Doncaster Summer Staycation is a huge timetable of FREE virtual and face-to-face activities available throughout the six-week summer break!

The Summer Staycation includes a mixture of arts and crafts, sports and physical activity, employability sessions for older children, reading challenges and much more. You can also access lots of resources, activities and ideas for staying home, such as the Doncaster ‘101 things to do indoors’ guide.

Many of the activities are virtual due to the restrictions of social distancing and safety, and will be hosted online but there are also a limited number of face-to-face activities available. There’s a mixed bag of activities on our Doncaster Summer Staycation timetable, some are on set days and weeks throughout the six-week break which families will have to book onto in advance, whilst others are offered throughout the summer for families and young people to drop into in their own time without booking. Both virtual and face-to-face activities are delivered by a range of exciting Doncaster organisations which include CAST Theatre, the EPIC team with Doncaster Children's Service Trust, Doncaster Culture and Leisure Trust (DCLT), National Literacy Trust, EXPECT Youth, Active Fusion, Doncaster Community Arts (DARTs) and many more! Click this link:  to access the weekly timetable of bookable activities the weekly calendars, or browse the FULL summer timetable for all activities across the holidays.

This Summer The Royal Ballet is partnering with Cast and Doncaster Council to get Doncaster Dancing. Local residents, primary schools, sports clubs, care homes and dance schools will take part in a three-week community digital project to create their own original piece of dance on the themes of lockdown and social distancing. This project, a first for The Royal Ballet, will culminate in a film that will premiere in September online through the ROH’s YouTube and Facebook channels and broadcast in Doncaster town centre. Taking inspiration from Kenneth MacMillan’s Romeo and Juliet, local participants will use online resources, as well as remote direction from Royal Ballet dancer and Doncaster local Charlotte Tonkinson, to learn steps and create their own sections of dance exploring themes of loss, love and separation, friendship, family and solidarity. The project will culminate in a collective performance, which will be edited into a short dance film featuring Charlotte Tonkinson and fellow Royal Ballet dancer Joseph Aumeer as a modern-day Romeo and Juliet to be premiered in September. Last year the Royal Opera House announced this exciting partnership with Doncaster through Doncaster Creates (Doncaster’s Culture Development programme). Although no longer able to perform live at Cast due to the ongoing impact of COVID-19, the company was eager to continue its commitment to Doncaster and to bring dance to the heart of the community. Member of Parliament for Doncaster North, Ed Miliband, helped to establish Doncaster Creates as the region’s first cultural community project to harness and nurture the creativity of Doncaster. Supporting this first community film to come through the Doncaster Creates partnership, Mr Miliband said: “I am delighted to see our local community bring together The Royal Ballet, Cast and the Local Authority to harness the power of creativity and bring our community together to reflect on the impact of COVID-19 and collectively celebrate the importance of dance. Even despite Covid19 it is wonderful to see the determination that the show must go on." Charlotte Tonkinson, dancer with The Royal Ballet comments “It’s a wonderful feeling to bring The Royal Ballet to my hometown of Doncaster. How exciting to celebrate dance through Doncaster Dances with its first-ever virtual dance project. It is amazing, especially during this challenging time, to feel a sense of togetherness and to share the joy of dance. Working with community groups and school children, I look forward to lifting their spirits and working with the local community to bring this project to life at a crucial time in Doncaster”. Deborah Rees, Director of Cast adds “The Covid-19 pandemic may have temporarily closed our doors but in the last three months we've experienced an outpouring of togetherness, generosity and creativity. The instinct to dance has brought people together across the globe and this project gives an amazing opportunity for people to dance together from their own homes. Cast and the Royal Opera House have worked hard to maintain contact with our communities and maintain the spirit of this unique lockdown project. In doing so, we've created a new way of sharing our love of dance. Romeo and Juliet is a story of division, of a community torn in two and brought together by an act of love. The end result of this project - a community film - will allow local people, some of whom have been isolated from the outside world for months, to express themselves and come together once again.” Cllr Nigel Ball, Cabinet Member for Public Health, Leisure and Culture, said: “It is tremendous that we have teamed up with The Royal Ballet for this unique project. It will give school children, residents, clubs and groups and even those in care homes across the borough the opportunity to learn ballet from the best in the business. Together they will learn a new skill, get active and at the same time help create a highly original piece of dance which will be premiered later in the year.”

A new partnership will deliver bags packed with creative activities and inspiring materials to over 1000 children and young people in Doncaster this Summer. IVE, the Bridge Organisation for Yorkshire and the Humber, has worked with us at Doncaster Cultural Education Partnership and Children’s Services in Doncaster to deliver Bags of Creativity. The bags are designed to make sure all children and young people can be creative at home by providing everything they need in one place. DCEP recruited a team of local artists and creative organisations to design activities for Bags of Creativity which have been printed onto double sided postcards. Child development specialists, Dr Karen Dunn and Di Chilvers provided training and mentoring to the team to ensure that activities are both tailored to the contents of the bags and engaging for children in each age range. Bags of Creativity, containing the 20 specially designed activity postcards, have been created for three separate age groups. For 2-6-year-olds, an orange bag contains vibrant chiffon scarves, a space blanket, and many other materials to enhance imaginative play. 7-11-year-olds will receive a bright green bag full of colouring pencils, pipe cleaners and further tactile materials for creative expression. 12-16-year-olds will receive a navy-blue bag with contents including watercolour paints and modelling clay, giving them additional ways to explore their creativity. LazenbyBrown of York designed the Bags of Creativity free of charge. The bags will be in the hands of children over the next couple of weeks. Hopefully, we’ll have some feedback to share soon. Many thanks to everyone involved in making this wonderful project happen. A special mention to the DCEP members who packed up the bags with the postcards and resources.  The postcards can be downloaded from the Kids Activities page of Cast’s website here. Here's are a few examples: For ages 2-6 For ages 7-11 For ages 12-16