International Easter Club

The International Easter Club project was carried out in partnership with iCan Health & Fitness as a part of the Cumbria County Council Holiday Activities and Food Programme. We were delighted to have our wonderful Jayshree Naveen doing International dance with the children and Story Contracting leading STEM sessions.

We aimed to engage and encourage the children to be active, make new friends, learn new activities, explore culture and try international cuisines. Many of them arrived as strangers and left as friends.

Every day was different and it was wonderful to welcome smiling and excited children. We had many children from the Diaspora groups from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bulgaria, Turkey, Poland, Caribbean as well as our local Cumbrians.

The club encouraged them to participate in activities such as rebounders, dance, keeping fit, playing football, mindfulness, positive mindset, working as teams, Indian dance, discovering cultures, learning new activities such as using chopsticks, making breathing buddies and a lot more! Some real favourites of the children were rock painting, making magic mindful jars, creating pictures about what inspires them and writing positive words.

Every day there was a new International cuisine that was served in reusable tiffin boxes. The children loved exploring what they were going to eat as they opened the various sections of the tiffins. All food was consciously made, taking food and nutrition into account and ensuring the children were served hot and healthy meals.

It was wonderful to see the children feel comfortable and build confidence in engaging with each other. Each day they wrote down how they felt on our ‘wall of graffiti’ and it was superb seeing it build with positive comments and their visions.

They also got their moment of fame with Border TV filming and asking them about their experiences.

The children all enjoyed the activities and told us how they can’t wait to come back.