Woolgrove School: Supporting Families During school holidays
Please find below details of Accessible clubs, activity ideas and support for families during the holidays
Short breaks offer disabled children and young people the chance to spend time out with others socialising and doing fun activities, giving their families a break and providing them with the confidence their child is well supported by a trained worker.
They include holiday and Saturday clubs, and activities range from canoeing and computers skills to lego.
Holiday Clubs
Holiday Activity Programme (HAPpy)
Hertfordshire’s Holiday Activity and Food Programme (known locally as HAPpy) runs during the Easter, Summer and Winter holidays. HAPpy Camps provide a range of fun experiences including physical activity, enrichment, a healthy meal and snacks for eligible children.
Herts Disability Sports Foundation is proud to promote the development of disability sport in Hertfordshire. We provide a wide variety of sports activities for people with a disability and pride ourselves on being able to adapt activities to suit the needs of the participants.
Online and Face to Face Activities for children with ADHD and Autism.
Holiday Activities
Sign up for a free digital HAND card
The digital card, which you view on your phone or tablet, gives you perks and discounts to lots of places for family days out in Hertfordshire. Different places offer different things – for example, some places allow you to ‘jump the queue’, and others will have reduced entry rates.
Cinemas
Purchase a CEA card (£6 per year), for a free carer, tickets bookable online. Alternatively, many cinemas offer a free carer ticket, if you simply show the HAND card. You need to buy your tickets on the premises (but you can do so in advance). Cineworld, Vue, Odeon and several others normally accept the card. for a free carer. In addition there are regular autism-friendly screenings of benefit also for those with learning difficulties.
Stevenage / Enfield Cineworld
Autistic screen time, 1st Sunday of the month, 11 am; no adverts, sit where you like and bring your own food and drink.
https://www.dimensions-uk.org/get-involved/campaigns/autism-friendly-cinema-screenings/
Movies for Juniors: film(s) on Saturday/Sunday mornings. From £2.50 per child. Free Carer with a HAND Card holder all the time.
https://www.cineworld.co.uk/movies-for-juniors#/
Odeon, Hatfield Galleria
Free parking for HAND card holders if your register with Customer Services at the Galleria. Autism-friendly screenings, last Sunday of the month, 10.15 am.
https://www.dimensions-uk.org/get-involved/campaigns/autism-friendly-cinema-screenings/
Campus West, (for roller skating, theatre, cinema etc), Welwyn Garden City
Range of activities – free Carer. Further discounts also with a (free) Zebra Discount Card available from Campus West itself
https://tickets.cwentertainment.co.uk/
Spotlight Theatre, Hoddesdon
Free Carer for most events – theatre, cinema etc
https://ex.broxbourne.gov.uk/leisure-spotlight-year-culture/landing/spotlight
Regular SEND Sessions
Play 360, Stevenage, 1st Friday of the month, 6.30 – 8.30pm
£7 per child (plus friends/siblings welcome too). Adult is free.
https://360play.co.uk/360-play-stevenage
Weekly SEND Trampolining
Jump City, Cheshunt: Saturday Mornings, 9 – 10 am
SEND Sessions (NB SPACE – http://spaceherts.org.uk – also hold an extra FREE hour, where you play for one hour and get two: 9 – 11 am on a Saturday morning, every 2 months. £9.95 – free Carer.
NB Wednesdays, 4 – 8pm (term-time) A Freejumping session (not SEND), but bring a Friend 4 Free. £10 for 2 people for one hour. Free Carer (with HAND Card). Not normally busy especially 6pm onwards.
Trampolining at John Warner Sports Centre, Hoddesdon: Saturdays, 4.15 – 5.45pm term-time only. £4.90 per session. Book in advance, though not normally busy.
https://ex.broxbourne.gov.uk/leisure-leisure-centres/special-needs-activities
Weekly SEND Swimming
Exclusive use of the pool for people with special needs and their families. Whole family welcome. Swimming session for disabled children and adults, coaches on hand to offer advice and assistance. Free of charge / heavily subsidised for at least the child and a carer, often other child(ren) and carer(s) are welcome too.
Stevenage Swimming Pool: Sundays, 4 – 5.30pm
Dolphins Swimming club is for people with disabilities. Annual membership (£5 per person), and a friend can go in for £1 too. Free taster session – just turn up.
https://www.sll.co.uk/stevenage-swimming-centre/
Hitchin Swimming pool: Sundays, 6 – 7pm
https://www.sll.co.uk/hitchin-swimming-centre
North Herts Leisure Centre, Letchworth, Fridays, 7 – 9pm
PISCES Swimming Club for the disabled operates from this pool. Letchworth pool is worth a visit as it also has a slide open for use at weekends and in school holidays, 11 – 4 pm.
https://www.sll.co.uk/north-herts/
John Warner Sports Centre, Hoddesdon: Sundays, 3.30- 5pm
Free session for special needs and whole family.
https://ex.broxbourne.gov.uk/leisure-leisure-centres/special-needs-activities
Laura Trott Centre, Cheshunt: Sundays, 4:15 – 5:45pm
Free session for special needs and whole family.
https://ex.broxbourne.gov.uk/leisure-leisure-centres/special-needs-activities
Hartham Swimming Pool, Hertford: Saturdays, 12.00 – 1 pm
https://www.everyoneactive.com/centre/hartham-leisure-centre/?activitySearch=swimming%20timetable
Other Activities
Bowling -Hollywood Bowl, Stevenage
Half-price bowling, weekdays (including holidays, at least 9-11 am, often up until 6pm). The Carer and the person with additional needs bowl for half price. Reduced price is from £3.50 per game, per person.
https://www.hollywoodbowl.co.uk/concessions
National Trust: nature, beauty, history
Junior (up to age 18) annual membership costs only £10 and you can get an “Essential Companion” card for the carer, free. This also means free car parking in the car parks.
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/junior-membership
Parks
Excellent site giving details of parks and their facilities all over Hertfordshire.
Paradise Wildlife Park, Broxbourne
Reduced rates for disabled child plus carer together. Cheapest if booked online the day before. Accessible talks, feeds, soft play, shows.
Willows Activity Farm, St Albans
https://www.willowsactivityfarm.com/visitor-information/
Standalone Farm, Letchworth
The season runs from 17 February – 31 October. Free entry for disabled child and their Carer too. Pony grooming, cow milking, small animal handling, pig feeding, plus arts and crafts and a play park.
Whizz Kidz
Whizz Kidz, the UK’s leading charity for young wheelchair users, has teamed up with childhood favourite, Morph creator Aardman and a range of celebrities and emerging artists to create Morph’s Epic Art Adventure, London’s first step-free art trail around London.
Pony Riding Holiday Activities for SEND childen – Stepping Stones
At Stepping Stones, young people have the opportunity to engage with nature and ponies in
a tranquil setting, surrounded by woods and farmland.
Please Click HERE for More Information
Help for Families in need
Discount Cards for SEND Families
HAND Card
HAND is the Hertfordshire Additional Needs Database. A one-off Card is available, simply by applying online, and it is free of charge. You now get a digital “card” straight away. Young people up to age 25 with SEND, living in Herts, are eligible. HAND Card holders can get discounts and/or a free Carer place at many places all over the UK, and often abroad too. Really useful!
Carers’ Discount Passport Scheme
A Carers’ Passport is also useful for discounts, in shops, restaurants as well as certain leisure places which want a photo ID of the carer (ie 360 Play). The Card takes about four weeks to arrive.
HertsHelp – We’re here for you
If you or your family need a bit of extra help, remember that HertsHelp are there for you. They can arrange to get food and other essentials to you, or provide advice for a number of other issues you may be facing.
For more information please see – www.hertshelp.net