July 26th-August 1st Highlights

Posted: 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