HAF programme, Holiday Club, Breakfast Club and more at Cumulus Outdoors
June 19th, 2024
Cumulus Outdoors continues to actively support the holiday activities and food (HAF) programme providing healthy meals and enriching activities to children from low-income families, benefiting health, wellbeing and learning.
Since 2022 this national programme has provided 10.7 million HAF days to children and young people in this country. Whilst the HAF programme is exclusively for children who qualify for free school meals, Cumulus has expanded this to reach more local children as well as continuing to develop their Holiday Club throughout the school holiday periods.
Cumulus ran nine sessions of the programme over the Easter period with all sessions fully subscribed, comprising 70% sponsored free HAF places and 30% paid for.
The sessions included an Easter egg hunt, egg decorating, marshmallow bunnies and chocolate nest making combined with adventurous activities such as tunnelling, mini-Olympics, bushcraft, tag archery, beach explorers, aeroball, circus skills, a mini beast hunt at Durlston Country Park plus canoe and raft racing! Throughout this time Cumulus also provided kids with a free Breakfast Club, sponsored by Kellogg’s, which is booked separately.
Cumulus Outdoors is supporting charities
In addition to being part of the HAF programme and organising Breakfast Clubs and Holiday Clubs, Cumulus is proud to support children in need by providing fun-filled days out for charities.
Helping children to be children
MyTime is a charity that fights for the rights of young carers to receive the opportunities that every child deserves, such as support, opportunities and friendship and enabling them to thrive and lead happy, healthy lives. Cumulus was proud to be able to support MyTime by providing a day of adventure activities at their residential centre which included high & low ropes, tunnelling and target sports. Everyone also enjoyed a burger meal at the BBQ area on site. 40 children attended ranging in ages from 5 to 16, all of whom care for family members, providing the opportunity to escape their caring roles for a short while.
Daryna, MyTime’s newest team member stated
“Young Carers explored tunnels, tackled a high ropes course, and tested the balance and strategy with crate stacking. We also enjoyed a shooting range and axe throwing, which added an extra layer of excitement and challenge to the day. The kids showed incredible courage and teamwork, tackling each activity with enthusiasm. Watching them conquer their fears and support each other was truly heartwarming. Seeing the transformation in the children was profoundly moving. They arrived looking weary and reserved, burdened by their responsibilities. By the end of the day, they left with smiles, newfound friends, and a lightness in their step.”
You can read more about MyTime’s experience at Cumulus Outdoors here.
Julia’s House family experience
Julia’s House is a children’s hospice located in Corfe Mullen in Dorset, and Devizes in Wiltshire. It’s a hospice that supports families with children that live with life-limiting, life-threatening or terminal conditions. This year Cumulus worked with Phil at Pierhead Sports on Swanage Pier to provide a repeat of last year’s highly successful powerboat rib ride, two boats with 18 family members. The aim is to provide enjoyable experiences for families with sick children, or for those who have lost children, to have some respite.
Cumulus Outdoors MD Sam Thompson commented
“We have worked hard to expand the quality of the facilities and range of activities available at our centre in Swanage and we take great delight in being able to make these facilities available to both local children and charity organisations”.
Find out more about our HAF Programme and School Holiday Club
The Summer in Dorset HAF Programme and the Cumulus School Holiday Activity Club will be running from 29th July – 30 August 2024 along with the free Breakfast Club and these will be open for booking from Friday 21st June 2024.
As we are now registered with Ofsted, we can offer full day sessions and take childcare vouchers too!
The children all had a great time and Cumulus received some lovely comments:
“My son loved his days at Cumulus this Half Term. He went Monday and Wednesday and was raving about the tunnel session on Wednesday, he said the best part was the ball pit at the end. He doesn’t usually say much to us about his days at school or other clubs, so when he initiates stories about this day we know he’s had a great time.”
“Thank you ever so much. He had a really great time yesterday and did so well with that climbing! … He’s very much looking forward to tomorrow!”