Venue: White Waltham Airfield

Working with Oak Lodge Special School in Barnet, Daytrippers offered a truly unique opportunity for 12 pupils to experience flying in a small light aircraft. Learning about the airplanes whilst on the ground gave the students time to pluck up the courage to take a 20minute flight high in the sky. Nerves were soon forgotten about as the pupils got to look out of the window at the views below. One boy was heard to say over the intercom, ‘I am brave, I LOVE this’ and now wants to fly every week.

This is the second time we have run this event and both proved very successful as it is often the first ever time that a pupil had taken to the skies. A truly special day was had by all!
Please click on the photo to see more images from the day.

Venue: The London Soccer Dome, Greenwich

This is the fifth year running that Daytippers has organized the UK’s largest pan disability football tournament. Wanting to make it the best year yet we embraced the World Cup Football Spirit and gave each participating team a country to adopt for the day. Players came dressed in their own themed football shirts accompanied with flags, vuvuzelas and face paints to add to positive competitive spirit.

Stopping only for a healthy lunch the teams played back to back games throughout the day in either the league or championship for the under 12s or under 16s. The day ended with an awards ceremony where every player received a medal, and trophies were given to the runners up and winning teams. Finally special trophies were awarded to a player of the tournament for each age group, and also the best dressed team who was purely by coincidence Spain!

Daytrippers would like to thank Ray Coleman, Ismar Uzeirovic and everyone at The London Soccer Dome for their help on the day. Click on the photo to view our gallery from the day.

Venue: London Zoo

Daytrippers had 410 excited children and their families join us at London Zoo’s Annual Special Childrens Day this year. The day is specifically geared for disabled children offering a range of unique activities, workshops, live music and face painting. There was a full programme of live animal displays and talks most of which had British Sign Language interpretation.

Those coming with Daytrippers were encouraged to fill out our exclusive detective quiz finding answers from all over the zoo and learning about the animals as they went. We also had the rare opportunity to invite children with visual impairments to take part in exclusive touch tours, and one lucky Daytripper won our star prize to meet the Aardvarks and Meerkats in their enclosure. The day was a huge success and lots of fun was had by all. One parent told us, “It was great to be among so many families with special children, and nice not to be ‘different’ for a change!”
Daytrippers would like to congratulate the winner of our Detective Quiz’s star prize, an iPod Nano. Please click on the photo to view the winning entry and others pictures from the day.

Group: Hartlepool Special Needs Support Group

Trip Destination: Mama Mia

Date: January 2010

Braving the bad weather, Hartlepool Special Needs Support Group all rallied together to attend a performance of the popular theatre show, Mama Mia. The show itself is based around the well known music of Abba providing the perfect opportunity for all to sing along throughout the show. Full of bright colours, great costumes and amazing scenery the day out was enjoyed by all. One child said “I enjoyed every bit of the show, I sang from the beginning to the end, even when it was quiet. This has to be my favourite show yet!’

Venue: Watermans Theatre, Brentford

Showcasing the talent at Belvue Special School, our fourth ever Film Premiere event was hosted this year by Watermans Theatre in Brentford. 120 students came along to this Oscar Themed Premiere to watch 12 unique films never before seen on the big screen. Students gathered early to get their face painted or have a one off glitter tattoo before the show kicked off. Presented by James Mitchell, the show started with a dazzling Glow Juggling performance from Rob at Streetentertainers. The highlight of the event as ever was the Daytrippers Oscar Awards Ceremony with special prizes for the Best Dressed Girl and Boy. The truly electric atmosphere was a credit to the talented film makers themselves!

A huge thank you goes to everyone who helped making this day happen, especially Belvue School, Watermans, Keir Williams (Editing) and Chris Jelley (Photography). Please click on the Oscars to see the full photography gallery from the day.

Venue: Henry Wood Hall, London SE1 4HU

On Sunday 21st March 2010 Daytrippers teamed up with the dynamic charity Create for the third year running to offer FREE tickets to one of their Creative:Space Concerts exclusively for Daytrippers. The morning was packed full of dance, art and beautiful music from The New London Chamber Ensemble and the amazing Derek Paravicini (who is blind and has severe learning disabilities). The children were taken on a spectacular journey through this interactive music concert and encouraged to all take part in the music making and fun! Daytrippers would like to thank everyone at Create for their hard work, and also Ismar Uzeirovic for his beautiful photography.

Please click on the photo to see more pictures from this event.

Venue: TenPin Bowling Alley, Acton, London W3

This year Daytrippers organised our second Bowling Party but made it bigger and better. We filled the venue with over 130 bowlers dressed to impressed as their favourite superheroes. There were two games of bowling for each child, party music and cosmic lights to add to the atmosphere. Everyone had a goodie bag, glow sticks and McDonalds Happy Meal with Fruit bags to keep them going throughout the event. We had Kat the Face Painter on hand providing finishing touches to the children’s Superhero outfits. Two lucky bowlers won prizes of HMV vouchers for being Daytrippers ‘Most Stylish Bowler’ and ‘Best Dressed Superhero’. A fun day was had by all!

A huge Thank You to everyone at TenPin Bowling Alley, Help a London Child, and especially Jamie Ndah (Beautiful Events) for working the microphone, announcing all the top scores and getting the special competitions going on our designated Daytrippers Lane.

Click on the image to the left to check out the day’s photo gallery.

Group: The Log Cabin

Trip Destination: Thames Valley Adventure Playground

Date: May 2009

The Log Cabin wanted to take advantage of a new location and decided on a trip to Thames Valley Adventure Playground which is a wonderful setting for children with special needs and disabilities. Many of the children and young people who attend the Log Cabin have no other opportunity to visit different play places, and especially one with as many facilities as this. Thames Valley Adventure Playground has multi-sensory and sound rooms, sensory garden, a rock zone and many play areas specifically for children with disabilities… a Great day for all!

Group: Up On Downs

Trip Destination: Woodside Animal Farm

Date: May 2009

Up On Downs chose to take a group of children along to Woodside Animal Farm and Leisure Park. The Children were allowed to pet animals such as rabbits and ducks, then visit larger animals around the farm. Woodside also has a great range of attractions from an Indoor Play area to Funfair Rides so it is suitable for all ages and interests.

Days like this are a great opportunity for children with Down’s Syndrome and their family. Up On Downs said the daytrip enabled them to relax in an environment that is safe and well adapted for children, providing relief from the usual stresses on the family… and most importantly, they all could have fun!

Group: Impact Parent Carer Support Group

Trip Destination: Cadbury World

Date: April 2009

Impact is a well established Parent/Carer support group in South Birmingham. They have over 60 members, all of whom have at least one child with a disability or additional need.

This trip took the group to the magical world of Cadbury, touring through ancient civilizations such as the Aztecs learning about the history of chocolate. Smelling, tasting and even writing with chocolate everyone managed to have a day which overloaded the senses. But no visit to Cadbury World is complete without a visit to the huge Cadbury shop where you can even pose with the Cadbury Caramel Bunny!