Whilst the furore rages over the withdrawal of child benefits as well as ringfenced funding for school sport the Haven Fun & Fitness scheme continues to benefit under-5’s at nurseries with the provision of free sports equipment designed to help children meet government guidelines regarding the importance of physical activity. Following Nick Clegg’s plans to provide the poorest two year olds in the UK with 15 hours of free pre-school education a week, this scheme could benefit these youngsters in a similarly positive way.
The scheme, now in its third year was re-launched recently and got off to a flying start with more than 1,000 playgroups and nurseries registering in the first week. Top Early Years experts also gave it their official seal of approval as Haven Fun & Fitness was named winner of the Special Award in the Nursery World Awards 2010.
However there are plenty of early years settings in the UK that still need to register for the scheme. Haven organisers say, ‘We are concerned that too many youngsters will miss out on all the benefits of up to £250 worth of equipment available to pre-schools and nurseries.’
Designed to encourage under-5’s to get the fitness habit early, the web-based scheme provides substantial bags or boxes of sports kit especially chosen to appeal to younger users. Brightly coloured, robust and suitable for both team and individual play there are a number of different Fun & Fitness packages available to suit different early years settings.
Typically the kit includes balls, hoops, cones, skipping ropes, soft foam flyers and a mini parachute. This year pre-schools who have already taken part in the scheme will be able to opt for a ‘Sports Day’ package complete with team bands and certificates.
The scheme is unique amongst corporate giveaways in that no voucher collection or purchase is required. Early years settings simply need to register their interest on www.havenfunfitness.com and encourage parents to visit the website and leave a simple message of support.
Haven say ‘Many pre-schools and playgroups simply don’t have enough children to benefit from voucher collection schemes. We wanted to support younger children in a way that would be easy for Mums, Dads and carers and not involve them in any cost at all. The scheme is now in its third year and already hundreds of early years settings have participated and many thousands of under-5’s have benefitted from the free equipment.’
The scheme includes a substantial support pack to make it easy for busy pre-school leaders to distribute to parents and easy monitoring of progress so everyone is aware of how close they are to reaching to the required targets. As one parent said ‘Clicking on the website is much easier than baking cup cakes and selling them at the school gate – and the free kit our playgroup received is of excellent standard and been wonderful for the children.’
To register for the Haven Fun & Fitness giveaway click on www.havenfunfitness.com
Haven Fun & Fitness is operated by Haven Holidays. For more information click on www.haven.com
For media information call Deborah McCabe on 01444 235 154 or email deborah@aboutwords.co.uk
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