This Easter, children and their families across County Durham have benefitted from a new approach to school holiday provision, with a series of activities developed to cater for Neurodivergent (ND) and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) children.
As part of our Easter Holiday Squad, we joined forces with Unite Club and The HUB Consett to run a free, fully inclusive programme throughout the two-week school break, featuring creative tasks, science experiments, problem solving, movies and more.
The sessions were hosted by a team of people specialising in supporting ND/SEND children and includes support sessions for parents/carers.
Michael and Lynn brought their granddaughter to all the SEND sessions over the Easter break: “These SEND sessions are absolutely ideal and our granddaughter has really been able to be herself. The HUB is a really nice, relaxed environment and the team running the activities understand the children’s needs and support them, which is brilliant.
“We’ve never done anything like this before, but we would recommend it to other parents and carers with ND or SEND children. We don’t get many opportunities to look after our own wellbeing but here we’ve felt supported. Our granddaughter is happy and more confident, which means we can relax and feel happy too.”
Karbon Homes has been running Holiday Squad since 2021, offering a range of free activities for children of primary school age. The provision is supported by Durham County Council’s Fun and Food County Durham and the sessions come with a free meal.
Feedback from parents on previous Holiday Squad sessions highlighted a gap in the provision of fully inclusive sessions, which led to the development of this year’s programme.
Paul Moralee, Karbon Homes’ Community Investment Manager, said: “While our early Holiday Squad activities were aimed at being SEND friendly, feedback told us that they didn’t always fully cater to some SEND children’s needs. We noticed higher no-show rates amongst SEND children.
“We did a lot of work speaking to parents and practitioners to find out what activities they would like to see and what the sessions would look like. This included having smaller group sizes, making guides to venues, and calling parents to discuss the activities.
“We’ve now partnered with Unite Club, The HUB and Fun and Food County Durham to make these SEND activities a reality and we’re excited to see both children and parents enjoy them.”
Unite Club is an inclusive project offering families, and members in the community, the opportunity to grow, unite and connect to support inclusivity.
Unite Club is owned by Katie Toner, an autistic/ADHD advocate based in Northumberland.
“My passion is creating inclusive spaces and supporting the community to embrace and understand neurodivergence.
“Being able to work with Karbon Homes, The HUB and Durham County Council to help bring fun SEND friendly activities to even more families is fantastic. I hope this is just the beginning of more activities like this in the North East and beyond.”
The HUB Consett is a café and a shop owned and operated by Celebrate Difference – a social enterprise set up to support neurodivergent people in business.
Education Lead, Graham Martin said: “We’re thrilled to be hosting these SEND friendly activities with Unite and Karbon. It can be hard to find activities that support SEND children and often they can be left feeling excluded. Having these Holiday Squad events lets them meet new people and have loads of fun in a way that feels comfortable. It also gives parents the reassurance that their children are in safe hands.”
This Easter, children and their families across County Durham have benefitted from a new approach to school holiday provision, with a series of activities developed to cater for Neurodivergent (ND) and Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) children.
As part of our Easter Holiday Squad, we joined forces with Unite Club and The HUB Consett to run a free, fully inclusive programme throughout the two-week school break, featuring creative tasks, science experiments, problem solving, movies and more.
The sessions were hosted by a team of people specialising in supporting ND/SEND children and includes support sessions for parents/carers.
Michael and Lynn brought their granddaughter to all the SEND sessions over the Easter break: “These SEND sessions are absolutely ideal and our granddaughter has really been able to be herself. The HUB is a really nice, relaxed environment and the team running the activities understand the children’s needs and support them, which is brilliant.
“We’ve never done anything like this before, but we would recommend it to other parents and carers with ND or SEND children. We don’t get many opportunities to look after our own wellbeing but here we’ve felt supported. Our granddaughter is happy and more confident, which means we can relax and feel happy too.”
Karbon Homes has been running Holiday Squad since 2021, offering a range of free activities for children of primary school age. The provision is supported by Durham County Council’s Fun and Food County Durham and the sessions come with a free meal.
Feedback from parents on previous Holiday Squad sessions highlighted a gap in the provision of fully inclusive sessions, which led to the development of this year’s programme.
Paul Moralee, Karbon Homes’ Community Investment Manager, said: “While our early Holiday Squad activities were aimed at being SEND friendly, feedback told us that they didn’t always fully cater to some SEND children’s needs. We noticed higher no-show rates amongst SEND children.
“We did a lot of work speaking to parents and practitioners to find out what activities they would like to see and what the sessions would look like. This included having smaller group sizes, making guides to venues, and calling parents to discuss the activities.
“We’ve now partnered with Unite Club, The HUB and Fun and Food County Durham to make these SEND activities a reality and we’re excited to see both children and parents enjoy them.”
Unite Club is an inclusive project offering families, and members in the community, the opportunity to grow, unite and connect to support inclusivity.
Unite Club is owned by Katie Toner, an autistic/ADHD advocate based in Northumberland.
“My passion is creating inclusive spaces and supporting the community to embrace and understand neurodivergence.
“Being able to work with Karbon Homes, The HUB and Durham County Council to help bring fun SEND friendly activities to even more families is fantastic. I hope this is just the beginning of more activities like this in the North East and beyond.”
The HUB Consett is a café and a shop owned and operated by Celebrate Difference – a social enterprise set up to support neurodivergent people in business.
Education Lead, Graham Martin said: “We’re thrilled to be hosting these SEND friendly activities with Unite and Karbon. It can be hard to find activities that support SEND children and often they can be left feeling excluded. Having these Holiday Squad events lets them meet new people and have loads of fun in a way that feels comfortable. It also gives parents the reassurance that their children are in safe hands.”
The SEND friendly Holiday Squad sessions are funded by Karbon Homes and Durham County Council’s Fun and Food County Durham through the Department for Education’s Holiday Activities Fund.
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