Coming up this May Half-Term, we have three days of activities for families.

Tuesday 29th May – 9:30am – 11:45am
African Mask and Dance Workshop

Two workshops on African Mask Making and African Dance, at St Vincent’s school. Refreshments will be provided. Both adults and children welcome to join in, no age limits, but all children must be accompanied by an adult.

Wednesday 30th May – 10am – 1:30pm
Rock Climbing at Free@Last

We will meet at St Vincent’s at 10am, check everyone’s shoes and see which adults want to climb, then we will walk to Free@Last’s new centre on Nechells Park Road. It is a 15-20 minute walk so please make sure you are wearing sensible shoes, even if you are not planning to climb!

Thursday 31st May – 9am – 4pm
Fun Run at Sandwell Valley

We will be leaving St Vincent’s at 9am, travelling by coach to the beautiful Sandwell Valley RSPB Reserve, for a 5K fun run around the lakeside. Don’t worry, you don’t have to run if you don’t want to! You can walk the 5K route, or you can just come along and enjoy the surroundings. Bring a picnic!

If you would like to take part, please contact us this week, by calling 01216752359, or email nechellsreachout@gmail.com. You can also drop into St Vincent’s office on Vauxhall Road and ask about half-term activities.

Lots going on here at Reach Out!

Baking

2pm – 3pm
Thursday 10th, 14th May. Thursday 7th & 14th June. 
A mix of sweet and savoury baking, lots of tips for doing it yourself at home. The only thing you need to bring is a container for your baking!

Eat Well

1pm – 3pm
14th & 21st May, 4th June.
Learn to cook healthy food on a budget. Only three weeks left of this class, they’ve made some incredible dishes so far, big meals, snacks, all good for you and all easy and cost friendly to make!

Driving Theory

9:30 – 11am
9th, 16th and 21st May. 4 week course.
Learn to pass your driving theory test in four easy to follow classes.

Ladies Fitness Class

2pm – 3pm Every Wednesday
Get in shape with our weekly fitness class – a different workout every week, dance styles, boot camp and much more. 

Coming Up:

Self Defence

1pm – 3pm
Thursday 17th May – 6 week course

Check out these and all of our other classes on the What’s On Page. Get in touch if you’re interested in anything we offer, or have an idea of something we should!

Day 1 – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Day

We had a lovely day watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory and trying out all of Charlie’s adventures ourselves!

We hunted for the Golden Tickets, visited the Chocolate Room and the Inventing Room…

We tried fizzy lifting drinks and lickable wallpaper…

We had a dejuicing race, hunted for the Golden Egg and even transported inside a TV…

And finally a chocolate egg hunt. By which time I think we had eaten our very own lifetime supply of chocolate!

Day 2 – Singing and Percussion Workshop

Songs from around the world, all kinds of percussion and my personal favourite – boom whackers!

Day 3 – Stay and Play

Day 4 – Conkers

Conkers is an indoor and outdoor adventure centre in Derbyshire. The weather was cold and grey but we didn’t let that stop us!

Parents and children both got very brave on the high ropes course, including one reception child!

Wicked

And of course we had our adults only trip to Wicked at the Hippodrome theatre in Birmingham. No pictures are allowed inside the theatre, but a fantastic evening was had by our group of thirty Reach Out Participants.

If you like the sound of our holiday activities, get in touch. We run activities for all ages every holiday. You do not have to have a child at St Vincent’s to take part, just talk to us HERE or come in a say hello!

Starting Monday 16th April!

This is a six week course on how to cook healthy food, healthy eating and cooking on a budget. This course is for any ability, whether you never cook or you cook everyday, you can pick up tips on simple ways to make a healthy meal.

The course will help with:

• Improving basic cook skills

• Reducing consumption of sugary foods and drinks

• Improving confidence in how to shop and cook on a budget

• Improving knowledge of healthy eating

• Understanding food labels

The course will run for six weeks, on Mondays, from 1pm – 3pm. There are two bank holidays in this time, which means the course dates will be Monday 16th April, Monday 23rd April, Monday 30th April, Monday 14th May, Monday 21st May and Monday 4th June.

If you would like to join this course, please email nechellsreachout@gmail.com as soon as possible, or fill in the contact form: Here

Hi all! It feels like we’ve just got back from the February half term but we’ve only got one week left until we’re off again for Easter!

As always, we have some exciting family activities available during the holidays. If you would like to take part in any of these activities and you have a child at St Vincent’s, just return the forms as usual. If you do no have a child at St Vincent’s you can still take part! Just email, call or use the contact form here, to give your names and which activities you’d like to join. But be quick, spaces fill up fast!

Monday 9th April – Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Day
12pm – 3:30pm

Celebrating Easter with the greatest chocolate maker of them all. We will watch be watching the Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory film and joining in with searching, inventing, exploring and tasting of our own. We’ll end the day with a giant easter egg hunt!

(This day has limited places – to avoid disappointment, please contact us before bringing your child.)

Tuesday 10th April – Singing and Percussion Workshop
9am – 12noon

Bringing back the Music Workshop Company, to learn about singing together, music from all over the world, ending with a performance!

(Please be aware the time of this workshop has changed from the original letters!)

Wednesday 11th April – Stay and Play
12 – 3pm. 

Family play time, with ball games, toys and equipment in the playground, the climbing frame and just in case it rains, we have our indoor climbing frame and obstacle course ready too!

Thursday 12th April – Conkers
9am – 4pm

Family trip to Conkers adventures in Derbyshire. Indoor and outdoor play areas, woodland trails, lots to do for all ages.

For more information on Conkers visit their website here.

(This day has limited places – Only booked places will be able to join us on the day. To book, contact us here.)

It doesn’t really feel like it, but Spring is here! We’ve made some changes to the timetable which will be in effect from now until the May half term (25th May 2018).

Going out:

PHOTOGRAPHY – Our photography class has now finished – might be returning before the summer holidays depending on demand.

ARTS & CRAFTS – Arts & Crafts class has 3 more weeks, taking us up to the Easter holidays then is finishing as a weekly class. We will be holding one off craft mornings for different activities.

Coming in:

SWIMMING – Swimming is back! Every Thursday, free swimming at Aston University for those signed up, anytime between 12 and 18:45pm. (If you have a baby/toddler, you can still take part, but it will need to be between 2pm and 5pm and there needs to be one adult per child.) – To join, simply contact us to be added to the register.

DRIVING THEORY – We will be offering new places for Driving Theory Class, starting in April, with a new day and time – Wednesday mornings, 9:30 – 11am. This will be a five week course.

SELF DEFENCE – There will be a starter workshop for anyone interested in self defence classes on Wednesday 21st March, 9:15 – 12:15.

EAT WELL COURSE – This will be a six week course on healthy eating, starting from Monday 16th April, 1pm – 3pm.

ADVICE AND ADVOCACY – This will be a weekly support for parents of children aged 0-5, on housing, benefits, debt management, job readiness and any other help needed such as filling in forms or telephone calls.

We will be continuing with Entry 2 ESOL, IT, Pre-Entry ESOL, Ladies Fitness, Life in the UK and Help/Advice drop-ins as normal.

If you would like to join any of these activities, please contact us HERE, or come into the school office to speak to us.

(Alternatively, if you see nothing you need, but there is something else you’d like to do, contact us and tell us! All of our activities come from ideas from our users – just ask.)

St John Ambulance came to give our participants an essential first Aid course, covering all of the basics of life saving first aid for adults and children.

We will be running follow up classes in infant and paediatric first aid in the summer term. This class filled up quickly, so let us know you’re interested now if you would like to join!

In some of our school holidays, we like to travel outside of the city, like last half term when we visited the Forest of Dean, or summer at Sutton Park, or Malvern. In other holidays, we like to remember that there are a lot of brilliant things to see and do right here in Birmingham. We think Cadbury World is one of those!

With the exciting tour of the history of chocolate, starting in the Aztec Empire. John Cadbury and his sons explaining their journey to their giant chocolate factory – particularly when the room shakes to show us what happens to the cocao beans!

Then there’s the chocolate mixing demonstration, the Cadabra Ride, the 4D cinema and the giant playground! The free chocolate went down quite well too…

Thank you everybody for a lovely day out. If you enjoyed that trip and want to put your name down for the next trip in the Easter holidays, or you didn’t go and think you would like to join the next one. Contact us HERE. 

In April this year, the west end theatre show ‘Wicked’, will be at the Hippodrome, Birmingham. Wicked is a musical, with an alternative take on the book and film, The Wizard of Oz.

Reach Out has a limited number of tickets available, for the evening showing on Wednesday 04th April. We are offering these tickets for free, to adult users of the Reach Out project. If you would like to be in with a chance of winning a ticket, you just need to fill in a short questionnaire, about activities you’ve taken part in with us. You can get a questionnaire by coming into school and asking at the front office, or you can contact us and request one by email. 

The deadline for returning questionnaires is Friday 2nd February. When all of the questionnaires are in, we will draw 34 names at random. These 30 will receive one ticket each. Please be aware these tickets are for adults only – no children or toddlers will be admitted to the theatre.