After the Trust’s latest Camp Inspire drew to a close, three of the staff involved with organising the initiative spoke about how the camp went.
Adam Guirdham began by saying: “Camp Inspire is an initiative for children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities who would benefit from structured activities during the holidays.
“We’ve just successfully delivered two camps, one for our primary age children and one for our secondary age children, engaging with up to 100 different families and hopefully making a positive impact.”
“Our primary age camp was hosted at Brimington Junior School. The space was perfect to allow us to deliver the different sessions and I just want to say a massive thank you to Mr Newberry, the headteacher, and all his staff for allowing us to use their facilities – they’ve been a big reason for the huge success over the winter.”
Fellow staff member Craig Dawson went on to highlight the opportunities for the kids in attendance: “They’re able to socialise with new people and come together to do sessions that they might not necessarily do and learn new skills.
“It’s great for the families to have a bit of respite too. Ultimately, it’s for the kids, but then you’re helping the families have a bit of time to themselves too.
“Without all the staff, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do. A lot of stuff goes on behind the scenes to do all the prep work, the rotas and all the session planning.
“The kids wouldn’t have as much fun as they do. We have staff leading groups with group assistants to help out, and we also have one-to-ones that know the kids inside out to assist with their individual needs.”
Debbie Dance then spoke about some of the other groups available at the Trust: “We have pan-performance, pan-disability football, pan-crafts and pan-multisport. Not everything the Trust do is sport-based.
“The performance group is dance and drama. In the football group, we’ve got the U12 and U16 team as well as an adults team.
“In crafts, we’ve got two sessions on a Wednesday and a Thursday, with a focus on what’s happening around the world, creating crafts that relate to that.
“The multi-sport is a little like a mini camp, with several different sessions delivered to the group.”
For more information, please email: adamguirdham@spireitestrust.org.uk