Why?  Simply because it's free to us, it's fast and it's safe.

As a not for profit organisation, the word "free" is very attractive!  A bank transfer means we receive all of your payment.  There are no fees.  When you pay £15 for a day's activities via PayPal we only receive £14.29 - that soon adds up!  Over a week's bookings, fees can equate to over £100!  This saving can help us keep our days affordable and WONDERFUL!
​
Next, it's fast and convenient  Once Wonderful Things' account is set up as a payee on your bank account, you can simply transfer without entering details every time.

Finally, it's safe....we do not receive any more information than we would if you wrote one of those old fashioned cheques!
 
So, next time you're booking some Wonderful Things for your child, please consider using a bank transfer - just don't forget to add your child's name as a reference! 

​So you’ve been to Wonderful Things and bought the T-shirt… what? You haven’t bought the T-shirt? They are perfect for our activity days so look out for them ahead of our Summer weeks… and talking of Summer weeks there has been a tangible frisson of excitement in the Wonderful Things office as Kate and Julia put the finishing touches to what will be the Biggest Wonderful Things Summer Event so far!

This Summer we are theming the weeks as well as the individual days. There will be Skills (17 days designed to develop children’s skills), Dragons & Dreams (5 days of creative skills with Arts Award available), Forest Rangers (5 days with an outdoor theme with a Forest Ranger certificate) and Innovations Week (5 days based at Alder Grange High School).

It all begins at Accrington & Rossendale College on Monday 24 July, where we are excited to offer a week of a variety of activities around the college campus. Activities will include crafts, horticulture, sport, music production and a treasure hunt! The week will end with a celebration meal provided by the Roots Restaurant team! We will also be offering ‘wrap around’ supervision from 7.30am – 9am, and 4pm – 6pm.

On Thursday 27 July we begin our Rossendale Skills theme with 2 days at Water Primary – ‘Movie Making’ with a green screen, with Shooters Media, on Thursday and ‘Silent Movies Day’ on Friday with theatre-specialist Christopher Saint.

The following week the Skills theme continues at Newchurch St Nicholas CE Primary with a week that includes ‘Architecture Day’ (big structures with artist Ruth Evans), ‘Lego Day’ (problem solving and challenges with Academy of Fun), ‘News Day’ (creating news reports and journalism skills with Catherine Smyth Media), ‘What do Parents Do All Day? Day’ (one of our very popular days where local employers and parents share their skills with the children, including James Stroud of Rossendale Bespoke Timber, Bollywood dancing from Mrs Hussain and others to be confirmed) and finally ‘It’s An Emergency!’ (we hope it isn’t a real one!! with a variety of emergency responders and hopefully a fire appliance on site.)

During the same week we will be whizzing up to Chatburn CE Primary to bring Skills activities to children from the Chatburn and Clitheroe area. The week will include Christopher Saint’s ‘Dragons & Dreams Day’ of theatre-based activities, ‘Baking Day’ with Academy of Fun, ‘Step Back in Time Day’ with Del Bannister and will finish with our ever-popular ‘Lego Day’ by Academy of Fun!

Then we move into our Dragons & Dreams themed week at Newchurch St Nicholas. We have 3 days of theatre-based activities with Christopher Saint, including ‘Summer Myths’, ‘A MidSummer Night’s Dream’ and ‘Let’s Perform’. On the Thursday it’s ‘Dragon Tails & Tales Day.’ We are thrilled that Steve Hutton, acclaimed artist and illustrator, has offered to join us to run Dragon-themed illustration workshops. We also have musician Matthew Richards and storyteller Georgina Kirk with us, and we may be hunting an elusive dragon… The final day of this week will be an ‘Outdoor Arts Celebration’, in which we bring together work produced during the week to celebrate the children’s creativity! Children attending at least 4 days during this week will have earned their Arts Award ‘Discover Level’ Certificate.

Summer is all about getting outdoors, and we try to do that as much as possible at Wonderful Things. So you can imagine how thrilled we are to be offering activities at a new base, St Veronica’s Church Hall, Helmshore, where they have an outstanding outdoor woodland area – which we plan to make the most of! Our Forest Ranger themed week begins with ‘Where the Wild Things Are!’ - crafts and outdoor activities based on wildlife. Then we have ‘Animal Animations’ – think minibeasts and stop motion! ‘Tents and Teepees Day’ will involve den building and storytelling, ‘Picnics and Parasols Day’ will involve Summer cooking and … picnics! The week ends with Academy of Fun’s ‘Garden Party Day’ – a celebration involving mini-gardens and games! Children attending at least 4 days during this week will gain a Wonderful Things ‘Forest Ranger’ certificate.

Phew! After all those skills, creativity and outdoor fun we look… to the Future! Innovations week will take place at Alder Grange High School - another new venue for us and a fitting place to end the Summer. We begin the week with ‘Code Cracking & Conundrums’, followed by an ‘Eco Day.’ Then it’s ‘Movie Magic’ (Shooter’s media and the green screen are back!) and ‘Outer Space & Map the Place’ with a mobile Planetarium. Our final day at Alder Grange will be our last Summer activity day. What better way to end Summer than with a fantastic ‘Big Summer Celebration’, to which anyone who has taken part in Wonderful Things 2016-2017 will be invited! We hope to see as many of you as possible!
​
We couldn’t run our activities without the support of our Youth Volunteers. New fantastic, hard-working, capable and mature volunteers have joined our existing group of very experienced volunteers this year. They will soon be having a News Day workshop from Catherine Smyth Media to develop their reporting skills so that they can report and write about our Summer activities as they happen. They will then create ‘Wonderful News’ – a full edition of articles and photos from the Summer, which will be on sale at our Big Summer Celebration.
So that’s it – tell your friends, talk to your children, book on (our Early Bird Booking reductions are in place until 30 June!) and… don’t forget your T-shirt!

What’s that whizzing sound – is it bees buzzing around the newly opened Summer flowers? No! It’s the sound of half term fast approaching! And what a half term we have planned for you here at Wonderful Things …

We are delighted to be returning to Chatburn CE Primary on 1 June and 2 June and bringing two of our best providers: Academy of Fun and Blue Moose Dance. The 1 June will be a ‘Crafts Around the World Day’, involving arts and crafts from Japan, Russia, Africa and Native America – warning – there could be egg-blowing (!) and a cave… (oooooh!) Get your ‘crafts-ports’ ready to travel! The 2 June will be a ‘Pirate-themed Dance Day’ – ooh aaargh and shiver me timbers – think buckle-swashing and mainbrace-splicing, with a performance for parents at the end!

Meanwhile, in Rossendale, we are super-excited to be at a new venue: St Veronica’s church hall. This is a super facility, with lots of indoor and outdoor space and we will be making the most of both! On 30 May Academy of Fun have designed a ‘Garden Party Day’ for us, including creating mini-gardens to take home. ‘Woodlands and Wildlife’ is the theme at St Veronica’s on 31 May - Christopher Saint will be bringing stories to life and James will be doing forest outdoor activities.

On 1 June we are back at St Nicholas CE Primary, Newchurch, and Christopher Saint is back with us running a ‘Sci-Fi Day’ – expect lots of futuristic creativity! On 2 June we have ‘Super Science,’ including the Forensic Science team from Accrington & Rossendale College!

From 5 to 9 June we are returning to St Mary’s RC Primary, Haslingden for an action-packed week of activities. The week begins with a legendary ‘Lego Day’ from Academy of Fun, with whacky racers, lego mosaics and building the perfect park for Summer. Then it’s ‘Crafts Around the World’ on 6 June and ‘Sci-Fi Day’ on 7 June. The brilliant Blue Moose Dance will be delivering a ‘Heroes and Villains’ themed Dance Day on 8 June and the week ends with Safari Phil’s ‘Animal Day’ on 9 June – including snakes and possibly a tarantula!
​
And after you’ve enjoyed all of that? Well… the Summer holidays will be our biggest and best ever… Watch This Space!
 

​This week we are offering our first Shakespeare day and we are very excited about it!  Primary aged children from all schools are welcome to book a place on the activity day which is based at St Mary’s RC Primary School in Haslingden on Wednesday 19th April from 9am to 4pm.  This is one of four days we are running at the primary school, all with a theatrical theme and facilitated by Christopher Hodgson.

Children will explore the language of the Bard of Avon and discover some of the characters he made so famous. They will have fun with Elizabethan dress and manners, how people would greet each other and behave.  There’s a chance to dance just as they did in Shakespeare’s time and choreograph a scene from one of his plays.  The day will also include activities around Macbeth, witches, magic and ambition and lead neatly onto Thursday’s Let’s Perform which includes creation of giant puppets and using those puppets to perform Macbeth!

To book your child on for a day of "Double, double toil and trouble", go to our booking page!  Check out our Let's Perform and Dragon Days too!