Holidays Are Fun annual report 2023 to 2024

We have been providing Holidays are Fun ( HAF) activities within our primary school since 2019. These activities allow children to have fun, eat nutritious meals and enjoy enriching activities all within a safe environment during holiday periods. We feel the HAF programme also encourages children to gain confidence, interact with other children and create lifelong friendships.

Our HAF activities consist of sports, crafts, preparing and cooking food, and much more. Parents are also invited into the school to participate with cooking and to receive additional free food from our community market. The uptake and feedback we have had from attendees and parents alike has been amazing.

The families within our school (almost nine out of 10) are in the lowest 20% deprivation in the country. Rising inflation and fuel bills are causing huge difficulties for many families and the increase in the cost of living has been having a detrimental effect on the families within our school. FSM children are our priority group; however, we also identify vulnerable children as well as SEN pupils who can benefit from HAF.

We have a high level of immigrant and refugee families within our school who speak a vast array of languages. HAF gives our children time to learn about each other outside of the classroom and develop their communication skills.

We acknowledge that physical activities and social interactions all assist with the mental health and well-being of our children. Our PSA is available to oversee the health and wellbeing aspect of the HAF programme and signposts families to relevant places where they can access help and support if needed.

The children see our school as their 'hub' and 'safe' place. The parents see us as a gateway to help in a non-judgemental way. The HAF funding allows us to provide this during the holidays. The provision is needed within this area, and we feel any reduction in this provision would severely impact our families.