It's another summer holiday childcare/activity one - 12-15 year olds?

[drspouse]

DD is 10 and in Y5 and she's very happy going to science camp/theatre camp/sports camp this year. They all go up to age 12 and I think she'll still enjoy the theatre camp next year but she was the oldest at the sports camp and among the oldest at science camp.

However DS has SEN and while he is also being kept busy (1:1 swimming lessons for 2 weeks) DD will not want to be at home with him and DH for weeks on end in the future.

I imagine she'll meet up with school friends in town or at their houses and appreciate a few days to chill but if anyone has any good ideas for us to investigate... she might well like something a bit more mature in October half term as well.

She can go to PGL, I know, and we'll definitely look at that, and she's joining Scouts but their camps tend to be over a weekend to accommodate leaders who work. All the "learn a sport" camps are for much younger children, and her own favourite sport is cycling, but she's not old enough to go off for a day's bike ride (nor will she be aged 12), and they don't run extra daytime clubs/classes for her age group in the summer. She isn't musical, doesn't dance, and the theatre clubs all run at the same time (in term time) as her cycling club so she can't progress much in those beyond a week in the summer.

Outward Bound do great residential weeks for teenagers in the summer - right up to early 20s!

It depends on exactly where you live and where you DD goes to school but some LAs have youth activities that involve music production/DJing, doing art, and getting girls into sport for teenagers in the summer holidays. (I would look at your LA webpages to see if they have anything and if you DD goes to school in a different LA look at those as well.)

Also I'm aware if you live near any riding stables and your DD likes horses, some of them have week courses in the summer holidays for all ages of children.

My local theatre runs a summer programme for secondary age children.

She will probably just hang with friends, I wouldn’t worry too much.

Some of the holiday clubs near me have older kids in a volunteer helper type role, she might be interested in something similar in the clubs she's attended herself when younger or if she's particularly into a sport or activity. Also our local library has volunteers from age 13 to help with the summer reading challenge for younger children.

All great ideas! I have seen some youth activities run by our LEA but they are all for FSM families.
One of the clubs she goes to does have some young teenagers helping, actually.
She's unlikely to want to hang out with her friends at our house - they don't really come round (in fact she reports one friend's dad has banned him from coming to our house). Maybe she needs some new friends, in fact. She's still quite young for her age and mainly plays at the park or joshes with them in the playground so maybe she'll get more into "hanging out" in the next couple of years.

We had a huge change between summer of Y5 and Y6. He basically went down the basketball courts and hung with mates the summer before Y7. Certainly any planned club would NOT have been welcomed (a
boy who always loved planned activities). Also lots of secondary schools have stuff in the summer for the incoming Y7s, lots round here had whole weeks of activities.
Now he’s going into Y8 he’s done a weeks rowing camp with secondary school.
I’d wait and see how she is next year. You may find she’s completely different in the way she hangs out with her mates.