from 4:30pm until 6:30pm at Ings CP School and we hope to see you there!
To RSVP, please email nicole.morgan@selfa.org.uk.
We hope to see everyone there!
5th September 2022
We’ve had a very busy summer holidays. Here’s just some of the things that we have done:
We’ve been to Grassington Woods, Cleatop Woods, Austwick, Malaham Tarn and Janets Foss. We’ve been to Forest School in Skipton Woods, played football at Sandylands and done team building at Nell Bank as well as walking the Ingleton Waterfalls trail.
We’ve been swimming at Ingleton Lido, Ilkley Lido, craven Leisure and Play away at Eshton Grange. We’ve been to the Fire Station, and a whole bunch of activities at Skipton Town Hall, including a Silent Rave!
We’ve been to Whitby and Morcombe. Had fun at some farms, including Hill Top Farm and Hesketh Farm and had visits from Hart Animals and Project: Wild. We’ve been to Ponderosa Zoo, and Lakeland Wildlife Oasis.
We’ve tie-dyed and crafted, had water fights and a bouncy castle!
We’ve visited Cliffe Castle and explored Skipton Castle. Been bowling and played pool at the Matrix. Played Laser Tag, been trampolining, and to the Royal Armories Museum as well as MathsCity.
We’ve been the Driving Range, Aireville Park, the Pirate Park and Ilkley Park.
It’s been an amazing jam packed six weeks and we’ve enjoyed every day!
8th August 2022
On the 26th of August there will be a fundraiser for SELFA outside of Rackham’s on the High Street in Skipton.
Please come along for your chance to win some fantastic prizes, and donate to SELFA!
18th October 2021
As we go into our final week before the October half-term, we must first reflect on SELFA’s incredible week that has just passed. We begin with SELFA Starters who’s focus was all about science. The group is now working towards their CREST Award which involves completing a range of scientific experiments; the first one being the sink or float challenge. The group were tasked with predicting which items would sink and which would float and the group were amazing with their predictions and got so many right!
Over at one of the other younger groups, we have Smile Project who got the wonderful opportunity to Zoom call some of our friends at Ashfield Care Home. We got to chat about how days went and we even got to sing some of our favourite nursery rhymes together which was so much fun!
We also had an old group return last week as Families Together Mindful made a return. The group spent the sessions getting to know the other members in the group and then went on to a creative activity where they made a collage of themselves so that they could show everyone else more about their hobbies and interests.
As you may have seen from our social media posts last week, our Thrive group were fortunate enough to be treated to a trip to the local allotment with volunteer Joel who was so kind to show the children all of the wonderful things that we can do with an allotment. The children can so much fun and we bet they can’t wait to visit again.
We now move on to our older primary school group as SELFA active took part in some mindfulness exploration before learning a new skill which was frisbee! The children worked super hard to ensure that they understood the technique that was required to succeed in the skill. In the end the children were able to throw and catch wonderfully well and now they can safely safe they have learnt a brand new skill!
The welcome Amal event is coming up soon and Champs have been preparing hard to ensure that they are ready for when it comes around. Last week to prepare, they created journey sticks and banners. This means that SELFA and Skipton will be ready for when the event passes through.
We now move on to our final primary school group as the year 6’s in Inspire joined forces with youth group SELFA Wellness as they were all treated to a dance session after Skipton Youth Dance visited SELFA. Both groups showed off their incredible dance moves and teamwork skills as they encouraged and cheered each other on until they all succeeded.
Music was also the name of the game in SELFA Youth who continued their strong work on their ukulele project. Last week, the group was introduced to Uptown Funk as the song of the week. The group has made a great start and will continue to work on this song this week too. We are so proud of the progress that this group has made so far this term.
Engage enjoyed a great session as they had a special visit from our old healthy food coordinator Nichola Holmes. Nichola prepared tacos and made it Taco Tuesday for the group. After the group ate, they were treated to a game of bowling which created a star of the week in Matthew who scored two strikes with. His first to shots at bowling. WOW!
Our final youth group was Bentham Youth who were able to spend the session enjoying some hard earned chilling out time as they reflected upon their residential last week. Whilst they were doing this they were given the chance to made friendship bracelets which turned out great. Our other Bentham group was the primary group who continued to work on their CREST Award by making a storm in a cup. This was such a fun activity – even if it was a bit messy!
The CREST Award was also present in SELFA Sensational as they also took part in a sink or float activity. The group picked their favourite toys and then decided if it was going to float or not. One of our other Saturday sessions was SELFA Shine who went to Outside the Box cafe in Ilkley which is a cafe that employs people with learning difficulties. We all chose from the menu and learnt about how we can be waiters too.
Our Star of the Week Matthew
11th October 2021
We start todays blog off in Benthem, we have the wonderful Bentham Primary group who escaped to the outdoors as they enjoyed making room on the broom magic wands as a part of their CREST award. This is a new project and this was the first of many science focussed sessions that they will take part in.
Our primary groups in Skipton were also busy with projects of their own as Smile Project got creative as they made birthday cards for a 94 year old lady who wrote to us in the summer. The children absolutely loved this project as they worked so hard to draw, paint, cut and stick in order to make colourful and beautiful cards for the lady. We always love to receive cards from our friends in nursing homes so that we can help to put a smile on their faces – especially when its their birthday!
At SELFA Thrive, we had a visit from a special volunteer called Joel who brought goodies from his allotment. Joel taught the group all about the different types of veg that we can grow and the group evened a go at planting their own! Following the success of this session, the children were desperate to see Joel’s allotment and hopefully they will be able to go this week.
Onto our youngest primary group and we have SELFA Starters! This amazing group were lucky enough to get out and enjoy what we believe might have been the last of the autumn sun. With nights drawing in and winter fast approaching it was lovely to see the children being able to play in the local park without worrying about keeping warm.
Community Champs started their own Walk With Amal activities this week to support #TheWalk project. The project is an international arts festival where a 3.5 metre-tall puppet of a 9 year old Syrian refugee child will walk 8000km across the European continent to shine a light on the stories of Millions of refugees. We started by understanding Amal’s journey and spoke about our homes and the similarities/differences to little Amal. We discussed how we could welcome her to our community. We’re pleased that we’ve been invited to one of the final events on 30th October to partake in the welcoming of Amal and join in the cultural event and see how we can take action to help. We are so proud of our group for having empathy and wanting to raise awareness of the refugee crisis.
Our fifth and final primary school group was Inspire who walked to Morrison’s cafe where they had a go at been more independent. Each child was given a small budget to order and purchase their own snack & drink. The group sat on tables with their friends and thought about how to keep safe when out by themselves in public. They talked about trusted adults and who they could turn to if they ever experienced any trouble. The group were mature and enjoyed doing things for themselves.
After all of the busy primary school sessions, we next delve into our calm SELFA Wellness group who spent the session checking in with their feelings. The group opened up about how their day was and how they were feeling in that moment. Following this, the girls were able to show off their incredible cooking skills as they made some salsa. This was so that they could have some tasty nachos as their snack for the session. We also had our first star of the week in this session as Teghan was set a challenge to compete a gratitude journal which included three good things that happened every day for a week. Teghan did exactly that and we are so proud of her for it!
One of our other youth groups was SELFA Engage who were treated to another forest school session with Rosie from The Yorkshire Dales Millenium Trust. This time, the group was busy building shelters to protect them from the horrible wind and rain. The group persevered wonderfully, defeating the weather conditions and were able to have fun with their friends.
Our final youth group from last week was a small cohort who were fortunate enough to be able to go along to the Leeds First Direct Arena as they were invited to watch the Olympic Homecoming event for the Yorkshire Athletes that are a part of Team GB from Tokyo 2020. The afternoon was so inspiring and the group left with high aspiration levels thanks to Paralympian MBE Adam Duggleby who they had the chance to speak to. He even showed them his silver medal!
Our Star of the Week Teghan
4th October 2021
Welcome back to our highlights of last week blog! Last week was filled with adventure, life skills and fun as each group worked hard to achieve their goals!
Up first, we are heading over to the first of our Saturday sessions as SELFA Shine learnt all about ordering at a cafe. First, the group ran a practice cafe at SELFA where they chose from a menu and had their order taken from our sessional staff member Tracey. After the group had some practice, they took a trip to Revive cafe where they were able to put their skills to the test as they each ordered a drink and a snack! The group worked so hard and in the end, they got to enjoy sitting in the cafe and enjoy their snacks with their friends.
Our other Saturday club was SELFA Sensational who were focused on developing teamwork. To do this, the group learnt how to share and work as a team to build incredible marble runs. The sheer size of their creations meant that they could not do this by themselves and therefore realised that if they work in a team then they can make an even bigger marble run.
Teamwork was also the order of business at our first Youth group as SELFA Youth continued to develop their ukulele abilities. The group are working hard to ensure that they play harmoniously which will lead to their performances being even better. Each week, the group grows in confidence and we can tell that they are thriving. Last week however, there was one young person who wanted to push themselves that extra mile and that was Harvi. Harvi asked the ukulele instructor to show him how to play happy birthday. Harvi then practiced and practiced and eventually he mastered it and he was so proud of himself.
Our other Wednesday Youth group was SELFA Wellness who were focused on mindfulness last week. The girls made mandalas which allowed them to relax and reflect on their lives. The groups reflections lead them onto their second focus of the week, which was gratitude. The girls wrote down everything that they were grateful for and then posted their thoughts into our new gratitude box.
SELFA Sports Leaders group were treated to a fitness bingo session which was led by our very own Billy. Billy was great at showing the other young people how to do certain workouts and everybody felt better for it at the end. The group realised how fitness can help to improve our mental wellbeing and that keeping fit can be done at home.
Our final two youth groups joined forces last week as we had a special visitor in to teach both Engage and Youth Council about the many ways that we can look after our mental health and how we can spot bad mental health before it develops into something uncontrollable. For many of the group, they were working with other young people that they had not worked with in the past. This meant that new friendships were able to form which we were delighted to see.
Our first primary school aged group from last week was SELFA Starters who made nature animal collages. This meant that the group would design animals using materials such as twigs, leaves and berries. The group worked really hard to find the right materials for their collages and they created some beautiful images. We would also like to say how grateful we are to our new staff member Millie who stepped in to lead her first session ever at the last minute. Millie was so supportive to the children and made the session super fun for everyone.
Up next we have community champs who spent their session taking part in a three hearts, one wish activity where they would decide what three things they liked about their community and one thing that they wish could be better. This was to help them to decide what they want their project focus to be around this term and the group decided that they wanted to help refugees in their community. We are delighted that they have chosen such an important topic in the world right now.
Our final group is Inspire who also spent their session brainstorming their worries and concerns for joining secondary school. This means that the SELFA staff can now plan informative sessions which will help the group to feel more confident when the time comes and they begin secondary school.
Our Star of the Week, Harvi
27th September 2021
What a week we have just had at SELFA! With each and every group making a return, our children’s charity welcomed back some old faces and a lot of new ones. From a record number of children in our SELFA Starters group to new friends being made in SELFA Inspire, we have a lot to cover in our highlights of the week blog!
We start with our North Craven Primary group who were focussing heavily on teamwork last week as they took part in a spaghetti marshmallow tower building challenge. This challenge was all about the group learning how they can work together to create success and the group did just that. The towers grew sky-high and the children were able to feel super proud of their achievement. This was not the only task that the group took part in as they also allowed for some time of reflection as they drew feelings monsters. This involves a lot of creativity as the group used words and colours to show their friends how they were feeling at the time. This is a great way for groups to see how everyone is feeling so that they can be mindful when talking with their friends.
Our other north craven group was the youth group who continued their fine progress towards completing the John Muir Award. This time, the young people were back working with Fiona from Yorkshire Dales Millenium Trust as she showed them how to make willow bird feeders. This is an impressive way for the group to think about how they can help the wildlife in their community to ensure that it is able to thrive. The bird feeders were incredible and we are certain the birds will love them!
Yorkshire Dales Millenium Trust also visited one of our Skipton groups last week as SELFA Engage kicked off their first Forest Schools sessions. SELFA has previously done Forest Schools with other groups and they have adored the sessions, so we thought that our Engage group would love this opportunity too. The group took the opportunity by storm and showed Rosie from Yorkshire Dales Millenium Trust how great they were as they displayed their elegance in a lantern-making session. With dark nights fast approaching, the group was tasked with designing a lantern that can help to brighten up their homes. Engage had free rein on their designs and they did not disappoint with the lanterns containing beautiful colours and designs.
Nature was also the order of business for SELFA Wellness (previously known as Girls Rock) who were fortunate enough to enjoy some sunshine as they took a walk through the Skipton woods. This was done to celebrate National Fitness Day as the group was able to see how getting out and exercising can have positive effects on our mental health. The group was also given the opportunity to discuss how they were feeling which was incredible as they supported each other through all of life’s issues.
Our final Youth group from last week was SELFA Youth who continued their hard work on the ukulele project. The group has found many elements of this new skill difficult but everyone is persevering through the tough times and are getting better and better each time they do it. Last week, the group learnt ‘Use Somebody’ by Kings of Leon and ‘I’m Yours’ by Jason Mraz. These songs were tricky to master but the group were able to smash it. We are loving this project!
Moving onto our youngest group, SELFA Starters and we were so happy to see so many children at the first session of the new term. This group has been known to have a smaller group to start and then grow as the term goes on but this time we have been able to support a huge number of children from the start. With this being the first week, the children spent some time getting to know each other and the staff. Once the interactions were made, the group went onto the main focus of the session which involved thinking about what makes people special. The children drew pictures which represented what made them. These pictures will go up on our new display wall. This task helped the children to realise why they are incredible and it put a smile on all of their faces.
Our other two younger groups: Thrive and Smile Project were also getting to know each other as many of them had not been in the same group before so it was great to see everyone interacting with each other nicely. The groups spent their sessions working on collages of themselves using cut up magazine entries. This gave the children a chance to focus on what they like about themselves and they were so proud of their creations. This task created our second star of the week as Lacie-Mai worked super hard on her collage and filled her entire sheet of paper. Well done Lacie-Mai.
Collages were also the task at hand at our first older primary group as SELFA Inspire’s first task was all about creating a collage so that they could show their new session friends what they are all about. This task created a lot of excitement within the group as they were able to get creative and create beautiful designs. This was not the only activity completed in this group however as the group played mingle bingo as a way of getting to know each other. This game is all about finding out information about the other children in the session which helped the group to develop some friendships early on into the term.
This was not the only game of bingo being played however as SELFA Active played fitness bingo as their way of celebrating national fitness day. Following this, the group went on to learn some new ways to stretch and exercise with a resistance band workout which helped them to feel great about themselves. The whole group said that they wanted to do it again after it made their muscles feel good!
Our final group to highlight from last week is Community Champs who were also getting to know each other as they drew their own pen pictures which allowed staff and the other children to find out some extra information out about them. Once they completed this icebreaker, the group was taken outside to play games and pick berries.
It was a very busy week as you can see but we are overwhelmed with how great every child and young person was that came to SELFA last week. We can’t wait to get even more stuck into this term.
Our star of the week Lacie-Mai
20th September 2021
Our term time provisions are back! After a wonderful summer of fun, some of SELFA’s after school clubs restarted last week and they were all amazing. There were some new faces in our groups therefore a lot of the sessions were spent getting to know each other and deciding on what kind of fun activities the children and young people want to do between now and the next half term. The children that have been coming to SELFA for a while were so welcoming to the new people in the groups and it already seems as though there will be a lot of new friendships built this term!
Up first, we have SELFA Youth who have this term, decided to pick up ukuleles after finishing their incredibly successful Forest Schools project. This was a new skill to them all but they were naturals! After receiving some training, the group soon knew exactly what they were doing and by the end of their first session, they were playing ‘Stay With Me’ by Sam Smith. The ukulele project has become popular with the group and we can’t wait to see how skilled they get as the project goes on! SELFA Youth also broke up their learning with a healthy snack as they made fruit kebabs which solidified our choice for the group’s star of the week, Harry. Harry welcomed the new members of the group with open arms and shared his feelings with everyone well. Harry was also brilliant at making fruit cocktails and we were delighted to see him get so stuck into the session!
SELFA are always trying to make our snacks as healthy as possible which means that fruit kebabs have been able to grow in popularity across the groups and this is especially apparent at Girls Rock. The group spent some time last week crafting fruit kebabs whilst they discussed the different activities that they wanted to take part in this term which included fundraising. The girls have decided that they want to host a fundraiser in order to raise money for SELFA and give back for all of the times that our children’s charity has helped them.
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Last Tuesday, we launched our Duke of Edinburgh Award at SELFA’s Youth Council which has got a lot of our young people excited about taking part in some volunteering, learning a new skill and going on the expedition. This is the first time that SELFA has decided to host its own Duke of Edinburgh Award which is why we are so happy to see so many young people up for it. Youth Council was a session of three parts last week and following the Duke of Edinburgh talk, we all celebrated the news that we had received a huge funding award from The National Lottery and our Youth Council were delighted about it. The third and final part of this session was a big game of bench ball. This game was a great way for the group to make new friends and a bit of healthy competition is always good at the end of the day.
Bench ball was also the highlight of our Engage group who welcomed some fresh faces and what better way to break the ice, than to play bench ball with your new friends. This was just one of the thrilling activities that the group got to enjoy. The second part to their session was more of a calming one as they enjoyed a creative activity in which they were able to explore their mental health and think about the ways that they can improve it.
Up next we have our weekend SEND sessions and we have recently revamped our old Saturday Club sessions to make them even better and more focussed for the children and young people. Saturday Club has now been split into four separate groups and each group will now run fortnightly. Last weekend was all about SELFA Shine and SELFA Sensational. Up first, we had SELFA Sensational which is a sensory focused group and they were able to get out and enjoy the outdoors as they explored the wildlife and played on SELFA’s new outdoor play equipment! SELFA Shine then followed and this group is all about community. The group is working towards a cafe fundraiser for SELFA where they will serve mince pies to our local community. Their first session started off by learning about what we love about cafes before going on to make our own chocolate crispy buns. This group had a magical time, letting their imagination run wild as they pretended that they were in an actual cafe.
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Our final groups came to SELFA on Sunday as they closed off an incredible first week back of term time provisions. The penultimate group was iMuse Music Therapy who had an impressive session to kick off the term as the children all had a go at playing music using different instruments. Last but not least, we have Explorers who got creative by making clay hedgehogs with their friends. The children designed the hedgehogs all by themselves and they looked great! The children then went onto roast some marshmallows, learn how to safely start fires and build dens. Our second star of the week came from this session as Liv made the best nature den ever. Liv was super creative and the SELFA staff were all so impressed by her.
What a start it has been to our term time sessions and we cannot wait to welcome back even more groups next week. Stay tuned for more!
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Our stars of the week, Harry and Liv (In order)
6th September 2021
That’s a wrap on summer as last week marked the end of the most amazing, incredible, magical and fun summer holidays. This summer has been everything that we could have wished for following the pandemic which put a stop to trips and a lot of activities last year. This has only made the summer holidays better for the children as we made up for lost time and gave them the summer that they truly deserved. Last week ended with a bang as the children and young people came together for one last time before they go back to school.
Up first we have our 4-7’s group who were lucky enough to have not one but two wonderful activities last week as they were on the hunt for strikes to start when they took a trip to the bowling alley which provided some healthy competition for them all. Everyone was a star performer and each and every group had so much fun bowling. Following their trip to the bowling ally, the children returned to Ings only to be met with two colourful bouncy cancels! They bounced to their hearts content and some of the staff even had a go.
Our 8-11’s primary group took on a messy activity in their groups as they helped out in our wildlife area. With SELFA looking to make this a safe space for the children to learn everything there is to know about nature, we wanted to give the children the opportunity to make the area their own by planting the flowers and plants that they desired. The children learnt all of the steps that are taken when growing a plant and they had a very fun – and messy – time.
The next highlights come from our SEND sessions who finished the summer holidays with a stay and play session in which they made their own bubbles to blow. The bubbles got bigger and bigger and in the end they had created bubbles the size of their heads. The children had so much fun chasing theirs and their friend’s bubbles around the room! That wasn’t the only activity that the SEND group had however, as they enjoyed one final trip out but this time they got to go to South Lakes Zoo with their families. The children were fortunate enough to see tigers, penguins and many more animals which made for a great day out and a perfect end to summer.
This was not the only group that went on an animal excursion as our North Craven Primary group ventured out to Lakeland Wildlife Oasis. Here, the children were able to get close and personal with lots of animals like the monkeys!
As a children’s charity, SELFA have felt so well supported by our local community as well as larger organisation this summer and we would like to say how eternally grateful we are for this. Over this summer, we have been able to provide sessions for 254 children in the Skipton and Craven area which fills our hearts with joy. If you would like to show your support to SELFA and help us to continue to provide these vital sessions for vulnerable children and their families please consider donating by clicking the ‘Donate now’ button at the top of the page.
31st August 2021
The penultimate week of the incredible SELFA summer holidays was one to remember for the children. With so many fun activities taking place, everyone was able to have the most amazing time and blow off some steam ready for their final week before they return to school. Read on to see what happened at SELFA, last week.
First up, we have our youngest group, the 4-7’s who got to enjoy two different trips out last week. Their imagination was allowed to run free as they visited The Green Playhouse which gave them a safe space to run around and play with their friends. The next place that our 4-7’s took a trip to was Cliffe Castle where the children were able to learn lots of interesting facts about our local history. After their history tour, the children then had some free time to explore the grounds and play with each other.
SELFA’s other primary school group, the 8-11’s got to appreciate the outdoors as they took part in some scrambling sessions. This included scrambling through tight gaps and scrambling up rocks to reach the top. This activity was so nice for the staff to witness as all of the children were cheering each other on which helped to boost everyones self-esteem.
Our SEND families group were treated to an incredible day out to Nell Bank Outdoor Adventure who provided the children and young people with a bundle of unique activities to sink their teeth into. This included an animal trail, team building challenges, duck rescue, biking, water play and adventure play. The families all had a wonderful time with the parents taking on the challenges too!
Girls Rock stole the show for our youth groups last week as their DJ workshops came to a close. The group was rewarded with an end of summer disco where they got to play music and eat party food made by our Healthy Food Coordinator which went down a treat. Alongside DJ NikNak, the girls each played a set to the rest of the group at the disco as they showed off the impressive skills that they have developed over the summer holidays. DJ NikNak has been a huge help in bringing the confidence out of the girls and giving them the courage to perform in front of a crowd.
Up next, we have North Craven Youth who spent their day at the beach. The group got stuck into some swimming in the sea, playing sports and some of them even got buried in the sand by their friends! The weather was definitely on the group’s side as the sun was shining and there was hardly a cloud in the sky. With this kind of weather, there was only one way for the group to cool down: enjoying a nice, cool ice cream as the day came to a close.
Last but not least, we have our Skipton Youth group who plunged into the Craven Leisure Centre pool. The group bonded so well with each other as they took part in some pool games and challenges before ending their session with some cake decorating at Ings. The group worked closely with Healthy Food Coordinator, Nichola to design beautiful cakes with fascinating designs!
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!
13th August 2021
Your wedding day is a beautiful day of bringing people closer together. You and your partner are the main focus and people will respect your wishes on the day. Have you ever considered using this factor to fundraise for your chosen charity? Check out the list below and find out how you can fundraise using your wedding day.
Donate a Portion of Your Budget:
Once you have organised your wedding budget, why not cut down on some areas of your wedding day and donate the money saved to your chosen charity?
Sell Your Wedding Dress and Donate the Proceedings:
Weddings dresses are a huge expense when it comes to weddings. One option to raise money for charity, is to sell your dress and then donate the money raised to charity.
Swap Your Wedding Gifts For a Fundraising Page:
Wedding gifts are a staple of all weddings, you create a list of items that you want and guests buy them for you. Another option is to say to guests “we don’t want gifts at our wedding, instead we have created a fundraising page for our chosen charity. Please donate to that instead.”
Host a Bachelor or Bachelorette Fundraising Event:
Get your best men and best women together to fundraise as a team as a part of your pre wedding celebrations. Using the power of working in a team you will be able to reach a large pool of people and raise a great amount for charity.
12th August 2021
The summer heat can be a very dangerous thing across the summer holidays. With so many outdoor activities planned for your children, knowing how to keep them cool is extremely important so that they can have a great, worry-free summer. Here are SELFA’s top tips for beating the heat this summer!
Everybody knows that staying hydrated is one of the best ways to beat the summer heat. Plain water is great when you are out in the sun but so are sports drinks as they are full of the right mixture of salts, sugars and electrolytes. Make sure to offer drinks to your child so that you know that they are drinking enough throughout the day.
As well as liquids, cold foods and treats are a great way to stay cool and beat the heat. This could include frozen ice lollies or ice cream. Using cold foods such as refrigerated fruit to make smoothies is also a great way to cool our bodies down and our children get to consume healthy foods at the same time. Yum!
If you can, stay out of direct sunlight. The sun beating down on you can easily cause you to overheat. One of the best ways to do this is by taking your outdoor activities to the woods as they provide a lot of cover from the sun. If you were planning on having a picnic or going for a walk, why not try doing them in the woods? Yours and your child’s bodies will thank you for it.
The best times to go out in the sun are in the morning and in the evening. This is because the sun is at its coolest at this time so try to plan your activities around this and use the middle of the day as your cooling down time so that your child can recuperate their energy for later in the day. This chilling out time does not mean that you have to stay at home though! The cinema, museums or even play areas are a great option over summer as they are usually air conditioned which is good for everyone.
Dressing appropriately for the weather is vital. You might think that a child wear shorts and a vest in the sun is the best option however, it doesn’t always work out that way. Even without the sleeves, some clothes like this can still have thick or heavy fabrics which will trap the heat and keep your child warmer and the amount of skin on show could also lead to sunburn. When deciding your child’s outfit for the day, it is important that the clothes are light and airy so that the air can flow through and not get trapped.
Everything gets cooler with a splash of water! Getting wet regularly throughout the day is a great way to beat the heat this summer and there are countless ways to do this. Why not encourage your children to have a water fight, set up a paddling pool for them in your garden, set up a slip ‘n slide or even ask them to help you to wash your car! The opportunities are endless and it will make for a fun day with all of these great options.
The body has specific points that can heat up your body super quickly. These places include our temples, neck, ankles, behind the knees, wrists and the bends of your elbow. When your child begins to feel hot try applying an icepack or a bottle of cold liquid to these different spots and it will help them to cool down very quickly.
Babies and toddlers have an increased risk of overheating as their bodies cannot yet regulate their body temperature and so, seeing the signs of heat stroke is vital. The symptoms of heat stroke include, skin that is hot, dry & red, a high temperature without sweating, headaches, restlessness, vomiting, shallow & quick breathing, dizziness and sometimes unconsciousness. Spotting these signs early will help to ensure that your child will be okay.
10th August 2021
Welcome back to your favourite weekly blog! This time, we will be showing you all of the wonderful things that SELFA had to offer in the second week of the summer holidays. The weather was up and down all week but our sessions were still super fun. The summer holidays are now in full swing and we are having a blast!
Up first, we have Girls Rock who stepped away from their DJ workshops in order to have a session on mental health. The girls know how important looking after our mental health is and so, they took the opportunity to think about it in more depth by storm. Although there was know DJing this week, DJ NikNak still came in to lead the session. She allowed the girl’s creativity to run wild as she led an arts-based workshop where the girls communicated their thoughts on mental health through art before closing the session with a mental health quiz. Between the mental health activities, Girls Rock were visited by our healthy food coordinator who showed them how to make smoothies. For many of the girls, this was a new healthy food for them to try and they never realised the positive impact that healthy foods can have on us feeling good, inside and out.
This was not the only session with new foods being tried. Over at SELFA Youth, the group set out on a walk around Malham as they walked to Janet’s Foss as they teamed up with the Yorkshire Dales Millenium Trust. Once they had arrived at their location, the group sat down and enjoyed a picnic together. Our Healthy Food Coordinator, Nichola had packed them up lots of treats as they got to try Apricots, celery, spring onion and hummus which went down a treat with many of the young people trying these foods for the first time. Following the picnic, the group took part in some scrambling before finishing off the session with a lovely ice cream which they got to enjoy together.
One of our main highlights of last week was from our SEND sessions who have been working so hard on their puppet play. Over the past few weeks, our stay and play sessions have been working hard to make puppets and lanterns ready for a puppet show. The SELFA children had an amazing time with their families as they enjoyed the interactive puppet show at Skipton Town Hall. The group were also supposed to go on a picnic in the woods last Friday but due to the weather, plans quickly changed and we decided to bring the outdoors into SELFA. Our sports hall became a wonderful forest, filled with animals and music. Our families had the most magical time and it produced our first star of the week, Hughie. Hughie tried to get involved with absolutely everything that was on offer and showed us his incredible dance moves!
Our North Craven Primary group went crazy with science experiments in their session last week. Starting off with some calligraphy practice, the group produced some incredible designs which they were super proud of. The group then went into some volcano experiments which were an absolute blast as all of the children followed all of the instructions expertly well to ensure success. Their third and final experiment was flying aeroplanes using an air pump, the group had a great bit of healthy competition as they saw who could fly it the furthest. This group produced another star of as our newcomer, Tanaia got stuck in to all of the activities and showed great enthusiasm. Welcome to SELFA!
Our Skipton Primary Groups got to enjoy a whole host of activities with our 4-7’s groups going to the Skipton fire station. The group got to see how the firemen work and they even got to try some of the jobs themselves – their favourite was firing the water hose which put a huge smile on every child’s face. Our 8-11’s were trying something new every day! One group enjoyed making flower bags with Nichola, another did some chromatography and one group did marshmallow slingshots. It wasn’t all arts and crafts though, we had a special visit from HART animals who even brought a llama and our final primary group got on a train as they learnt all about travelling on the train. We have been supported so well by other organisations this past week. Keep an eye out on our social media channels to find out more about how we have been helped.
https://www.selfa.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/D31D5F17-88BA-4DC2-8421-6A2825EEF681_2_0_a.mov
Our stars of the week, Tanaia and Hughie
6th August 2021
When you begin fundraising, you will need to set up an online fundraising account. This can be filled with any content that you would like to. This article will review all of the best things that you can do with your donation page to ensure maximum success when people find themselves on it.
Talk about all of the incredible work that your chosen charity does and explain how all of the money that you raise will help.
2. Show That You Care
Tell your supporters why you cared enough in the first place in order to take action. Being honest and open will help people to see the value of what you are doing and how much it means to you. This could in turn, help to bring in more donations.
3. Explain How The Money Will Be Spent
Telling supporters where their money will be spent once donated is a great idea. This means that people are more likely to donate as they will see the immediate impact of their donation. If you are unsure on where the money will go, you can ask your chosen charity or they may have a section on their website that explains where it will go. We have this at SELFA, click here to find out more.
4. Keep it Clear and Concise
If your bio is short and snappy, your supporters will find it easier to connect with you instead of having to sift through a wall of text to find out everything they need to know about your challenge.
5. Use Quotes
Using quotes from your chosen charity is an easy way to explain the impact that your chosen charity is making. These will most likely be found on their website or alternatively you could get in touch with someone at the charity and get some extra quotes through them.
6. Include Links
Add links to your donation page. This could be linked to news articles, blog posts or your charities website. This will help people to find out more about the charity quickly which will mean that all of the information is readily available for them.
7. Add Photos
It’s true what they say, a picture does speak a thousand words. You can add photos to your fundraising page to help it look more engaging.
8. Add Videos
Videos are a great way to tell your story, they can capture emotion and passion better than anything else. To add a video to your page, simply upload your video to YouTube then copy the link into your fundraising page. From here, people who visit your page can easily hear over to your Youtube and watch your video.
What do you think to our advice? If there is something else you have done with your fundraising page in the past which worked well for you, we’d love to hear all about it.
4th August 2021
As a children’s charity, we have a pretty good idea on what fun activities are. Filling a summer holidays full of fun activities is not always an easy task and it is very easy for parents to forget about a lot of activities that they can do. So why not check out our list and use it as inspiration for your families summer holiday.
2nd August 2021
It was the first week of the summer holidays last week at SELFA and we had an absolute blast! While the weather might not have been the best, we made the most of it and still got to do so many fun activities across all of our groups which made for the best start to summer that we could have asked for!
First off, we would like to introduce you to the food that our new Healthy Food Coordinator, Nichola has been preparing for the children. Each day, our healthy food coordinator will be cooking each and every child that comes through SELFA’s doors a hot meal. Each week, Nichola will be switching up the menu to take the children on a world tour with the foods so that they have the chance to try new foods that are quick, cheap and easy to make. Up first, we had spaghetti bolognese from Italy, which went down a treat with the children as one of them was heard saying: “I don’t like it…I love it” which was so nice to hear. Following all of the controversy over the past year with free school meals, SELFA made it our mission to ensure that each child would not go hungry this summer and we are delighted with how this has started!
Over at our 8-11’s groups, they were treated with trips to Gazegill’s Organic Farm. Thanks to Country Trust – who kindly provided us with transport to and from the farm, our groups had a wonderful opportunity to visit a farm and learn about what it is all about. The children gained a real insight into life as a farmer thanks to the Country Trust Staff: Lee, Steph and Graham. This even made some of the children interested in becoming a farmer one day! Following this, the group got to feed horses, see the milking parlour, pet the dogs and see the goats and piggies.
Up in Bentham, the youth group continued to work on their John Muir Award as they visited the Ingleborough Caves to learn all about how they were formed thanks to our tour guide David. The group has been learning all about different environments in nature and so, to tick caves off of the list with this extremely fun trip was a great way for them to kick of their summer.
Last week in Girls Rock we had the return of DJ NikNak who provided the girls with their first DJ workshop of the summer. These workshops will be the main focus of the Girls Rock summer and they absolutely loved it. Eiger Music Studios will kindly be providing the DJ equipment for the holidays and so, without them these sessions would not be possible. This week’s focus was all about developing our skills in fading into different songs, whilst also getting used to the DJ decks.
Our SEND provision for the summer also got off to a flying start last week as the group enjoyed their first trip out. Studfold Adventure Trail was the location of this trip which the children/young people loved it! The trip was jam packed with fun activities as the group got to enjoy making wishes, building dens and playing in the play area. This last week has made us feel so grateful to these activity centres that welcome our children/young people with open arms.
At our SEND Stay & Play session, the children and their families continued their preparations for their upcoming puppet show. Last week the group were busy creating and making lanterns & puppets for the show. This allowed for our first start of the week, Max to shine as he got super creative and made some incredible items for the show. Go Max!
Our Youth Group were treated to not one but two locations on their trip out. Starting off with a visit to the Bradford Science & Media Museum, the group got to test out loads of cool experiments which explored our sound and vision before the group then went bowling. The focus of these trips were to build positive relationships with each other as a group and that certainly happened! Our second star of the week was in our youth group as Tay was described as “the star beyond the stars”. He made sure that he got an early night before getting the train to the museum. Tay loved the museum, enjoyed bowling and made new friends. Thank you for your energy Tay!
Our final group of the week was our 4-7’s who stayed local with their trip out as they went for a picnic & play in the park. The group were very sensible as they walked to and from the park which made the day even better for our wonderful staff.
Our Stars of the Week, Max and Tay
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