After delivering more than 50,000 meals to our city’s young people during school holidays in 2023, Westminster’s healthy schools holiday programme is back to keep our city’s youngsters happy, healthy, and well fed during the Easter holidays.
The healthy schools holiday programme, funded by the Department for Education (DfE) and Westminster City Council, provides free activities and food provision for children and young people aged 4 to 16.
Activities will be taking place right across Westminster this Easter, with a wide variety of clubs catering to different age ranges and offering different activities to suit our young people’s interests.
Providers of activities include Club Xpress, based out of Westbourne Park Family Centre, where kids can enjoy a wide range of sport, creative, and learning activities each day – from bouncy castles, to theatre, to arts and crafts, and lots more.
Other exciting activities include the Puppet Club, run by The Puppet Theatre Barge and the Floating Classroom, where children can make their own puppets, enjoy a boat trip on the canal, see a live professional puppet show, and even perform their own puppet show.
Bloomsbury’s popular football camp will also be delivering their fun and inclusive camp for kids of all skill levels to stay physically active while having fun, with lots of coaching throughout the week culminating in a tournament day on the final day.
School age children (from reception to year 11) who receive Free School Meals are eligible for a free place. All other families are able to access the activities at low cost.
Cabinet Member for Communities, Children and Public Protection at Westminster City Council, Councillor Aicha Less, said:
This scheme is one that we as a council are really proud of, and one that we feel is vitally important to support our city’s families over the school holidays.
We receive funding from the Department for Education to deliver activities during the Winter, Summer, and the upcoming Easter holidays, which we top up to make sure the programme’s the best it can be for Westminster’s young people.
Because we know how important this programme is, especially in a cost-of-living crisis, we fund the provision of activities in the half term holidays ourselves - to make sure the service is available for families all year round.
I would strongly encourage parents to get their kids involved in the programme during the Easter holidays and beyond – your child will come home each day having enjoyed a day filled with fun activities, made lots of new friends, and be full up from a healthy, nutritious meal.
Geoff Biggs, CEO of Westbourne Park Family Centre who run the project Club Xpress, said:
Children who come here take part in a variety of activities each day - we play group games together, they can play sports, they can choose creative activities, they learn together, and we split them into key stages so they get to play with similar age children.
We’ve seen lots of positive impacts on the children - they get the opportunity to explore doing different activities that they might not do at home or at school, and the parents really value this project. I would really recommend sending children to a healthy school holiday activity – there really is something for everyone.
To find out more about activities available, please visit: What's On | Our City
Published: 8 March 2024