September 20th – 26th Highlights

Posted: 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