Its been a busy start to the year here at FCDC. We have welcomed it in with plenty of fun, family activities and events. Check out what we have been up to and what’s coming up…

Pizza Making at Pizza Express

We kicked off the year with Pizza making at Pizza Express! All the children got stuck straight in and had a go at being a pizza chef for the morning. We had demonstrations from our own pizza chef, who also told us about how the famous Margherita was named after a Italian Queen! The children followed along to the demonstration, creating the perfect base before choosing from a variety of toppings. They were then able to enjoy their masterpieces alongside some doughballs to start and Ice-cream for pudding.

KS3/4 Bowling & Nando’s

We then had our first KS3/4 event of the year. We all met for a game of bowling at Hollywood bowl, where there was a lot of healthy competition and good sportsmanship. The young people managed to get themselves a number of strikes and spares, whereas myself and Helen started off with the bumpers down then very quickly admitted defeat after a few too many gutter balls. After working up a appetite we walked over to Nando’s for a well earned meal and some salted caramel brownies.

Life Skills Centre

It was then time for us to pay a visit to the Life Skills Centre. This centre aims to show young people to learn how to assess risk and cope with difficult situations by taking part in realistic, interactive activities. The families went around the realistic “village” and experienced different daily scenarios they might face themselves in. The young people had a go at withdrawing money from a ATM, crossing the road safely by paying attention to the different signal lights and dangerous hazards, practicing CPR, and picking up some heathy ingredients for a meal at the supermarket. It was a fun and educational activity for all, Myself and Helen included!

Family Bowl

We finished off the February half term with a game of family bowl, it was a big turn out with 46 attending. It was lovely to see families teamed up with other families on different lanes, and having catch ups alongside a fun game of bowling. It was lovely that we were also able to welcome some new members to the FCDC family!

Pizza Express Take 2

The families asked, we listened. Pizza making in January was so popular, we added an extra date in February to make sure no one missed out. We had our own pizza chef to demonstrate each step. The children stretched, dusted and threw their dough into the air to create the perfect base, before choosing their toppings. There were a few discussions across the table including what toppings everyone prefers, stuffed crust or not and whether pineapple should even be allowed on pizza.

Exciting news, What’s coming up!

We are also excited to welcome back the FCDC lending library in March! A special Thank you to the National Lottery Community Fund for helping us update our lending library. Keep your eyes peeled for new books, toy dolls/superhero characters (‘dolls that look like me’), technology for young people-flashing door bells, vibrating alarm clocks etc

The start of spring and some warmer weather is very near and we look forward to welcoming it with plenty fun events, including a woodland walk, Easter extravaganza at Elmfield, a trip to the Wild place project/Leap of faith, and much more. To book and keep up to date with regularly added events visit our events page: Upcoming Events – The Family Centre (Deaf Children) (fcdc.org.uk) . Look forward to seeing all our families this upcoming year and welcoming new ones too.

A big thank you!

Lastly, we want to say a massive thank you to all of the kind donations/support we have received. Thank you to ASDA Patchway for your £400 donation from the green token scheme, The students at Hanover house, Churchill academy for choosing FCDC as their charity of the year and donating £242.83. Thank you to Christ the king, Church of England for your £500 donation, To LUSH at Cribs Causeway for all our self-care goodies, which will be used to make up well-being boxes for our young people and parents/carers. The continued support from The National Lottery Community Fund. We have also received a number of personal donations, which we are very thankful for. Finally a big thank you of course to our army of volunteers, who continue to support us by helping out at events and fundraising, if this is something that also interests you, please do contact us at admin@fcdc.org.uk. Without this support and fundraising we wouldn’t be able to run the amazing activities that we do.