Sea, sun and train strikes! Summer Holidays 2022

What a summer it has been. The hottest on record for London, combined with the added challenge of train and tube strikes coinciding with several of the outings planned. However, we were undefeated and, with the dedication of our amazing volunteer team and Waltham Forest Community Transport coming to the rescue, we were able to go ahead with all the trips and enable more first experiences, friendship and happy memories.

Littlehampton Summer Holiday:

The highlight of our summer programme this year was very much our mini holiday. This was a new venture and the first time we have taken a group of primary school aged children away. We aimed it at 8-11 year olds, and one family with younger children came along with the support of their Mum. Our primary vision was to enable our children to have the experience and freedom of a beach holiday with lots of time to play, explore and have fun together.

Backpacks on, we set off on a Monday morning by train to Littlehampton, with a group of 18 children, and 7 adults, filling the train with laughter, card games and a picnic lunch. We arrived at Littlehampton Youth Hostel at lunchtime and made ourselves at home before heading to the beach! It was a windy afternoon, so we had the wide sandy beach more or less to ourselves. Half the children were straight into the sea, supported by some of our team who nobly spent a couple of hours in the sea supervising. Thankfully with the tide out, the sea was shallow and almost as warm as bathwater. Others made sandcastles and played ball, before we ended with a large group game of rounders, before heading back to the hostel for a fish and chip supper and board games before bed.

The children were awake bright and early and after breakfast and some cookie baking, we headed back to the beach to enjoy swimming at high tide, while others went on a crabbing expedition along the river. We returned to the youth hostel for a hot brunch style lunch, with volunteers working seamlessly to make and butter endless rounds of toast. The youth hostel was a 10 minute walk along the river to the beach, which made it a perfect base. After lunch the children got to chose 5 rides each at the amusement park, before returning to the beach for sand play and sports with the tide out. After pizza and salad for dinner, many opted to head out again for another crabbing mission, while others went for a walk along the river or to play football. We all enjoyed the beautiful sunset, and the excitement of a bucketful of crabs.

Our final day we were up early to pack our backpacks and clean up before getting the local bus to Arundel castle, for the European Mediaeval Jousting Competition. There was excitement arriving at the castle, to find all the staff dressed up in a mediaeval camp. We started by watching knights in armour on horses display their skill at jousting, before going off to practice our own knight skills, between crossbow or swordsmanship. Exploring the spectacular castle was the final highlight, getting a taste of how other people live, and learning and performing a mediaeval dance!

After the initial panic of a National Rail strike turning our well-laid plans on the head, Waltham Forest Community Transport came to the rescue and picked us up from the castle and drove us back to East London - a happy tired group! Parents messaged after they’d picked the children up and were looking at photos we’d sent through together:

“They are really happy, I can’t thank you enough.”

“Thank you for all your team for your hard work”

“Welcome back. Thank you so MUCHHHHHHHHH. I am EXTREMELY GRATEFUL”

“I just wanted to say thank you for giving me and the children the opportunity to join in the holiday”.

As a team I don’t think we’ve ever worked so hard, but it was so worth it! The smiles and the joy as children enjoyed many first experiences and fun together was all the reward needed.

We are grateful to Henry Smith Holiday Grants Programme for their grant of £2500 to enable it to happen, supported by a donation from one of our regular givers. Many of the children we support have never had the opportunity to go on holiday, and therefore we were excited to be able to provide this experience for a 2 night trip to Littlehampton. Especially in the context of a season of increased financial pressure on families, with more than half of our parents / carers reporting anxiety about finances and concern about having enough food.

Group Outings:

Happy days out were also enjoyed on our summer day outings. Those that couldn’t join the 8-11’s holiday went to the Theatre, for the special treat of seeing “The Lion the Witch and The Wardrobe.

Our little ones went to see the animals and play in the water lagoon at Paradise Wildlife Park, including some of our newly referred families. The Teens to Laser Mayhem for 4 team missions (though the intense heat was a bit too much that day).

Mousetrap Theatre Project - Family First Nights:

We discovered this fantastic opportunity to refer families that enabled them to go to their first theatre show as a family over the summer holidays. The project enables disadvantaged London families to go to a west end show over the summer holidays, and supports them through the experience. They will now continue to receive opportunities until the children are 18 years old.

We enabled 8 families to go to a London theatre show - making an application and helping them choose their 1st, 2nd and 3rd preferences - and most were lucky enough to get their first show. We will hopefully enable another group of families to enjoy this next summer and to enable our youth to sign up for their Go live Theatre Club for 15-24 year olds.

“Hello - a big thank you, we went for the Mama Mia, we had a wonderful, wonderful time”

“We went to watch &Juliet - it was fantastic and we enjoyed it very much, thank you for your help”.