Corseford School Summer Club 2014
A story by Corseford School Parent Council
We ran a two week Summer Club, including transport and intensive staffing, for children with complex support needs.
One tailored week for older and one for younger pupils. An activity and play based club for children unable to access community run schemes due to their high level care needs.
What Corseford School Summer Club 2014 did
The Play and Activities-based club ran for 2 weeks in the 2014 summer holidays (one week for older, one for younger children). The days started at 10 am and finished at 4 pm, but the carers also benefited from having transport provided. This was much appreciated as the children can have as much as an hour's journey each way.
The club was available to children with complex support needs from Corseford School, and staff were sourced from there also owing to their familiarity with the children. Similarly we ran the club using the school premises as the equipment required would not be easily available elsewhere. However we are very keen on not making this a School Day!
We did a survey with the children and carers beforehand for activities, and afterwards to gauge their success. Activities for the children included cooking, art, sport, including archery, music and outings such as bowling, boat trips,water sports, cinema, accessible parks and places of interest.
Their carers were able to spend quality time with other siblings, or on their own, knowing their disabled children were having a fantastic time. Non-wheelchair acessible trips (on mud, up a mountain, or at the beach) seemed to be a theme of what the carers got up to!
What Corseford School Parent Council has learned
The Short Breaks Fund has really allowed this club to develop and continue, because of the staffing ratios and the transport provision are make the club so costly, the grant is key to its future.
Key challenges remain the organisation of the transport and the staffing.
We have learnt to be organised in our budgeting process, learning that the reporting requirements for the grant means that early information gathering pays dividends.