Our Holiday Clubs in Cambridgeshire

 A Day at Holiday Club

We are often told of children waking up early in excitement of attending another day at our holiday clubs.

The bells of the local church chime 8:00am, children rushing in to clubs, leaving parents at the door without a kiss or a goodbye, off to spend another day at holiday club.

They choose between running to our woodland outdoor space, diving into the Lego, rifling through our “junk yards” and scrap sheds, creating new obstacles and building forts and shelters.

The children waste no time falling deep into play, building relationships and making connections, but most importantly, having fun. Staff are on hand for those weary children, giving them the much needed support in making those relationships and connections with our setting early before sending them on their way for the rest of the day.

Within our settings you will find space for child led, free flowing play within a caring environment. If scanning our club on a mid afternoon, you may see children relaxing on their own under a table with a book, a group of children playing a game of football on a grass space, a child pushing another child on a rope swing, children painting boxes under a trees shade, a few children climbing around in trees and a member of staff working with a group of children on some woodwork.

All these decisions are made by the children, with play workers, using their knowledge and understanding of their role in supporting the children or standing back and allowing those play experiences to happen.

What we offer

Our holiday clubs provide an exciting option for children from ages 4 (and in primary education) to 11 from families living or  working in and around Cambridgeshire.

Staff are trained in Paediatric first aid, Basic child protection and Food hygiene, as well as PARS playwork and introductory and level 3 training in Forest school, making sure there is a safe and stimulating play environment for your children while in our care.

Activity Planning

Children have a great time within our setting, however new opportunities should always be on offer. Our staff spend hours coming up with amazing experiences and activities for the children during our holiday clubs. We understand that, at times, children need a helping hand in “finding something to do”.  Although it is these moments we find the most creative play being invented by the children, if given time, we feel that offering unique and interesting activities supports the children in creating something new, sparking new play ideas and creating great memories.

Have a look at our play plans for Girton, Haddenham and Ridgefield to see what activities we have coming up in our next holiday club.

Children often come over to our “planned” activities and take it down a whole new path that we were not expecting. We love these moments as they always turn out better then our original input.

Case study- Scouts and swords.

One of our favourite memories took place at Easter 2017 when we had planned a game of capture the flag. The game was set up with 1 flag at one end of our wooded area, within Girton, and another flag set up at the other end.

The game started with children running up and down attempting get each others flags, slowly throughout the game, we started getting spies, scouts and attackers. Spontaneously we moved on to children of all ages, creating bows, arrows, swords and spears. Three hours later the game had gone from a normal game of capture the flag to became a full battle ground which included forts, shelters, horses and weapons.

The space, resources and staff play work knowledge, help create moments like this by allowing these play processes to change and flow with support where needed.

Trips and Visits

The beautiful sounds of a coach full of children singing baby shark on repeat shows the excitement of the children as we set off for another great day out. Our best visits have included paddling in the sea, making sandcastles, searching for crabs, creating dens, searching for the Gruffalo at Thetford forest, drying off after a third go on the log flume at theme parks and forward flipping into a foam pit at a trampoline park.

“Amazing , my very busy 5 year old has just done 3 days at Ridgefield holiday club and he had a fantastic time , so many activities he loved , the trip was great and very well organised , really recommend and will continue to use , well done to all the staff”

Facebook Quote- February 2019

Workshops

Our workshops include: Willow weaving with the Coddiwomplers, making your own crazy golf course from natural resources with Creativity, design and production, BMX stunts with world champion stunt man Mike Mullen or delving deep into a magical world with Sammy magic, magic.

These are just some of the unique sessions we have had over the last few years to give our children new ideas and experiences.

We have watched children grow in confidence throughout their time at our holiday clubs. We often see children turn up weary and anxious who leave later with rosy cheeks, muddy hands, smiley faces and amazing stories to tell!

“Our girls (4 and 9) have just done 3 mornings at Girton. It's their first time at a holiday club and they absolutely loved it! So much so they have asked to go back in the Easter holidays. Thank you very much to all the amazing staff. We will be back!”

Facebook quote- February 2019

Meals

We offer breakfast between 8:00am and 9:00am, a morning snack at 10:30am and an afternoon snack at 3:00pm. Please bring a packed lunch unless stated differently on the play plan.

More information

More details for forthcoming holiday clubs are available on the following pages:

• Girton
• Haddenham
• Ridgefield

In the meantime please contact us for more information.

See the registration and admin for policies and handbooks and a reigitration form.