A summer of fun for Islington's children and young people with Heatwave

Heatwave, Islington’s summer programme for children and young people, is back with hundreds of free or low-cost activities happening throughout the borough in July and August.

This year, Islington Council has partnered with HOOP, the family activities mobile app, to promote its Heatwave activities and events for children aged 0-11 years. The app is available for free on iPhone and Android at www.hoop.co.uk.

Once again, 13-16 year-olds living in Islington can sign up for Summerversity courses free of charge, including Carnival cooking, archery, camping skills and stand-up comedy courses.

The Launchpad programme for 16-24 year-olds is also back following its successful launch last year with a total of 43 courses and workshops available to help young people enjoy their summer holiday, learn new skills, get careers advice and gain new experiences to add to their CV.

For younger children, Islington libraries will welcome Safari Pete back with his amazing collection of mammals, birds, reptiles and insects. While top children’s author and comedy poet Neal Zetter will be reading his funny animal poems, playing word games and creating animal tongue twisters.

The Summer Reading Challenge is back for 4-11 year-olds, while 13-19 year-olds can become Challenge Champions and help younger readers complete their challenge and get a £10 voucher as a reward.

A date for the diary is Islington Playday on Wednesday 2 August from 12.30-4pm. The free event in Paradise Park is open to all families and will feature a waterslide and water rockets, den building, big games, arts and crafts and more.

Cllr Joe Caluori, Executive Member for Children, Young People and Families, said: “We are really pleased to offer hundreds of summer activities for children and young people again this summer. It’s really important that they get the chance to gain new, fun experiences and make the most of their summer holidays.

“Our Summerversity and Launchpad courses for older children are fantastic and offer some out-of-the-ordinary courses, like virtual reality, fencing and documentary film-making.

“We are also pleased to have partnered with HOOP to help promote our activities, so that more people find out about them and no one misses out.

Max Jennings, HOOP founder, said: “Islington is a great place for families with hundreds of incredible things going on for kids this summer. We’re excited to work with Islington Council to promote this year’s Heatwave programme to families using the HOOP app, making it as easy as possible to discover the great things happening across the borough.”

As well as being available on HOOP, all primary and secondary schools in the borough have been provided information about the activities on offer. Information can also be found in Islington’s libraries, leisure centres, museums, children’s centres and youth hubs

Full listings can be found at www.islington.gov.uk/heatwave or call the Family Information Service on 020 7527 5959. Information for young people is also on izzy-info.com. And you can keep up-to-date throughout the summer on Twitter @IslingtonLife.