If you’re anything like me, the end of the school term was a time to celebrate. No need to wake up early on Monday, no need to find an answer to the endlessly hard maths question orto “think” about learning, and the opportunity to do something else!

In reality, I remember school holidays as being a bit long, a fairly monotonous period of timewithout much structure and direction as the wait to the new term began. Sure, there were day trips out – we were made to leave the house every day – and every park in a 3 mile radius of our house was combed over, but this was often mixed up (in a time pre-YouTube) with learning the ins and outs of the antique trade with cash in the attic and how to become a property mogul through homes under the hammer. Important skills for an 8 year old you see.Please don’t get me wrong, holidays were great, the break was wonderful, but sometimes they could just well be… boring.

This being said, I know how fortunate I was. My family made it a mission to ensure that we went on holiday every year. Many a summer was spent on the beaches of Kent or the caravan parks of Minehead and Exmouth in the west country. But what it did give me was a break from the normal — different people around, a shift in routine, and that slightly unsettling feeling that comes with everything being a bit different.

For so many, what I’ve described above will ring true of your holidays. Instead, It may have been a trip abroad or playing more often with friends. It could have involved more time on a games console, or if very lucky, going to a summer camp. Whatever it was, time without activity often left a gap, wondering what would fill the day.

For others however, Holidays bring something else entirely. For many children the removal of school removes the security of a hot meal each day. The safe space they had access to for the past 12 weeks has been removed. Access to friendships, and teachers, so often acting as in loco parentis disappear, and the challenge of navigating the unknown becomes apparent.

What I’ve described here so far looks solely through the lens of a child. Further issues compound when we start to consider the significant challenge and burden placed upon parents and carers to arrange holiday care. Those fortunate enough to have grandparents nearby to support may offer some levels of respite, but in so many cases, significant amounts of annual leave has to be taken, arrangements with work made, and in the worst of all cases, jobs left, just to see out the holiday period.

When we asked how the Holiday Activity and Food programme was working for some parents recently, many spoke about the relief of being able to keep working. One parent summed it up perfectly when they said: “this holiday, I didn’t have much leave available. I could have taken unpaid leave to look after my children, but the HAF programme meant I could carry on working, and pay for the bills.”

For Schools, this idea that Holiday periods are times of uncertainty for children, and families,is nothing new. Back in 2020, schools were encouraged to open for students who would be in need of additional support, identifying those who would be considered “at-risk” and ensuring covid safe measures were put in place. Teachers gave up summer holidays to ensure the school could be open, meals were provided, and families offered support where needed. Fast forward five years, and it’s worth reflecting on what has remained from this period of time.

Parents of children in receipt of benefits related free school meals are still able to claim supermarket vouchers for the holiday period, albeit at a slightly modified amount, and many food opportunities exist through distributors like the Felix project, and other local community partnerships. additional community partners are also offering free sports coaching, such asSurrey Cricket through Croydon Family Hubs, and school uniform support has increased significantly, but equally the challenges faced by parents has remained the same.

The Mayor of London’s Free Holiday Meals support has however stopped for the 25/26 financial year which brought in around £300,000 worth of food support to the borough for the past three years, and whilst some schools are still opening through the holidays, the nature of the support on offer has changed. After HAF became a statutory programme in 2020, schools had choices: run something themselves, work with wraparound care or PE providers, or bring in external organisations. But the reality is that by summer 2025, only 27% of Croydon schools opened their doors for HAF delivery. In some ways it is reflective of the funding available, but in other ways it leaves a difficult question: is enough being done to support those who need support most during this time?

Of course, there are other holiday schemes happening in schools, but giving children a familiar nurturing safe space is more important than ever. Ensuring there are more spaces available, and more localised support is what families time after time tell us they are looking for. For some children, the difference between attending and not attending a summer programme can simply come down to how close something is, whether it feels familiar, or whether there’s an adult they already know on site. When that familiarity is in place, children often arrive more relaxed, more settled, and more willing to take part. So expanding the number of safe, known environments available during the holidays isn’t just about increasing capacity — it’s about helping children feel grounded at a time when routine and predictability suddenly fall away.

This is where real impact sits: building on the pockets of provision that already exist, andfinding ways to make that kind of support more consistent, more local, and more accessible for the children who benefit from it most.

The Department for Education have recently announced extended provision for the HAF programme to cover the following three years, and there is a real sense of optimism of what might be achieved through this time. More, localised, familiar provisions on offer to children and young people, within their community, and a chance to seek out support, and food when needed the most.

And now is the perfect opportunity for schools to consider what they could be doing to support. Identifying those at-risk pupils seems the first and most obvious practical support available, but helping families find what’s out there — and doing it in a way that doesn’t feel stigmatising — is just as important. Currently, Less than half of eligible children actually book any HAF session on offer to them. Sometimes it’s not the provision itself that’s the barrier — it’s simply not knowing what’s out there, or thinking “this isn’t really for us.”

Across the borough there is a whole variety of activities when it comes to the HAF programme, and the best part is the courses on offer come at absolutely zero cost to the family. Helping families access this is imperative.

But why not take the involvement further? Could your school deliver a HAF programme? Operating your own HAF provision allows schools the opportunity to continue holistically supporting children most in need, allows members of staff opportunity for additional work through the holiday period, and offering a much needed lifeline to parents. Alternatively, a delivery partner could operate from your site, and there’s opportunity to build great links and ensure children are well supported without needing to run the whole programme yourself.Purely from a learning perspective, children and young people engaged in activity throughout the holiday will allow for greater opportunities in study moving forwards, something we should all be striving for in our schools.

But, if we’re serious about making sure children are supported – properly supported beyond the bell, then we also need to go much further than just the HAF programme. Looking at a child’s whole day, week, and year will be important, and considering how Breakfast Clubs, Wraparound Care and after school spaces, and holiday activities for all have a significant place to play in the learning journey of a child. It all links together, and losing even one part of that jigsaw has a huge impact.

Over the next few months the local authority will be considering how all these elements fit together. Focussing on school aged childcare gives us opportunity to think how learning and development can be taken further, and offer support beyond the school day. Because for a lot of children and families, the moments outside normal school hours offer significant challenges, but also where there is opportunity to offer an alternative narrative.