Delivering HAF spaces - Easter 2024 Skate Club
Over Easter 2024, I delivered Skate Club with Campus as their newly appointed youth and community worker alongside other members of Campus staff. Our offer was a series of whole day sessions for 7-12 year olds centered around skateboarding at our repurposed facility in Winterbourne, just north of Bristol. The key opportunity we had over this particular Easter period was to provide two funded spaces per day through the South Gloucestershire Council HAF programme.
Through engaging in skatepark-based activities, the children had the opportunity to take risks in a controlled and structured environment. Learning to use the facility appropriately gave children the chance to practice social skills as well as spatial and situational awareness. The children who were initially less confident could choose to try out using skateboard decks without wheels in order to develop board feel with a lower level of risk before dipping their toes into riding around on a board with support.
The activities in the skate park were an ideal prompt to discuss healthy habits for exercise. We were able to talk about the importance of stretching and warm-up games at the beginning of the sessions to properly prepare our bodies for skating (with some first-hand anecdotes from the coaches!). We also underlined the importance of hydrating with water as and when needed and planning in breaks throughout the day to avoid fatigue and keep our bodies ready to skate.
The children developed physical skills and resilience throughout the sessions when challenged and coached at an appropriate level by our experienced instructors to learn new tricks in the park. Learning by trial and error is an essential part of skateboarding and developing the mindset needed to keep at this challenge was a key skill our participants were able to practice with us. This was supported by the fact that the children were able to mentor each other where possible; children who were learning a new trick were coached by those who had already learned it themselves.
The sessions also involved opportunities to develop creative and imaginative skills through arts and crafts activities. The children were provided with a variety of skateboarding magazines and other media to choose from to inspire collage making, skateboard painting and grip tape art. We also ran a ping pong tournament and board game groups as additional activities where children could engage in positive competition and teamwork.
The fact that we were able to engage and provide a rewarding experience for children and families who had booked with us through the HAF program was fantastic to see. The father of two siblings who came to us through HAF booking was extremely impressed with how much they had learnt and how much they enjoyed themselves, especially as his daughter was very anxious in the morning but settled nicely with support from us. Both children were so happy to show him what they had learned. Dad was amazed he hadn’t known about our facility before and assured us they would be back.
The mother of another HAF attendee was able to inform us about his additional learning needs when booking through EEQU, which helped us deliver our session in an appropriate way for him. She immediately placed him on the waiting list for our future skate clubs because of how much he had got out of his time with us.
Find Out More Here: Skate Club