Hello!
It's my turn again to share everything that has been happening for me over the summer, and what a summer it was!
In my last blog I mentioned that my HEY CU in the Holidays project would finally be returning. As a result, in the months leading up to the summer holidays, I was busy with the prep and planning required to lead them, alongside getting in to the schools to meet all the children that would be taking part.
This year we opened it up to five schools taking three children from each. These children will be heading to secondary school next year so the idea was to introduce them to other children who will potentially become peers in a new environment, thus giving them the chance to have already formed friendships prior to starting and hopefully making the transition less daunting.
The first trip saw us all head up to Spurn Point to see Carmen and the team from Yorkshire Wildlife Trust. The Spurn Discovery Centre gave us a chance to sit the children down and introduce each of them to one other, go over some ground rules and let them get to know us. Following this we headed on to the beach, bin bags in hand, to perform a clean and talk to the children about the importance of looking after our seas and beaches. We found a few shark eggs, spotted a seal and found an actual shark that had unfortunately washed up on shore. We then headed for lunch before going back down to the beach to hunt for fossils and a quick paddle in the water before heading back.
Week two we took a trip to Hull city centre for a pizza party at Prezzo. This was a fantastic experience in which each child got to throw their own dough, add toppings of their choosing and cook them in a pizza oven, before sitting down to enjoy their creation. It even included a 'Who made the best pizza?' competition between me and Alan. Judged by the kids, I had to admit defeat (although I’m pretty sure there was a large amount of bribery going on!). Then, onto the afternoon, we paid a visit to the transport museum for a ride on the carriage before grabbing a well-deserved, refreshing drink on our way back to the station.
Welton Waters was the location for week 3. This is a tried and tested trip that the kids absolutely love (as does Alan, who had already been twice that week!). We started by playing some wet team games outside, which gave us chance to throw some buckets of water around and get everybody absolutely soaking before we headed into the water to do some paddle board jumping. This was great to watch as a few of the children had a slight aversion to water; however, with a little encouragement and making them feel safe, all of them managed to get into the water and enjoy it. This helped with the afternoon's activities which were paddle boarding and kayaking - everybody had a great time.
Into the fourth week, we then took a trip to East Hull Community Farm to visit our friends from Rewilding Youth. This trip was all about our Stone Age ancestors and the beauty here was the children had the chance to independently explore the site and be allowed a bit of freedom to play. They also had the opportunity to learn how to naturally start a fire and be safe with this, make homemade bow and arrows and dens, whilst also cooking in an open flame natural oven. It was like real-life Minecraft!
For the final week, we headed to Goxhill Meadows: another place we at Children University absolutely love. All the children spent the day walking goats and alpacas, tending to horses and chickens, and learning about the 5 freedoms for animals. Jayne and the team were also kind enough to provide us with a BBQ for lunch, which really helped cap off the summer.
And just like that, the summer was over. I had managed to organise the same staff attending on each trip and I need to give a big thank you here to Bex, Phil, Toni and Alan. You were all incredible and I genuinely couldn’t have done it without your support. Oh, and Chris too: you kept me right in the office when it was needed. They say 'teamwork makes the dream work' and it really does.
For now, its time to put my schools programme beanie back on, don a jumper and head back out on our more regular trips, before the return of HEYCU in the Holidays in the October half term.
Shaun, Learning Experience Lead