An activities club enjoyed by hundreds of children during the summer holidays has had to be cancelled for the first time in nearly 40 years – due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Gordano Valley Church in Portishead has been running its Cludo Holiday Club at Gordano School in the first week of the holidays for the last 37 years.
But due to the ongoing pandemic, organisers have taken the difficult decision to cancel this year’s club.
Each year the club offers a range of activities including sports, day trips and drama sessions to around 250 primary school age children.
Activities are offered for free and relied upon heavily for working parents and those wanting to offer their kids fun activities during the holidays.
The club, which costs around £5,000 each year to run, is free for children and funded by the church.
Gordano Valley Church minister David Francis said: “There were so many unknown factors, including whether we would be able to hire the school and whether we could gather volunteers in the same way as we normally would, that we had to make the decision to cancel.
“There were also issues with the social distancing measures that needed to be in place and how we could keep the children and our volunteers safe.
“The club takes a massive community effort to run each year.
“The decision to cancel it was not one we took easily but our priority had to be safety.”
The club originally ran at Highdown School before moving to Gordano School.
The church, which also meets to worship at Gordano School, is now looking at providing a package of online activities to help keep children occupied during the holidays.
Mr Francis added: “We know the club will be missed, not only be the children but also the parents who rely on it during the school holidays.
“But we do plan to come back next year bigger and better than ever.”
To find out more visit https://www.gvc.org.uk/cludoclub.html
