Let's assume that we are going to be free from Lockdown this year and there or thereabouts we will follow the Government road map timetable.
Hooray, I hear you shout.... and I know for sure that there are a lot of Mums out there who want to get their holiday dates organised. I hope this will help.
I am so happy that we can start back at Forest School.
It has been a difficult time, to say the least. On the one hand, I have really appreciated the time to slow down and reflect on what I do and how I can make it better.
This is where the idea of starting a sustainable children's clothing brand came from. The idea has taken a lot of time, however, the love that goes into getting it right is priceless.
Restarting Forest School proper will mean that I can keep Grass Roots Muddy Boots going which is great news.
Holiday clubs every school holiday.
Because the days are longer we can run from 9am-3pm.
The restrictions prevented us from opening the February half term to everyone. We had to restrict it to children who fitted the criteria for attending school during the lockdown.
However, we have been able to open the Easter holiday club to everyone.
The demand for the Easter Club really took us by surprise. We initially had to open to the same group as of February, however, when the rules changed we could open it to everyone.
We did not get the chance to advertise it as open to anyone before it sold out I can only assume it was word of mouth.
This is such good news to be full but do understand that a lot of people felt disappointed that they missed out on a place, especially if they subscribe to updates.
I totally get it...I believe that if you value us enough to hand your email over, then you should be getting something of worth (to you) in return. If you are one of those people I am really sorry and I have been thinking about how I can make it as fair as possible going forward.
The issue lies with the timing of opening the booking page.
Going forward I plan to email subscribers with the date that the booking page will be open On this date we will open the booking for a week to subscribers only before advertising it on social media.
We also plan to run a holiday club every school holiday and release the date to subscribers as soon as we have finished the last one so it gives parents 5-6 weeks notice, we thought that would be helpful too.
I have recently had quite a few messages from Mums asking about the dates for the summer holiday. It may be a good idea to publish the dates of the summer holidays further in advance than 5-6 weeks. Would you find this useful?
You want to get organised ....right?
after a year of cancellations and disappointment, I understand this.
Please let us know what you think of this plan by commenting below, equally let us know what you are finding challenging at the moment about organising school holiday activities for your children. Maybe we can help.
The other events we are starting to run again are birthday parties. These will start after 29th March. We still have some Covid restrictions in place, like the number of adults that can stay. These are proving to be pretty popular; we do parties once a month at Bishop Wood and Arkendale sites. The dates are on the website up until June and you can book them online with a £50 deposit. the parties work really well and are stress free because of the freedom the children are offered to play with their friends, something they have all been missing during lockdown.
We are really trying to bring back our sessions for families who have children with additional needs. This is proving to be a challenge as we have lost our sponsor and can't afford to put the sessions on for a small group for £4 pp anymore. We are putting our thinking caps on to solve this problem and bring the sessions back without increasing the price. We will keep you posted.
I hope this information is useful to you. Let me know if it is by commenting in the box below. You can subscribe to the fortnightly blogs by clicking subscribe at the top right of this page. It would be great to have you on board.
Have a lovely weekend
Sally x
