The Goals Beyond Grass HAF Programme was enjoyed by over 30 children throughout 2022, many of which had physical and learning disabilities. 

Each child was asked to give us one sentence about their experience with the HAF programme, and a rating out of 10. 

On average, our rating was a 9/10, with over half of the answers being 10/10 or higher!

Children’s Feedback – August 2022

• A total of 75 participants were counted
• Of those 75, we had 27 different children, 19 of which came back on multiple occasions
• 51% of the 27 participants had a disability
• 72% said that they tried something new
• Almost 2 Thirds said that they made new friends
• 78% said that they had a great day
• All of the children said that they had Fun and felt Happy
• 71% rated their day 5/5 stars

Children’s Feedback – December 2022

• Best Day of My Life
• I liked all of the activities that happened during the day. The food has also been yummy.
• It was fun because I learned how to use the PowerChairs. It was good to meet people.
• It was very good to play with different people
• I enjoyed the parachute games
• I loved the snowball fight
• 9.8/10
• I liked Basketball
• I liked cycling in the hall when it was raining, outside is more fun though

The Holiday Activity and Food (HAF) Programme is something which Goals Beyond Grass have been a part of since its inception in 2021. For the Children, this session is FREE, with a nice hot meal at the end of the session, which for us is at lunchtime.

Our sessions consist of a morning of inclusive and disability sports. We tend to start with inclusive sports and games in the sports hall, such as Boccia, New Age Kurling, Plunger Archery, Giant Jenga, Giant Connect 4 etc, which allows the children to get comfortable with each other and the coaches quickly. These games allow everyone to compete against one another, as these games are adaptable so that anyone can play.

We then head outside, after a quick refreshment break, to use our Adapted bikes. The children get the chance to cycle on different bikes, which they wouldn’t get the chance to use elsewhere. We cycle around the tennis courts on site, which allows for plenty of space to get some real speed up. We do provide the children with Helmets, and there are plenty of staff there just in case.

We will then go back to the Sports Hall, where one specific sport will be set up. This will be a sport which all the children can play or can learn to play. These include, but are not limited to, Football, Powerchair Football, Basketball, Badminton, and Golf.

Each of these ‘mini-sessions’ last about an hour, give or take the short breaks in-between. We will then, at the end of the 3 hours, head into the Canteen to have a healthy, warm meal. The food is supplied by an outside company, who provide similar food to many different HAF programmes in the same area. After all of the children are finished eating, we head through to one of the classrooms, where we play games like Hangman and Pictionary on the whiteboard whilst we are waiting for the parents/carers to collect their children.