A week-long summer school for 60 children and young people with Down Syndrome will be co-funded by Meeting Needs, the event industry foundation, working with 21&Co – a parent-run support charity based around South West London dedicated to giving support to families.
Members meet regularly to share their experiences and give each other advice, support and every summer they run a weeklong summer school known as Holiday Club 21 aimed to reinforce school learning for the children during the summer holidays and provide some respite for parents in a safe place. They teach children aged 5 to 19 through fun, interactive and educational programmes of indoor and outdoor learning activities. This gives each person opportunities to develop maths and English skills through a targeted, age-appropriate teaching style to enable the children to learn new skills and consolidate existing ones, while making new and important friendships. They can then take these new skills to their next year at school and work on developing them for the next year.
Trustee Georgina Devereaux said: “During the week, we make a book for each child to take away with them and they stick photos of their activities in the worksheets. Many parents then use these in the holidays to work on new skills and show them to the school in September.”
The £2500 grant from Meeting Needs will be used for materials and consumables like paper, pens, ink, glue sticks, sand, crafting materials, and resources of all kinds while additional financial support will be provided by Hollyhock Foundation.
To find out how you can work with Meeting Needs, contact Margaret Mann at mmann@meetingneeds.org.uk
