Having Fun
The Sunshine Clowns have been coming to the North Wilts Holiday club for many years and know many of the young people well. They are two of the kindest people you are ever likely to meet. Spoke and Posy always take great care to ensure that the show they put on is suitable for the audience and everyone is included. Children always come out with armfuls of balloon animals, and prizes and huge smiles.
Photo courtesy of Longleat Enterprises Ltd.
Longleat is always a successful day, we go around the animal park and enjoy looking at all the wild animals and waving at everyone else in their cars. After a picnic lunch we have time to do one or two of the other attractions such as pets corner, adventure playground, postman Pats village, the butterfly house, The bats, or the railway. We try to avoid the maze though!
Bowood have been amazingly generous to us over the years. They open up an hour early, especially for us so that we can play on the adventure playground without having to wait for our turn, as it can get very busy in the holidays. The bravest and most agile of our members love the arial walkways, high slides, death slide and climbing nets.
Club members who are less agile, or prefer to stay nearer the ground enjoy the soft play areas and ball pool, swing boats and pirate ship.
When we are worn out from playing we go for a walk around the grounds to see the cave, lake and the waterfall, which often leads to lots of imaginative games full of magic and mystery. We have also used the Driving range at Bowood where some of our club members had a marvellous time, learning the skills of golf.
Drawings by Eliot
Lamb and mother at Cotswold Farm Park
Cotswold Farm Park always look after us incredibly well - as well as looking around at all the animals and feeding some of them, we have the opportunity to go on a tractor ride, play on the adventure playground, listen to a talk and sometimes have the opportunity to bottle-feed the baby animals. There are lots of play attractions that the young people can enjoy too.
Cotswold wildlife Park is always a full and exciting day. There are so many animals to see, a play area, a train and we often have a talk by the keepers as well. The otters, Meercats, monkeys and penguins are great favourites.
We usually choose to go to Christie Miller Sports Centre to join in with bowling, there are only a few lanes and we often have the place to ourselves which is lovely as with 1:1 staff there are a lot of us in a small area. Everyone can join in with the bowling in they choose as there are special ramps for the balls and Holiday Club staff are always on hand to help - we also put some music on the jukebox and there's a real party atmosphere.
Bristol Zoo is a thoroughly enjoyable day out the penguins and seals are always popular and there are many other animals to see too. We all meet up for a picnic lunch where there is often a talk and animal display.
Bristol Zoo also kindly give us access to their first aid room to enable us to administer any medication and change pads etc in a private and dignified way.
Firemen
The Firemen are always very popular with young people and staff! We have the opportunity to look around the Fire appliance, wear the protective clothing, and the highlight is always having a go at squirting the hose. The fire men also sound their sirens as the leave so we can see the lights flashing and hear the noise.