“Significant developmental value” for children with limited English language skills can be gained through their attendance of play-based holiday provision, research by the Local Government Association (LGA) suggests.
The findings have emerged in an analysis of holiday play schemes in Cambridgeshire funded through the government’s Holiday Activities and Food Programme (HAF) and attended by more than 140 Ukrainian families.
This looked in detail at the impact of the schemes on one Ukrainian girl, known as child D, who has “very limited English”.
She attended for 64 hours through the HAF with additional hours funded by her mother’s employer to ensure she could continue working.
The child’s class teacher “noted significant transformation in her spoken English” during her first three months attending the play scheme, according to the LGA analysis.
