November's Bowling Tornament

We started of the new term by having a bowling tournament. 

Competitors made their way to our local bowling alley, where they went head to head in the bowling battle to end all bowling battles!

Players limbered up before starting off the competition with some taking early leads whilst others tactically playing the slow game.

Thinking over strategies and game plans.

Competition was extremely fierce and everyone wanted to walk away with the trophy.

Regardless of who won everyone had a great time and enjoyed the competitiveness of the evening. The winner will be presented with the highly coveted trophy at our Christmas party in a few weeks.

October Half Term: A trip to the countryside

October half term was the perfect opportunity to have a little break in the beautiful setting of the Ashdown forest at the Hindleap Warren Outdoor Education Centre.

Hindleap Warren allows young people to take part in a wide variety of exciting activities and the chance to get out of the city and enjoy the space and freedom of the country.

The group learnt how to build shelters:

Everyone enjoyed spending time in the forest.









The group took part in some indoor activities such as indoor Archery:

The group also completed some more challenging activities such as the zip wire. A few of us were quite anxious about doing the zip wire, but with lots of support and encouragement from the group we managed it.

Climbing to the top..

...Preparing to jump!

Enjoying the view.

Overall everyone enjoyed their break in the country, we pushed ourselves to do every activity even if we didn't know what to expect. We all came away from our weekend at Hindleap with a great sense of accomplishment and a well needed confidence boost.

October Activities: Celebrating Black History Month

During October the Youth Club focused on celebrating Black History Month. 

We spent time discussing our different backgrounds and heritages in order to learn more about different cultures.

The group also did some cooking in order to learn more about different cultures:

The group really enjoyed being hands on and learning new skills:

The group really enjoyed making and eating curried chicken with rice and peas and fried plantain.

It was great to learn some new skills and learn to cook a meal that everyone loved. A massive thanks to the members of staff that helped with all the cooking and teaching of the young people.

Thames Riverboat and trip to Kew Gardens

Last week saw the last of our summer activities programme.

We took a riverboat along the Thames from Westminster to Kew Gardens.

Along the journey there were lots of iconic and interesting buildings to look at.

The journey took just over an hour.

Once we were there, we had lunch and enjoyed the afternoon looking around the gardens.

Summer Activities Update

Last week we went on a couple of day trips as part of our summer activities programme.

Our first trip was to the oval to watch Surrey vs Somerset play cricket.

The weather was great and the atmosphere was very different to the sorts of sports we are more used to watching.

We all got into the match and picked up the rules and scoring system quite quickly.

Some of the shots were amazing and we really enjoyed ourselves, we would really like to go again in the future.

Our next trip was a family day to Brighton. 

We were joined by a number of parents and siblings for this day out.

We relaxed by the sea on the beach, had fish and chips and visited the arcades on the pier.

It was a great day out and everyone had lots of fun!

Wimbledon Tennis Tour

On Monday, 7 of us went on a Wimbledon tennis tour. Before the tour of the grounds we visited the Wimbledon Museum.

The grounds were massive and very well looked after. Wimbledon prides itself on keeping with tradition and giving visitors the feel of Edwardian Britain.

At the entrance to the famous cente court Is a statue of Fred Perry the famous tennis player and clothing brand.

Inside the museum were lots of different historical items and interactive games.

There were some very old advertising and posters in the museum which were very artistic.

Some of us took the time to test our reaction time with 1 of the interactive games. This was hard work but very fun.

We had a photo opportunity with the Men's and Women's singles trophies. They were both a lot bigger than they look on tv.

We started the tour opposite centre court and listened to the tour guide explain the origins of the Wimbledon Championships.

Apparently No visit to Wimbledon is complete without rain!

We visited the media room where players are interviewed, we got to sit in the same seats as Andy Murray, Serena Williams and all the great tennis players who have played at Wimbledon.

We then moved outside to centre court which is an amazing sight and we took lots of photos.

The tour was brilliant and we all had a great day!

Summer Activity- Wembley Stadium Tour

Friday the 8th of August saw 10 young people visit Wembley Stadium for a stadium tour.

We took the train all the way to Wembley Central and walked the short distance to the stadium.

We began the tour by taking a seat in the stand and having a very interesting and informative talk from the tour guide.

We got the opportunity to shout the words that every musician has said when  performing at Wembley- "Hello Wembley".

We visited the media room and had our photo taken in the same seats used by Roy Hodgson, Steven Gerrard, Neymar and 1 Direction.

We then moved into the dressing rooms.

There was 1 dressing room with shirts representing all the teams that have recently played in a number of sports at Wembley. 

We then moved onto the England football  team dressing room and had a look around and photos taken.

We enjoyed lining up in the players tunnel and walking out onto the pitch. 

This was a great trip and we all had a lot of fun, we had our photo taken with the FA Cup which was great! 

Day Trip to Southend

On Thursday 31st July 11 of us went to Southend for the day. We left at 9am and made our way to the seaside.

When we arrived, the weather was fantastic. It was very hot and sunny! We took a walk along the seafront and stopped at the theme park next to the beach.

Some of us chose to go on a few rides there. The rides were fast and very fun. It was really busy and some of us took the opportunity to relax with a drink and take in the surroundings.

At lunchtime we found a very nice restaurant overlooking the sea. We had fish and chips and everyone sat together chatting about the day.

After lunch we took a relaxing walk along the seafront in search of a quiet area to dip our feet in the sea.

After a couple of hours relaxing on the beach and in the sea, we stopped for an arcade break!

Everyone had fun playing in the arcades and some of us left with our pockets filled with 2p's!

Before we left to go home there was still time to take in a bit more sun and play football on the beach. We left at 6pm feeling very relaxed and having enjoyed a great day at the seaside.

Thank you to Help A Capital Child for making this trip possible.