I remember on one occasion we were going to bake scones (my Granny was born in Belfast 1913, and she never used to bother much with weighing and measuring ingredients), she made a hole in the middle of the flour and told me to put in ‘just enough buttermilk to fill the hole’. So I poured…. and poured…. and poured some more – as most 6 year-olds would! When she saw what I’d done, she didn’t get cross. She just thought for a moment and said “oh well, we’ll just have to make pancakes instead”
I suppose that’s the attitude we like to think we have at SELFA. We have been established for 5 years now, and during that time we’ve had many occasions when we’ve had to deal with situations we weren’t expecting and work out a solution on the spot!
SELFA is a children’s charity based at Christ Church School, (opposite Tesco in Skipton). We work with schools and professionals working with families to provide out-of-school and holiday activities across the area, with a particular focus on services for vulnerable, disadvantaged and disabled children.
I was initially employed as the Extended Schools Co-ordinator for Skipton, but when the Local Authority made the decision that funding for all the posts across the county would end in March 2011, we decided to go it alone!
Suddenly I had a ‘scones to pancakes’ moment, but 2 years on and SELFA is still here; and going from strength to strength!
What we deliver today is very different from what we did two years ago, never mind 5 years ago, but we have stuck firm to our principles and always keep the children we support and their families at the centre of everything we do.
We run a popular holiday club for 4-11 year olds. Any child can attend, from any school in the area and we offer flexible sessions from 8am until 6pm for parents who need childcare while they are at work or just a short break for both parents and children. There is a cost for holiday club and bursaries are available for families who need it.
Karen is our lively and enthusiastic Play Leader, she works for SELFA all year round and runs the holiday club, she has lots of great ideas and she has a team of Play Workers who provide a high level of care whilst ensuring everyone has fun! My own daughter goes to holiday club and she loves it, that’s the best endorsement that I could give the club.
The other main area of our work is providing free holiday workshops for children and young people. These always book up really quickly and are open to everyone, including children who are disabled. We usually run these activities on a Wednesday during school holidays; however we hope to expand this provision in the future as they always book up really quickly! Recently we have held Arts & Crafts workshops, Circus Skills, Dance & Drama and Samba & Percussion to name but a few.
Then there are the ‘Special Projects’ that we co-ordinate through SELFA, which tend to be one-off after-school or holiday projects. Over the last year this has included ‘Skipton: The Musical’ a joint project with Skipton Camerata for Year 6 children and we have plans for a film making workshop at Aireville over the summer holidays.
We also offer volunteering opportunities for ‘Skipton Holiday Helpers’ at our clubs and workshops and we are always keen to find out what parents want through feedback, and find how we can improve the service we provide to local children and their families.
Anyone who wants to contact us or find out more can do so by the links on our website: www.selfa.org.uk
By the way – the pancakes turned out just fine, they nearly always do!
Thanks to Emma Pears, Co-ordinator of local Children’s Charity; SELFA (Skipton Extended Learning For All) for writing this fantastic guest blog for MooBaaKids!
