Barnstondale Centre

19/10/2026

💙💚 EXCITING NEWS! We’ve been selected for the Co-op Local Community Fund! 🎉

From today, you can support Barnstondale Centre through your everyday shopping at the Co-op! 🛒✨

We’re hoping to raise vital funds for our bursary, helping more children and young people access and benefit from learning outdoors, regardless of their background 🌿💙

The best bit? It won’t cost you a penny extra! 🙌

💚 Here’s how to help:
📱 Visit our cause page and choose Barnstondale Centre on the Co-op app:
👉 https://membership.coop.co.uk/causes/101143

💚 Please share this post with friends and family to help spread the word!

Together, let’s make sure every child has the chance to access an experience that sparks something more. ✨💚

Thank you for supporting Barnstondale! 💙

The Co-op Local Community Fund is supporting Barnstondale Centre. Become a member or sign in to choose a local cause to support.

18/10/2026

03/09/2026

A place to belong, to explore, to grow 💚

At Barnstondale, we’re proud to provide residential experiences for children and young people with complex disabilities, their families and the communities that support them.

Our facilities create opportunities for children to try new things, build confidence, discover independence and simply enjoy being children, in a safe, welcoming and inclusive environment.

We’re particularly proud to be a home-from-home for disability communities and charities from our region and beyond. Groups such as the DYRK1A return to Barnstondale year after year, and their experiences remind us why these opportunities matter.

After five consecutive years of visiting Barnstondale, their families told us they keep coming back because it is “somewhere where everyone feels safe and included.”

We’re incredibly grateful to the families and communities who choose Barnstondale, and to every supporter, donor, volunteer and partner who helps make these experiences possible.

Because sometimes an adventure is about more than the activity itself. It’s about:

💚 Creating inclusive experiences
💚 Giving children opportunities to grow
💚 Supporting families to connect and feel they belong
💚 Providing a place where disability communities can come together

It’s about a child discovering:

“I can try. I can be brave. I can do this.”

And we couldn’t be prouder of the role Barnstondale plays in making that possible. 💚

28/08/2026

🎉 WE DID IT! 🎉

Thanks to our amazing community, we’ve reached our £2,500 pledge goal! 💚

That means we’re already halfway to our £10,000 target before The Big Give even begins.

Now comes the exciting bit…

From Tuesday 1st – Tuesday 8th December, we need to raise £5,000 locally to unlock the full £10,000 for our Bursary Scheme.

And we’d love you to be part of it. 🌿

Could you…

🏃 Take on a personal challenge?
🍽️ Put a special meal on your menu and donate a percentage every time it is ordered?
🎶 Organise a bucket collection with your choir?
🪣 Volunteer to collect at your local store?
💡 Or come up with something completely your own?

Whatever your capacity, whatever your idea, we’d love to hear from you.

£10,000 could help up to 100 local children access Barnstondale in 2027–28 by part-funding their place.

That’s just 10% of the bursary requests we receive each year.

So, we have a big ambition.

And we’d love you to be part of making it happen. 💚

Thank you to everyone who has pledged so far. We couldn’t do this without you. 🙌

💌 Got an idea? Want to chat it through? Get in touch with our Head of Fundraising, Siobhan on [email protected] or 0151 648 1412

25/08/2026

What was the world made for if it wasn’t to play outside? 🌿

We see it all the time at Barnstondale.

Look what happens when we give children the chance to play. ✨

Give children a bit of space, some friends, a muddy field and something to explore… and they’ll do the rest. 🌲⛺️

They play.
They laugh.
They have a go. 🎯
They surprise themselves.

And perhaps that’s why this statistic from Play England stopped us in our tracks:

Children spend less than 25 minutes a week, on average, playing in the streets near their homes.

It makes the chance to simply be outside and play feel pretty important. 🌿

That’s something we want every child to have the chance to experience at Barnstondale.

Our Bursary Scheme helps children who want to experience outdoor education at Barnstondale access it alongside their friends, regardless of their financial circumstances.💚

If you’d like to help make that possible, we’re currently looking for pledges towards our Bursary Scheme. 🧭

Make a pledge today: https://community.biggive.org/s/pledge?campaignId=a05WS00000FxDi9YAF

And if you’d like to read more about the research behind the statistic, have a look at the British Children’s Play Survey from Play England:

https://www.playengland.org.uk/newsblog/british-childrens-play-survey-exposes-the-generational-gap-in-childrens-freedom-to-play

23/08/2026

💚 Can you help us unlock £5,000 towards our bursary scheme?

We’re looking for £500 in pledges ahead of The Big Give in December.

We already have £2,000 pledged and by raising another £500 in the next 7 days, we’ll reach our £5,000 match funding target.

That means when our Big Give campaign runs from 1st – 8th December, we can aim to turn that £5,000 into £10,000 for our Bursary Scheme. 🙌

And £10,000 could help up to 100 children access a residential experience alongside their friends in 2027, giving them the opportunity to build confidence, resilience, friendships and aspirations, regardless of their background or ability.

So we’re asking, you, our local community.

👉 Could you pledge £100?
👉 Or could your business or workplace pledge £500?

We need to secure the pledges by 5pm Friday 28 August.

Help us maximise the match. Help us reach £10,000. Help us turn “I can’t” into “I can.” 💚

Message us to pledge your support.

[www.barnstondale.org](https://www.barnstondale.org/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)

20/08/2026

🏃‍♀ Meet Kim one of our 2027 London Marathon Runners 🏃‍♀️

We’re absolutely delighted to introduce Kim Darwood, who will be taking on the 2027 London Marathon for Barnstondale! 🎉

Kim’s reason for choosing Barnstondale is a very personal one.

Her daughter recently had her first residential stay at Barnstondale and absolutely loved it. ❤️

Kim has seen first-hand what a difference Barnstondale can make, giving local children of all abilities the chance to have fun, try new things, build confidence and make some amazing memories.

So now Kim wants to give something back by taking on one of the world’s biggest running challenges and raising money to help even more children experience Barnstondale. 🏃‍♀️

If you’d like to support Kim and Barnstondale, you can find her fundraising page here:

👉 https://www.justgiving.com/page/kim-darwood-1

Good luck, Kim! We’re behind you all the way! 🏃‍♀️💙

12/08/2026

Every child deserves the chance to discover what they’re capable of. 💚

Today, on International Youth Day, we’re celebrating every child and young person, their potential, their courage, their ideas and their dreams.

We believe in the power of outdoor education to help young people achieve the unimaginable. 🌿

Being outdoors creates opportunities to:

🌱 Raise aspirations
🧗 Build confidence and resilience
🌳 Discover strengths and abilities
🤝 Develop skills for life and the future
✨ See possibilities they may never have imagined

Because when young people are given the opportunity to explore, challenge themselves and experience success, it can change what they believe is possible.

We believe in every child.
We believe in the outdoors.
We believe in their future. 💚

But financial barriers shouldn’t decide which children get to experience what’s possible.

We receive no statutory funding, which means we rely on the generosity of donors and supporters like you to help us continue creating these opportunities for children and young people. 💚

Every £100 we raise can help us support another child.

If you’re with us, pledge today. 💚

👉 https://community.biggive.org/s/pledge?campaignId=a05WS00000FxDi9YAF

12/08/2026

WHO'S EXCITED FOR TONIGHT'S ECLIPSE? 🌙☀️
We are! 🙌

There’s something pretty special about knowing that tonight, families across the country can stop, come together and experience a little bit of wonder. ✨

And the best bit?

It’s completely free.💚

Just a little bit of curiosity and a few minutes to experience something extraordinary together. 🌙☀️

If you want to make your own simple eclipse viewer, all you need is two pieces of paper. Make a small hole in one, turn your back to the Sun and let the light project onto the second piece. 📄☀️

👇 Information is linked in the comments below👇

Never look directly at the Sun through the hole, and ordinary sunglasses aren't safe eclipse protection.

So, who's getting the children together tonight? 👇

We hope you get to pause together and enjoy. 🥰
To wonder. ✨

Because some of the best adventures start with the simplest things. 💚🏕️

03/07/2026

Meet Elijah, who visited our site this week and smashed our climbing wall 💙🧗

Elijah has anophthalmia, meaning he has no sight, but boy does he not let that stop him! He’s funny, determined, brave, and always up for trying something new.

Yesterday, Elijah explored our climbing wall using his hands, carefully finding each hold and working out his next move before climbing higher and higher, before reaching the top and proudly ringing the bell 🔔 He absolutely smashed it and found great joy in the bell, as he’s a big fan of anything that makes a whole lot of noise!

Climbing builds confidence and resilience in young people, but in this instance Elijah’s self-belief was off the charts!

Seeing Elijah up there showed what’s possible when children feel safe, supported and believed in. Proud of you, Elijah. Keep reaching for those bells 💙

Sport England The Johnson Foundation