Happy Days Children's Charity

A day at the seaside, a trip to a theme part or a visit to a petting farm is something that most young people take for granted. But for others who are disadvantaged physically, mentally, socially or financially, these are days they may never experience. Thanks to Happy Days, they can.

As well as the fun and excitement of the trip, the children benefit in terms of improved personal and educational development, improved social behaviour and enhanced self-esteem and confidence.

A trip to the pantomime at Christmas is a tradition in many families. But children with special needs are often excluded from participating at a live performance because of their profound difficulties.

We believe every child has the right to experience the magic of theatre. We provide the opportunity to experience many different types of productions - musicals, plays, opera, ballet, pantomime, ice shows and musical ensemble.

For the more seriously ill who may not be able to travel, we can arrange for performing arts groups to run theatre workshops at special schools. This gives young people a chance to get involved in the production and express their creativity freely.

Testimonials

From April 06 - March 07 we organised and funded a vaiety of day and theatre for special needs schools across the UK giving 13,675 children a very special experience.

All children loved the day out and rides. It gave the children lots to talk about and use as a source of follow up work. Some children do not have the opportunity to go on trips with their parents. It is difficult to put into words how much they enjoyed it. Thank you for giving them this opportunity.

The visit was of great educational benefit to our children. The whole visit was excellent. The children were excited about seeing the animals as they travelled through the enclosures. Many of the children had not seen these types of animals before. Thank you so much for enabling our children to gain so much from this brilliant visit.

All our students benefited greatly from the trip. They all have emotional, social and behavioural problems and normally concentrating for long periods is an issue. The theatre production of ‘Horrible Histories – Ruthless Romans’ had them transfixed for the whole show. It also made the work they had been doing come alive! It also encouraged them to do follow up work.

It helped to develop independent skills, broaden their experiences and to allow them to socialise within a set boundary. They also need to be aware of time constraints and meet up at specific times. They also developed map reading skills! Some pupils managed to overcome their emotional comfort zone by attempting rides they would not ordinarily do.