Holiday activity fund – could your school offer activities or premises?

You may be aware from the recent article in our daily communications to schools that the Council has received some central funding from the DfE to run, over the summer holidays, a holiday activities and food programme with the aim of reducing the food insecurity that many families have experienced over the last year by providing children with healthy food and enriching activities over the summer holidays.
Through the Holiday Activities and Food Programme, grants are available for schools and other organisations to run summer holiday programmes for children aged 5-16 who are eligible for ‘non-universal’ free school meals.  This programme will fund provision for four hours a day of activity, for four days a week over four weeks of the Summer holidays.  Providers taking part in the programme will need to provide healthy meals and a range of enriching activities, physical activities and nutritional education activities to meet the standards set by the Department for Education.
We are keen to work in partnership with our local schools, the community and voluntary sector to offer a varied and wide range of activities and we are inviting schools with the higher number of pupils with free school meals the opportunity to apply for funding to deliver these holiday activity and food schemes across the borough.  We would also be keen to hear from any school that would like to offer their premises to be used by others and generate some income for their business.
More information on this programme together with an expression of interest form can be found here, if this is something which your school is interested in participating in.  It needs to be completed and returned to jenny.reardon@bexley.gov.uk by 11June 2021. If you would like further information or would like to discuss this matter please do not hesitate to contact either Jenny or kevin.taylor@bexley.gov.uk