This summer, during the school holidays, we ran a four-week programme for local families with children aged 5 – 15 years of age. It was a modest programme, resulting from discussions we have had with local parents about children with ASD and/or ADHD. Whilst there are places available through the HAF scheme (which is brilliant, of course, especially the one at Sherwood Park Hall!) for SEN students, some of the mums we spoke to explained that with more than one child it could be tricky to organise different placements for their different children and to get to the necessary locations on time for them all to enjoy themselves. They were also not confident about leaving their child for four hours at a time, which is the regular HAF offer. They wanted to be on hand in case things went a bit wrong. This did sound quite stressful so we had a think about what Commonside, on its perennially low budget, could offer to fill this gap.
Together with some of the mums, we planned a weekly programme that included sports and fitness with Clem at Head4Goal on Tuesdays and Thursdays, film screenings suitable for different age groups, cooking and food activities, and some sessions with Lego and other activities that might be more suited to some of the children attending. We shared our programme outline with our good friends at Merton Mencap, who gave us the thumbs up, and who helped to publicise to other parents/carers of SEN children/YP.
We had a small but regular group of families come along to our sessions. We learnt a lot ourselves – Lego doesn’t suit some children so we looked at other activities they might enjoy. We talked to Mencap and to parents and children about this. Food was always fun and nearly always eaten on the spot – thanks to Katie for putting in the effort and creative thinking to make use of what we had in the kitchen on most days. Thanks also to City Harvest and to Ama at the Mayor’s Fund for London for the donations of surplus and healthy food products!
Sports were done from the Head4Goal base in William Morris Primary School and were ALL delivered outside in the fresh air – we were peculiarly lucky with the weather.
At the end of the programme, we welcomed Cllr Usaama Kaawesa, Merton Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, who chatted to Mireille our Chair of Trustees and herself a local mum and teacher at Harris Merton, to Katie and Emma who were our stalwart volunteers throughout and to Aaliyah who kept the whole show on the road for four weeks. We shared our ideas with the Councillor and hope he went away with an invigorated picture of all the good work we do on a shoestring from the New Horizon Centre in Pollards Hill.
