Holiday Club

Holiday Club

Our Holiday Club programme for primary school children takes place every Summer during the School Holidays (details of our young adult programme, Team Teen, can be found here). While we’ve become one of the biggest holiday clubs in our area (and probably the loudest!), our aim remains simple: to communicate the love of God and Jesus in a fun and exciting way.

Over the last twelve years, we’ve grown in size (and noise) thanks to the fantastic support of our Kirk Session, Congregation and all the families of the children. And that’s not forgetting our amazing team of leaders who make it all possible.

Our Holiday Clubs are non-denominational and a church background is not a requirement – everyone is invited to join in the fun! All the info you need can be found below but please get in touch if you have any questions.

 

Holiday Club 2022

As per the government social isolation measures put in place to tackle the Coronavirus Pandemic, all our groups including youth activities were postponed going into this year. As a result, Holiday Club was unable to take place this summer.

This was an extremely difficult decision to make and we had hoped to provide Holiday Club later in the year or in a condensed format. However, with pandemic measures still easing, we realise sadly that we would be unable to provide the experience that our children and families have enjoyed over the last 10 years. We also have a significant number of volunteers facing uncertainty around their availability.

The safety and well being of both the children and our volunteers is paramount so we hope you’ll understand our decision. 

But rest assured that we’re aiming for Holiday Club to return in 2023 and we will make sure it’s the biggest and best yet! 

In the meantime, if restrictions allow, we hope to be able to offer Messy Church or other special youth events later in the year. We’ll provide details on these as soon as we can.

 

When is the next Holiday Club?

It’s a wee while until our next Holiday Club but we like your enthusiasm! 

Holiday Club 2023 is scheduled to run from Monday 24 July to Friday 28 July (10.15am to 12.45pm each day).

As always, admission will be free (donations are welcome and will go towards the costs of crafts, materials and snacks for Holiday Club).  You can of course expect a week of crafts, games, stories, music, mess and mayhem… 😉

Our end of Holiday club celebration and BBQ event takes place on Sunday 30 July 2023. Our annual celebration event is always massively popular (and full of surprises!) so remember to bring your family and friends so they can find out more about what we’ve been doing. It’s nothing like a normal service (our presenters previous entrances have included water pistols, shopping trolley gondolas and scooters!) so expect videos, music, challenges and more but most of all, expect the unexpected! And as always, it’ll be followed by our annual BBQ party (don’t worry if it rains, we have wet weather plans in place just in case!).

 

What we did last time: Backpackers!

In July 2019, over 120 children joined us for our biggest Holiday Club yet! It was an amazing week of noise, music, mess and mayhem as our teams “travelled” the world with our presenters Lost & Found. 

You can find all the pictures and videos on our Facebook page – look our for shopping trolleys, Vikings, messy forfeits and much more!

We also had another incredible demand for places, will Backpackers fully booked in just 15 minutes! And we received some lovely feedback from parents and children including:

I just wanted to say a massive thank you to you and everyone involved in the holiday club. This was my child’s first year and she has absolutely loved it!! 

I’ve been so impressed with everything you guys have done. It’s been very well organised, lots of fun things, educational as well as fun!

You should all be very proud of what you do! It’s a great asset to the community and my youngest can’t wait until she is able to come”

Here’s just some of the highlights from Backpackers:

 

Safeguarding
Bo’ness Old Kirk and The Church of Scotland understands the importance of ensuring the safety and well being of all children attending our events. Our leaders hold safeguarding accreditation with children supervised at all times throughout Holiday Club in accordance with the Church’s procedures for dealing with vulnerable groups. If you require any further information or would like to discuss this further then please contact our Safeguarding Co-Ordinators Karen Stewart and Alison McNeish.

All our Holiday Clubs are fully inclusive with children put into teams based on their age and school so that they are with other children that they may know. Please note that while we are happy to consider any requests to place certain children together, this is not always possible due to us ensuring appropriate child/leader ratios.

If your child has any additional requirements or learning needs then please let us know so that we can ensure they have the best experience possible. These should be provided to us in your child’s registration form but if you have any questions, or if anything changes, then please get in touch.

Our registration form includes consent for your child to be photographed/filmed during Holiday Week by our safeguarding accredited photographer. These photos/videos are used only on our website and Social Media pages as a photo/video diary of the weeks events. If you wish for your child to be omitted from these then please let us know.

 

How do I book a place at Holiday Club?

We’ve continued to have an incredible demand for places over the years but smashed our record with Backpackers 2019 fully booked in just 15 minutes! So you’ll need to be quick if you want a place!

Bookings for Holiday Club 2023 open on Saturday 3 June at 9am. Once opened, booking your place is quick and easy via our online booking system (the link to this will appear on our website and social media pages at 9am). 

Once we’ve received your child’s booking, a confirmation email confirming their place will be sent within 24/48 hours. And then you can sit back and start counting down the days to Holiday Club!

If you don’t get a place then don’t worry, we’ll be running a waiting list after bookings close and we always try to make more spaces available where possible

If your child is unable to attend Holiday Club then please let us know as soon as possible so that we can allocate their place to someone on our waiting list.

 

What will we be doing at Holiday Club?

We’re having a wee break before starting the planning for 2023 but, if you’ve been to Holiday Club at the Old Kirk before,  you’ll know that anything can happen! 

In general, our Holiday Club programme runs as follows:

Registration

Team Time: Taking place in their team’s dedicated area, some small craft activities.

Hall: All teams in Church Hall. Songs, videos and general mayhem!

Team Time: Team area. Including some time to learn about today’s bible story, our main craft activity and to participate in some games. Snacks and juice are provided (including fruit).

Hall: All teams in Church Hall. More songs, more noise, more mayhem!

Departure: Children will receive their daily newsletter and have the opportunity to take home any crafts etc before leaving.

 

Competitions!

We run daily competitions which are announced via our Holiday Club newsletter   – this is handed out each day upon departure and available online. Here’s a copy of our 2019 newsletter:

Monday Guidebook

There’s always BIG prizes to be won! But don’t worry if you don’t like dressing up or making crafty things, it’s just some added fun and you don’t need to take part if you don’t want to.

 

Giving a helping hand

During Holiday Club, children are invited to bring items for our local foodbank – the collection box is located in the registration area.  All items will be distributed to those in need in our community

Our rag bag collection point is also situated at the Registration Area. So if you have any clothes/shoes you’d like to get rid off then bring them to Church! (ragbag proceeds go towards Church funds).

 

But there’s more!

We update our Facebook page every day with all the latest pictures and videos from Holiday Club – so check it out!

 

Any questions?

Our Holiday Club information pack can be downloaded below and covers all our FAQ’s but get in touch if you have any questions – we’re a friendly bunch and like a blether!

 

You can find highlights videos from previous Holiday Clubs on our Youtube channel but here’s some of the things we’ve got up to over the past few years:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Xd_77JEdwE[/youtube]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5t6KDZe9cs&t=5s[/youtube]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_JvPyJ9JN4[/youtube]