CASPA News February 2025

February Half Term Fun At CASPA!

Hello all from CASPA.

It’s time for the monthly CASPA news that highlights and celebrates all of the achievements of our members, clubs, activities and the dedicated team of staff and volunteers that makes it all possible.

This month, CASPA would like to share all of the amazing and super fun activities that happened during this February half term. Here at CASPA we realise that just because school stops, it doesn’t mean that the fun should stop. (nor should the support for parents during school holidays stop). Every half term and holiday our fun loving and creative Project Delivery Managers (PDM’s) come up with all sorts of fun and exciting activities that really makes CASPA special for our members and ensures that the spark in our community never stops.

Holiday activities can be any variety of things such as multi activity days, trips and activities around London and the local area. Or even residentials where members spend a night or two away from home. This February half term an awful lot was compressed into just one week including a variety of trips and activities as well as the famous multi activity day on the Friday.

A multi activity day is an extended version of our normal clubs but during the day with members of all age groups mixing, for a longer period of time, and siblings are welcome to join. Oh, and maybe a children’s entertainer or exotic animal expert might come along. Essentially our normal club pumped with a lot of caffeine and the volume dial turned up to 100. It’s no wonder the support staff have nicknamed them ‘MAD’ days (a rather clever anagram).

One activity that has really stood out this half term was the CASPA trip to Go Ape at Battersea park with special thanks to ‘Happy Days’ for funding the tickets for our members. Despite a lack of trees and ground space, this climbing course is one of Go Apes highest in the UK. It also has wooden beams as stand in trees with three courses overlapping each other at different heights on the same beam. It’s a lot of challenge packed into one playground sized space.

One of the most common difficulties for autistic and neuro divergent people can be co-ordination, self-organisation, and sensory overload. So, with all those barriers considered and the fact that the members on this trip were all just kids, you can imagine how challenging an assault course high above the ground would be for them.

Despite this, almost every single member went up and did at least one course, taking on every challenge and every crossing one by one and step by step. For the support staff that were up there with them and saw such determination and a development of skills there was a huge sense of pride that so many members weren’t afraid to push and challenge themselves.

One member said once they were up there that they “forgot how scared they were” but regardless didn’t give up and completed the course anyway.

Gabby Norton who was leading the trip had this to say, “They loved every minute of it!”

All CASPA staff and members are looking forward to the next set of holiday activities and we can’t wait to tell you all about it.

To find out more about CASPA, please take a look around our website. You can also follow us on Instagram and Facebook or get in touch with us at contactus@caspabromley.org.uk.