School opens its doors to children over Christmas

A school has opened its doors to families struggling over the Christmas holidays.

Telford Park School had 50 children on Monday come and enjoy a hot meal while baking biscuits and playing games with their friends.

Tom Ward from the school said they'd like to "expand and grow" the scheme next year too.

Nearly one-in-three children in Telford were living in poverty in 2020 to 2021, according to charity End Child Poverty.

"We've got a lovely warm building, we've got an amazing catering team providing lunches for our pupils, we've got staff who want to give up their time in the Christmas holidays to put activities on," Mr Ward, the safeguarding and special educational needs lead said.

He added: "We've got some fantastic pupils who just want to come and get involved in everything we've got on offer".

The scheme, which sees the school open for two days during the holidays, is part of Telford and Wrekin Council's Happy, Healthy and Active Holiday programmes, funded by an annual government grant of £843,000.

It is aimed at children on free school meals.

Budding chef Ameeka, 11, described how she'd made Christmas themed biscuits and how she was going to decorate them.

"It's a very traditional type of cookie, which is mainly around at Christmas time, she said. "I'm going to do a traditional gingerbread man with its three buttons".

There were a lot of proud smiles as they were handed cellophane bags filled with their homemade biscuits to take home to their families.

One boy said he had never made or tasted gingerbread before.

Daisy, 11, was playing online game Minecraft with her friends and building her own Christmas-themed world.

"We're trying to create festive things on Minecraft," she said. "I'm trying to make an enclosure and put some Christmas animals in it...Polar bears!".

Other children played sports with a festive theme and took part in a Christmas treasure hunt around the school, before dinner was served.

Shirley Reynolds, the council's cabinet member for children, young people, and families, said the pressures of rising energy and food bills meant more children needed help this winter.

We're trying to provide help and support for all families but we're particularly targeting children who are on free school meals, families who really need that extra support at this time of year, especially with the current cost of living crisis," she said.

Ms Reynolds said the council had seen a 10% increase in families taking up the support and encouraged parents who might be eligible to apply for free school meals.

"There's no stigma at all in free school meals now," she said. "All those things get loaded on a card and no other child knows whether they're on free school meals or not and if that helps you and your family you really should apply".

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