SSE staff at Fiddler’s Ferry power station lent a hand to local parents over the summer by hosting a week long ‘Summer Camp’ for over 100 children at its on-site Education Centre.
This is the second year that such an event has been offered at Fiddler’s Ferry. The camp was open to local children over five consecutive days and covered a range of activities including making slime to take home, how to survive the night outdoors, how to DJ and even a water fight!
Gemma Davis, Education Resource Manager at Fiddler’s Ferry, said: “We know that parents dread the cost of entertaining their children throughout the holidays. For that reason we decided to host a week of activities at our Education Centre.
“When we asked the children if they had fun during the week, the answer was a resounding YES!
“We asked parents, if they could, to contribute £1 per child per day. Over £130 was collected in total and donated to local cancer hospice, St Rocco’s, with Malcolm Kindon, a representative of the charity collecting it from the children at the end of the week.”
Each day had a different theme with Monday being ‘Mad Science Activities’. The children learnt about centrifugal force, how to create a vortex and even made slime to take home.
Tuesday was an action packed day of team building activities, mostly spent in small groups creating shelters in the surrounding woodland. The children learnt how to light a fire safely, how to survive the night in the outdoors then ended the day with everyone gathered around the campfire eating jacket potatoes that they harvested from the Education Centre garden, heating up marshmallows and singing campfire songs.
The children worked particularly well together in groups on Wednesday when they devised a play in a day. They learnt how to use physical theatre and sound scape.
A local education company visited the Education Centre on Thursday to lead a workshop to teach them how to DJ, rap and beat box. The afternoon was spent composing a group rap which encouraged the children to use their literacy skills.
On the last day, the children were allowed to bring in their water guns and over 30 children (and some staff) had a big water fight. The children then created a presentation of what they had learnt and enjoyed, along with some photos of the week’s events. This was presented to parents in the afternoon after a picnic party.
Feedback forms were given out to both parents and children and the feedback could not have been more positive with 100% of those attending stating that:
- They felt that their children were safe whilst at Fiddler’s Ferry.
- They felt that the organisation and communication of the event was excellent.
- When asked if they would like their child to attend another event at Fiddler’s, it was a definitive yes from all who attended.
Mrs Gall’s son, daughter and nieces attended the Summer Camp, she said: “It was a fantastic varied programme with so much taking place outside, working with children they don’t know and of varied ages. It was very well done.”