Playschemes
Leeds Mencap runs playschemes for children aged 2 – 19 years old.
The emphasis is on having fun, trips out and making new friends.
The playschemes are based at East End Park where the children have plenty of things to do such as crafts, pool, table tennis, ball pool, sensory room and lots of toys.
Some examples of places the children have visited are:-The Donkey Sanctuary, farms, playgrounds, Tropical World and swimming.
We recently recieved some lovely feedback from our April playscheme -
"The staff are very friendly and inviting. The children are very excited about going. I feel staff meet my children’s needs. They are treated as individuals and I feel this playscheme provides optimum environment for my daughter, it is relaxed, cheerful and the staff are great."
"It has given my husband and I some quality time to spend together. We have had a great week knowing that our children are safe, happy and well
cared for. We have spent quality time with relatives, been shopping together and out for lunch."
"I was very impressed firstly with the number of staff and secondly with the quality of staff. Staff had a wide range of skills around working with children with physical and learning disability and activities were presented to enable children of all abilities to have access. Trips were planned so that all children would benefit from the experience/s and the playscheme was well managed and led by the playscheme leader – who made a point to speak to me every day and tell me about my child and what she had liked/disliked, etc. How much food she had ate, drank, etc – so felt very informed, very secure in that my child’s need were being met and piece of mind that my child was in a safe and secure environment with highly trained staff."
"It has helped his socialisation skills. He finds it difficult to make friends but on the scheme he is chatty and friendly. Everyone accepts him for who he is."
"There was easy access to the building and a hygiene suite for personal care. My child was taken out of her chair on many occasions and allowed to have some free time on the floor – whilst being encouraged by staff to stretch, bend etc and also giving my daughter some freedom of movement."
"My child was encouraged to make choices about activities and even though she has no verbal communication – staff took the time to learn my daughters individual way of saying – yes/no and gave her many opportunities to make choices of what she wanted to do, where she wanted to be, etc."
Sue Kendall Playleader of our Playscheme for younger ages writes:
'The best way to learn anything is through play and at our playscheme we insist on lots of play!
We provide lots of safe, stimulating fun indoors and out, for the children who attend our playscheme.
The children are given as much one to one play time as possible and are encouraged to play with the other children around them.
We offer trained staff that have lots of experience working with children who have special needs. We have two Leeds City Council Blue Badge holders, the Play Leader has a Level 3 certificate in Play Work and we have trained first aid staff.
We try to take the children on outings every day, weather permitting and funds available.
Some of the places we have had success with in the past are; Temple Newsam Farm, Roundhay Park Tropical World, Golden Acre Park, the Donkey Sanctuary at Eccup, Ponderosa Therapeutic Farm, Lotherton Hall and last but not least, the White Rose Centre!
We run the playscheme in the summer holidays for at least two weeks, if we can secure the premises we extend this to three.
The greatest recommendation for us are the children who have been coming back year after year and we believe this is due to the high level of care (and fun) we pride ourselves on supplying.'
JOIN US
To register for this year's schemes please Contact Us
Please note there are limited places available.
