Free summer holiday sessions with football club charity

The charity team linked to Oswestry’s The New Saints Football Club has lined up a varied range of free holiday activities over the summer including African drumming, dance, electronic music, doodle art and cycling sessions.

The New Saints FC Foundation will be staging activities and events at Oswestry, Ellesmere, Weston Rhyn, Whittington, Gobowen, St Martins and Morda throughout the summer holidays from July 22 to August 29.

The Foundation has joined forces with partners across the area to run the free multi activity events for children and young people as part of the Shropshire Holiday Activities and Food programme.

The free sessions will feature fun activities, sports and games open to children of all abilities. Children at the holiday workshops will also receive free meals. Details are available at The New Saints Foundation website at Holiday Activities – TNSFC Foundation

Gill Jones of the Foundation said that they were delighted to be working with partners to be able to present such a varied programme of activities across north Shropshire.

She explained that since 2021 the DfE funded free Holiday Activities and Food programme had provided support to eligible children through holiday periods.

“But thanks to support from other local funders we are able to open up this free provision to all children and young people. The provision is very popular, and we would encourage everyone to book a place as soon as possible so that they don’t miss out,” she said.

The sessions for 4 – 12-year-olds take place in Oswestry at Woodside Primary School and The Meadows Primary School. At Woodside they are scheduled for  Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 9.30am to 1.30pm. The Meadows activities will be held on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 1pm to 5pm each day.

In the villages, sessions will be held at Gobowen Playing Fields each Monday and at Weston Rhyn every Tuesday, both from 1pm to 5pm. They will be held at St Martins Centre on Wednesdays and at Whittington primary school on Thursdays, also from 1pm to 5pm. There will also be sessions at Morda and Sweeney Village Hall on Fridays from 1pm to 5pm.

Ellesmere will have a programme of activities on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays from 9.30am to 1.30pm.

Included in the holiday sessions will be Pick & Mix Portraits at Oswestry’s Woodside Primary School and Meadows school, Gobowen Pavilion and Morda and Sweeney Village Hall.

There will be electronic music making at St Martins and bikeability sessions at Woodside school as well as a singing lab at Whittington and African Djembe drumming at Ellesmere and Weston Rhyn.

The Woodside and Meadows school sessions will also include The Explorers dance team.

Summer youth clubs at The Centre, Oak Street, Oswestry and at Whittington Castle and the Whittington Senior Citizens Hall are also included in the programme and will take place in Oswestry from 4.30pm to 8pm and in Whittington from 6pm to 9pm for 11 to 16-year-olds.

They will include sessions featuring Shrewsbury artist Luke Crump who is attracting national attention for his doodle style artwork. He will be at Oswestry on July 24 and August 7 and in Whittington on July 25 and August 29.

The four hour sessions are all supervised by fully qualified sports activity coaches and play workers who regularly work with the foundation.