"It's a lifeline to these families and children" - Halifax headteacher calls for summer camp funding to continue

A holiday activities and food (HAF) programme is running at the school for the first four weeks of the summer holidays, four days a week for four hours a day.

The camps take place during every holiday and are funded by the Department of Education.

Around 90 children are attending the sessions at Ash Green School in Mixenden, who are eligible for free school meals.

The free camp provides children with breakfast and lunch and they get to take tea home for their families.

"They do different activities to keep them occupied, it's giving their families financial support and respite and the children a lot of stimulation," Mungo said.

"Since the fire (at the school), a road block was put in on Bell Bottom Lane to allow for safer travel for the children, who are having to use a different entrance now.

"That's supported healthier travel, a lot more children coming to school on bikes and scooters because they feel safer coming that way.

"But these blocks are like something out of East Germany, big grey blocks of concrete dropped on the road.

"So we had an artists working with the children during the camp to redesign them to be bright and colourful with messages of hope.

"I'm on site quite a lot of the time and there's a social worker on hand every day, so we're able to support the families of vulnerable children as and when issues arise.

"Whether it's to do with finance, fuel, food, uniforms, we've already done a lot of work with that in the first two weeks of the holidays, whereas if these camps weren't on, these children and families would be out on their own.

"It's something that is apparently going to run out of funding this year, but it very much needs to continue.

"It's a lifeline to these families and children, so we need it to continue if possible."

A meeting was held at the school this week between architects, the school, the council and the building company discussing plans to rebuild the schools' lost classrooms, destroyed during an arson attack last February.

The process is expected to start at the end of August and be completed by early April next year.

"The classrooms we have at the moment are here until July, so we've got a bit of wriggle room there," Mungo said.

"We'll be rebuilding bigger and better than what we lost, replacing the classrooms we lost as well as the specialist intervention room.

"A beautiful building, solar panels, powered by heat pumps, the entire site will all be on one level, which is a bonus with accessibility.

"And we'll be creating extra play space. The temporary car park, which used to be a field, will be an additional multi-use games area, and we'll get our old car park back.

"We'll have a building site running alongside a working school for the next few months and there's a lot of work to be done so that one doesn't impact the other.

"But it'll be worth it in the end to get our school back to being fully operational and looking smarter than ever before.”