For this summer the Scheme Staff have been busy planning loads of fun and engaging games and activities for the holiday scheme. Every day of the Scheme will offer a number of activities at our ‘base camp’ run by the Scheme Leaders, these activities may follow a specific theme for a week, or they may link into one of the main activity time tabled sessions outlined below or they may just be fun, standalone activities.

Each day there are two planned activities provided, as you can see from the accompanying time table. These main activities are designed to introduce your children to ideas they may not have tried before, developed new skills, or just provided the children with a fun way to spend the summer holiday.

Please note that all outdoor activities could change at short notice in inclement weather conditions.

Please refer to the time table for details of the days each activity will be taking place

Tennis

Twice a week we are off to the Tennis Centre on Westwood Campus for a professionally coached tennis lesson. Here the children will be split into two groups, roughly key stage one and key stage two. For beginners there will be introduction sessions, including ball control and basic strokes. For the more experienced there will be an opportunity to work on their skills and challenge the professionals.

Bayleaf Cookery School

Challenge the inner chef in your children as they create delicious dishes for you delectation. Each session the children will create one savoury and one sweet, single portion, dish to bring home. Some dishes will require no cooking while others will have to be cooked at home’

Puppet Workshops

Professional Puppet maker Jim Morris who has a fine art degree, a diploma in art therapy and is a member of the British Puppet and Model Theatre Guild, will spend the day working with the children to create their own dragon puppets. They will be guided through the design and production process of puppet making. Encouraged to create a story around their puppet and finally act out their story using their own puppets to the rest of the group.

Circus Skills

These sessions will find us enjoying all the fun of the circus as we learn the circus skill of juggling with ‘Steve the Juggler’ using materials such as scarves, balls, rings, clubs, Diablo, Devil sticks, spinning plates and much, much more.

Art around Campus (Clay, Collage, art in the environment and Mini theatres)

Inspired by the various art exhibitions on campus we will be exploring different art forms through the use of clay, collage, paint, print and stencil and mark making techniques. We will experiment with everyday materials to make impressions, patterns and shapes to make our own work of art. We will also take inspiration from the environment and create mini theatres.

Create-Build-Learn

This very popular activity returns for a third year. This time the team from Create-Build-Learn turn up with their van load of Super heroes and Mine craft Lego™ pieces for a an afternoon of creative building.

Sports Games

The sports games will be led by coaches from Premier Sports, who provide coaching sessions for primary schools throughout Warwickshire. They will be providing a range of sports, depending on the children’s interests, including football, basketball, rounders and cricket. Some sports sessions will run in tandem with other activities, such as the Create-Build-Learn sessions, where the group will have to be split into two smaller groups.

Forest Schools

The forest school activities have also been very popular in previous years. This time the children will be able to choose between going into the forest for the whole day or another activity. These change from week to week but will include tennis, Bhangra Dancing and singing workshops.

The children in the forest school will explore the outdoors via sensory interaction with natural materials. They will use natural materials to create art. Build dens and enjoy their lunch around the ‘campfire’.

Bhangra Dance

New to the holiday scheme, the children will learn a little about the history of this traditional dance form. They will also learn routines and practice how to use props in Bhangra dance.

Dance Classes

Back by popular demand is Denise, with the ZumbaKids and Jazz Dance sessions. So, come on and show us your moves!

Opera and Musical Theatre

The High Time Opera Company will be with us for the first time this year. Their sessions will include ‘So You Want To Sing On Stage?’, an acting and singing workshop to explore the world of singing on stage, using songs from plays and musical films and from Shakespeare to opera.

The ‘Song In A Day’ session will guide the children through the multiple approaches to developing a song. The children will explore basic song forms, developing lyrics, how to make a song catchy, happy or sad and how to make the music reflect the lyrics. The children will also, hopefully, get an opportunity to record the finish song

The sessions will be led by professional singers, stage directors and musicians from the High Time Opera Company http://hightime.org.uk/

Photography

This is another new activity for 2015 that was very popular in the Easter scheme. The photographic sessions will be led by Picture Train http://www.picturetrain.co.uk/about-us/ at this session the children will learn basic skills in taking quality photographs. For this session your child will need to bring along their own camera or other picture taking device.

Drama

There are a number of different drama activities taking place this year, details of which will be added shortly.

The StarDome and Space Centre Workshops

The StarDome is a portable, inflatable planetarium from the Leicester Space Centre the StarDome will be set up on campus and the children will spend two sessions exploring stories about the stars and planets, Ancient Egypt and Greek Mythology. Again they will be split into key stage groups and the will spend a half day each in the StarDome.

On the workshop day the Space Centre will visit the scheme with interactive workshops on life in space, exploring space rock, rockets and understanding the relationship between the Earth, Sun and Moon.

You can find more information about the StarDome and Space Centre Workshops here;

http://education.spacecentre.co.uk/outreach/stardome-portable-planetarium

Craft Session

These sessions will be run by a qualified secondary schools art teacher and will include oil pastel scratch drawings, mono printing, image transfer printing and creating mosaics

Making History

Explore the darker side of the British history in this session and understand when different events took place.

Drum Workshops

A very popular activity from last summer led by James Cannock, the Children will be given the opportunity to learn how to play drum rhythms and create sounds from around the world. They will use traditional drums and recycled materials to create interesting and new sounds. They will also get to play with music technology. The workshop gives an environment for the children to explore sounds and materials in a new and creative way.

‘What is a University?’

During these sessions the Widening Participation Team from the Universitywill, through the use of interactive workshops and games will introduce the children to student life and encourage them to think about attending university in the future.

How does Parliament Work?

During this session the children will be led through

An Introduction to Parliament, with interactive demonstration on how laws are passed, ( this includes getting the children to act as volunteer MPs, Lords and Baronesses).

How Laws are Made: The children will explore what goes into making a new law.

Let’s Have a Debate: This part of the session will include discussing different ways of debating and demonstrating your opinion and will include a House of Commons style debate.

Mini Tennis and Badminton.

During the final week of the scheme the Tennis centre will be closed for refurbishment. The tennis sessions will take place in another sports hall and will include mini tennis, with soft balls and badminton.