This year has been an extraordinary one for everyone. The Holly Lodge Centre has had to adapt the way our sessions run, including not using any indoor space and sadly none of our volunteer education team. However we are thrilled to have been able to provide a safe and creative place for our visitors, who have benefited even more from getting outside and exploring nature.
We ran a special Autumn themed Art Competition for local care home residents who usually attend our workshops but sadly have been unable to visit us in person this year.
We reopened in August and have had a magical summer with the families who visited us.
We opened up our nature trail for individual families of children with a special need or disability and their siblings. Our team set up lots of sensory activities, such as a jelly pond, mud painting, clay and pond dipping, then let the families in to explore independently.
“[The children] have loved the activities and exploring the trail. The quiet surroundings have been especially great as busy environments are difficult for us to concentrate in. Very welcoming team and accommodating for SEN children.” Parent
There were many families who had been shielding over the lockdown period so it was wonderful to be able to provide a safe, fun space for them.
We linked with local groups Skylarks (a charity in Richmond) and Kingston SEND Parent Carers Forum to invite families known to them and in total we had 93 visitors, including 53 children attend.
To watch a short video of the summer visit our facebook page here.
We have battled the brambles, bindweed and nettles getting ready to open the Holly Lodge Centre.
Local pub The Victoria in Sheen has kindly donated over £1000 to the Holly Lodge Centre.
Unfortunately The Holly Lodge Centre will be closed to the public until further notice.
We are looking for cyclists for Ride London to raise money for the Holly Lodge Centre.
On a very, very wet day in February pupils from Clarendon Primary donned their rain gear and took part in a special Amphibian Day here at The Holly Lodge Centre.
We all went completely batty over some very special visitors to the Centre last week. We were joined by the whole of Clarendon Junior School, who came to learn all about bats. The classroom had been converted to a bat cave where the children donned costumes and discovered some stories about bats. Out on the nature trail we used our sensory dipping boxes to explore some more facts about bats, the children hunted for moths and recreated echolocation. The finale was to meet live bats kindly brought to the Centre by Derek from Surrey Bat Trust. We all met two tiny soprano pipistrelle bats, Billy and Benny, who were most obliging and let everyone get up close to have a look at them.
The day was even featured in the Richmond and Twickenham Times, read the article here.