Back for the third year by popular demand, we are teaming up with our Apple Distinguished Educator to unlock your child’s digital creativity and learn more about what their iPad can do through free, exciting virtual sessions.

YouTube Video: 

Video shows: Colourful, drawn animation of person scrolling through their iPad with their iPad pen, looking at icons which depict various workshops as part of Family Fund’s Summer school. The video ends asking the viewer to sign up to one of the workshops. Further details on the workshops are below.

Our creative workshops  

We are back with an exciting selection of free workshops, designed for children and young people with additional needs.  Workshops are open for all the family to enjoy, including siblings.  You can mix and match the events to suit your child’s creativity, there are no limits to how many workshops you book on to.

Children can share their work with our trainer in-between workshops using Showbie (free to download in the Apple app store), and we will hold a showcase group session at the end of the summer where students can show their work to their new Summer School friends.

• Create a comic strip 
  'Clips' is a fun and exciting app to create original video content.  In this session students will learn how to tell their story, maybe about their hobbies, their local town and things that interest them.  They'll then be able to add titles and stickers to make the video unique and match their style! (Clips is a free app that can be download from the Apple app store).
   
• Movie making
  Want to build on your video editing skills?  In this session students will learn about creating a historical or factual documentary. We’ll explore research skills and collecting facts and images to help create the final film.  We will use iMovie (a free app that can be downloaded from the Apple app store) to create the documentary. 
  
  
• Picture your name  
  Here we will explore the area around us, looking for shapes and details that we might not have noticed before.  Students will use the camera on their iPad to take photos of shapes that could be used to make up the letters of their name.  We'll then learn how to edit and animate these with Keynote (a free app available from the Apple app store).
  
  
• Live band  
  Garageband gives us access to some amazing instruments, and in this session we’ll explore how to play them, and get the most from each instrument.  Students can even virtually meet their classmates afterwards to create their own live iPad band.
   
• DJ skills  
  Ever thought about writing the next number one hit?  Using Garageband (a free app that can be downloaded from the Apple app store) we’ll explore the loops, and how we can put these together to make a piece of music.  Students will experiment with filters and mix it live like a DJ. 
   
• Build your own app  
  Fancy building your very own app?  In this session we will plan and develop ideas and build a prototype of your app to test and see it being used.

We have also teamed up with Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) to host a number of sessions specifically designed for those with a visual impairment.

 To browse all of our Summer School workshops and to book your places - click here

Spaces are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis.

Getting ready!

If you have recently received an iPad, you may wonder what you need to know, or have, before attending the creative sessions.  We are organising a couple of ‘pre-school' workshops in July, designed for parents and carers to get you up to speed and make sure you use your iPad in a useful and tailored way.

These sessions are designed especially for parent/carers and they are open to anyone raising families with disabled or seriously ill children, who want to get their iPad set up and ready for Summer School.

To support families with visual impairments wishing to join the Summer School iPad workshops, we have VI accessible sessions with an RNIB volunteer joining the workshops along with the Apple-accredited trainer and one of the Family Fund team, to help with any additional questions.

• Staying safe
  Learn how to manage your child’s iPad, so they can learn and play safely.  We will see how to create passcodes, set-up time limits on apps, adding restriction to websites and other contents, and look at child friendly apps like YouTube kids.
    
• Make it work for you
  Learn how to make your iPad work for your child’s support needs.  We will cover topics such as how to make text larger so it’s easier to read, how to set-up Siri so your iPad will talk to you, how to set up other spoken content features, like dictation.
  
  
• Getting started
  This session will be all about the basic settings on your iPad.  We’ll go through an overview of the most useful iPad apps, walk you through the settings, set-up iPad shortcuts, and see how to access the Apple store.

  

Browse all our Summer School workshops here  

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The practical things  

You can see the full list of our Summer School workshops here.  

Once you have signed-up, you will receive a confirmation email, and a reminder email the day before the session with a Zoom link to join the workshop.

For all of the iPad workshops, you will need an internet connection, your iPad and a second device like a smartphone or laptop to take part.

If a workshop is full, we will get in touch to try and arrange an alternative date if one is available.  Some workshops are designed for children and young people with a visual impairment and are clearly marked on the online booking form.  Priority will be given for children and young people with a visual impairment for these workshops.

The workshops will be run in a group setting and children must be supervised by an adult family member at all times during the session. If for any reason your family are unable to participate in a group session, please email [email protected] or call us on 01904 550066 and we will look at other options to suit your needs.

Browse all our Summer School workshops here