Over summer we have welcomed familes with children eligible for free school meals, who live in Stoke-on-Trent, aged 4-16 years, to enjoy free activities with us as part of our summer provision. There have been 8 different opportunities for these children to come along to enjoy enriching activity with their parents, care giver and younger siblings. As part of this project families also received free picnic style lunch.
We’ve had over 1000 attendances to events and activities (this includes HAF and non HAF eligible children and families). We’ve provided 301 meals to HAF eligible children, and an additional 231 meals for parents and younger siblings, totalling 532 meals. The remaining lunches (left over from non-attendance) were shared with the local community.
Summer Fun Day
To kick off summer, we held a fun day in Middleport Park. Activities included archery, canoeing and rock climbing with C2C Outdoors, bug hunting and nature craft, toddler area, circus skills with Circus in a Box, sports & games with Stoke City Community Trust, Inflatable slide, zorbs and bouncy castle with NV Events and also a visit from Boomer with Port Vale Foundation Trust. An amazing 639 people joined us for this fantastic community event including 107 HAF eligible children and their families.
Thank you so much for a lovely morning, my boys had a great time.
Parent of HAF attendee
Thank you so very much. Great start to the holidays. Wish more communities were as strong as yours.
Event Attendee
Alpaca Experience
At our next activity of summer, we were joined by Wetley Moore Alpacas. 15 HAF eligible children and their parents and siblings came along to enjoy a 1-1 experience – meeting, feeding and walking the alpacas alongside alpaca crafts and activities.
Excellent! … great fun and memory making 🙂
Family Craft Session
16 HAF eligible children and their parents and siblings enjoyed taking part in nature craft. They enjoyed a walk around the local area to collect materials for their craft.
Fabulous for all the family, as always, thank you.
Drayton Manor Park Family Outing
43 people including 29 HAF eligible children were invited to a trip to Drayton Manor Park. This enabled families to provide a fun filled family day out without worrying about the cost.
I just wanted to say thank you for an amazing day out, i wouldn’t have been able to do it without your help.
Farm on Wheels Visit
We were joined by Farm on Wheels who brought along a range of animals including a bull calf, sheep, bunnies and a momma hen who had the most adorable foster ducklings. 14 HAF eligible children and their families really enjoyed experiencing this time with the animals. They also took part in games and craft activities.
Fantastic session, i love seeing the animals, it always makes me feel good.
Colour Run & Sport
For the second year in a row, we held a colour run in Middleport Park. The positive feedback last year was so overwhelming, we had to do it again this year. 330 people including 105 HAF eligible children joined us in Middleport Park to enjoy sport activities provided by Stoke City Community Trust and Port Vale Foundation Trust follwed by the main event where everyone got very colourful.
We had a brilliant day. The adults enjoyed it just as much as the kids. Thank you to every single person who helped to put this event on. You are all a great community asset!
Stoke City Active Session
13 people attended a fun filled active session with Stoke City. Children and their families took part in table tennis, outdoor games and family craft activities.
Funky Bird Art Workshop
Unfortunately for our last session of summer we had a lot non attendance. The 12 people including 7 HAF eligible children enjoyed every minute of our Funky Bird workshop with the very talented Kirsty from Love Knott Creations. They also took part in fun games and got active in between the activity.
This was a lovely session and everyones birds were amazing!
We have had an absolubtely fantastic summer, we hope that we have helped to provide some accessible, affordable and quality memory making experiences for families across Stoke-on-Trent.
Thank you to all of the partners, funders, volunteers, staff and attendees for enabling summer HAF to be such a success.
If anyone has any feedback from any of our HAF activities over summer then please get in touch via our Facebook page messenger, call 01782 817 590 or email info@middleportmatters.co.uk.
