April 2026 sees NI-Connect roll out its 25th Holiday Wellbeing Program. A time to look back and reflect at how far the program has come along, developed, grown and continues to expand to the needs of the Island children. Once again, the program delivered an amazing time for both children and staff – with a wide range of activities, exploring, creating and enjoying the outdoors, building confidence and friendships with children Prep to Year 6. This program welcomed a few new faces in the prep age group, who started school this year, finally being old enough to join in the fun. It was another successful program, thanks to the children’s enthusiasm, engagement of the casual staff and the outstanding support shown from the local community.
Highlights from April’s Program
Our first week kicked off after the Easter long weekend on the Tuesday and ran until the Friday of that week, being the first week of school holidays. This week’s activities were loads of fun with a few Easter themed craft activities. Children were bused out to Hundred Acres reserve, were they explored the 2026 Art in the Park exhibition. Every age group had fun looking for the “Owls” in the tree and reading the signs about the art creations. This week also included cooking up Pizzas at Moffy’s Pizza and Pasta, a visit to the amazing Island Crystal Shop – with a talk all about crystals from Pip. Not only did they enjoy eating what they made they each got a special crystal to take home.
Yr 3 – Yr 6 relaxed with a special treat watching “Flubber” at the movie theatre and Prep – Yr 2 embraced the rhythm of drumming with the Norfolk Island Drumming group. They had the beats rocking from Rawson Hall with their bucket drums. Thursday was a full day at Kingston with the much-loved waterslide, water bombs and followed with a bus scavenger hunt, which ended with an easter egg hunt. This week also saw a new activity with Racing car madness where Yr3 – Yr 6 had to design a racetrack for the new remote-control cars to race around.
The second week kicked off on Monday with Prep – Yr 2 learning to Line dance with Debbie and Yr3 – Yr6 heading to Palm Glen for a nature hike with Howard, which was great fun and finished off with some yummy coconut bread, guava jelly and fresh fruit. Other activities included a rotation of sport activities and team building games. Wednesday saw the changeover of last week’s activity for the pizza making, crystal shop visit and with Prep – Yr2 watching “Padding Bear 2” at the movie theatre. Rawson Hall was full of excitement and loud noises while the children had a fun time building cardboard forts, houses and structures, with the large cardboard boxes from the Post Office.
Some very creative architects and clever engineers could be in the making. Thursday finished off the program with a Kingston day – with waterslide, water play activities and an afternoon at the beach for a swim and sandcastle building, with a little comp to see who could build the best thing out of sand. The weather has been amazing for us this time around and we enjoyed the outdoors as much as we could, making the best of the fresh air and sunshine before we move into the winter months.
Thanks to the children, families, casual staff, community support and the NI-Connect team who made this another successful and great fun program.
Thanks to the children, casual staff, community support and NI-Connect team that made this another success and great program.
big thank you to the incredibly generous individuals, families and businesses who helped make the Holiday Wellbeing Program a success.|
Pinetree Tours
Kingston and Arthur’s Vale Historic Area (KAVHA)
Government House
Norfolk Island Regional Council
NI Bowling Club
Moffy’s Pizza
Theatre – Monica Anderson
NI Drumming Group
Island Crystals – Pip Codd
Howard Martin
Australia Post Annex
Debbie McGregor
To our casuals and young leaders – we are so grateful for how much effort you put into making sure all the kids have fun.
Daniel Anderson Lola Robinson Heidi Thomas
Kes Harper
Nic Gow
Kevin Knapp
Debbie McGregor
Chloe Power
Cassie McCoy
Sebastian Grant
Darlene Grant
Ben Grant
Lisa Smith
Debbie Anderson
Mali Garden
Trish Christian-Bailey
Lukas Andrew
Charlotte Goodall
Fletcher Buffett
Antonella Bone
Tyla Schmitz
Natasha Arnold
Sophie OcConnor
Joy Constantine
Charlie Umlauft
Dash Goodman
Brycen Menzies
Kingston Menzies
Daniella Randall
Ollie OcConnor
Saedy Bradshaw
Feedback from children and families using the program, local casual staff and young people working at the program and our permanent NI-Connect staff all helps so we can keep trying to make this a better program for the kids, a better support for families and a great place to work.
NI-Connect Holiday Wellbeing Program team is always looking for interesting and new ideas. If you have any special knowledge or skills that you might like to teach, pass on or share with the next generation through a workshop or activities then we would love to hear from you!!
Acknowledgement: NI-Connect’s child and family wellbeing services are funded by the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications, Sport and the Arts
