Chestnut Lodge

15/07/2025

With the summer holidays creeping up quickly here's some really great low cost or free ideas, for places across the city to ensure happy children without impacting your weekly budget

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SUMMER HOLIDAYS - FREE & LOW COST

With the summer holidays days away, here are some free & lower cost event to help plan the next 6 weeks:

🥛 Free shakes at The Crepe & Waffle House, Trentham Shopping Village
📆 Sun 27 July, 11-4pm
ℹ️ Choose a free shake

🍿 £1 family films at Cineworld Stoke-on-Trent
💷 £1 per ticket
📆 25 Jul-28 Aug
ℹ️ Films incl Moana 2 , Paddington in Peru, Sonic the Hedgehog, Minecraft Movie

📚 Tales in the park with National Literacy Trust in Stoke-on-Trent
💷 FREE
📆 Tue 29 Jul - Tunstall Park
📆 Fri 1 Aug - Hanley Park
📆 Tue 5 Aug - Yeaman Street Rec
📆 Fri 8 Aug - Fenton Park
📆 Fri 15 Aug - Burslem Park
ℹ️ Story telling sessions, free book, circus skills, crafts, sports

🏖️ Urban Beach at Smithfield, Stoke
💷 FREE
📆 2-30 Aug - daily urban beach
📆 22-23 Aug - big feast
ℹ️ Events & activities each weekend

🏛️ Summer at The Potteries Museum & Art Gallery
💷 FREE
📆 31 Jul - The bee cart
📆 1-31 Aug - The Grimwood Museum Adventure Trail
📆 14 Aug - A la puppet carte

🦖 Dinosaurs at Trentham Estate
💷 FREE
📆 21 Jul - 31 Aug - Dinosaur trail in shopping village
📆 11 Aug - Life-size dinos

🚦 A’Maze’ing at Affinity Staffordshire
📆 28 Jul-31 Aug
💷 FREE
ℹ️ Maze, character meets (Thurs), toddler soft play

🧭 Treasure hunt at Tittesworth Water
📆 1-31 Aug
💷 FREE
ℹ️ Collect a sheet & follow the clues

🦘Where’s wallaby trail with OUTSIDE
📆 18 Jul-5 Sept
💷 FREE
ℹ️ Find 10 wallabies across the Staffs Moorlands for 10th anniversary of Peak Wildlife Park

🎬 Events at Mitchell Arts Centre
🍿 Tots & Family films - kids £4, 1 free adult
🍿 Build it Cinema - build/keep a mini figure to match the movie - kids £4, 1 free adult
🍿 Workshops - £5 each
🍿 Make & bake sessions - FREE
ℹ️ Free parking at Tesco

🚂 Teddy bear outing at Apedale Valley Light Railway
📆 9-10 Aug, 11:30am-4pm
💷 Adults £4, kids with teddy FREE
ℹ️ Spot the bears, solve a puzzle & win a prize. Also has cafe, museum & Apedale country park

🐛 Wildfamilies with Family activities - Staffordshire Wildlife Trust
📆 22 July, 5 Aug - Biddulph Grange Country Park (drop in)
📆 23 July, 4 Aug - Palm Brook, Cheadle (drop in)
📆 31 July, 7, 14, 19 Aug - Hem Heath Woods (pre-booking req’d)
💷 FREE
ℹ️ Nature crafts

🫧 Activities for aged 8-17 Staffordshire Space Programme
💷 FREE
📆 Summer hols
ℹ️ Activities ranging from free swims, dance clubs, climbing walls, fishing trips, sports clubs & many more

🦕 Dino-mite summer at The Potteries Centre
💷 FREE
📆 19 Jul-31 Aug (see website for schedule)
ℹ️ Jurassic trail, face Painting, interactive Dino-mite shows, Dino Digs fossils

🎳 Summer at Tenpin
📆 Mon-Fri til 5pm in school hols
💷 £5.99
ℹ️ 1 Game of Bowling & Junior Burger Meal

🏰 Inflatable family fun days at Longton Rugby Club
📆 26-30 July
💷 £10 per child aged 2-12, adults & under 2’s free
ℹ️ 2 x sessions per day, unlimited play

🌳 Wondrous trees at National Memorial Arboretum
📆 19 Jul-31 Aug
💷 FREE (parking ch’gs apply)
ℹ️ Immersive sound installation with extra activities every Wed. The Stickman trail & play areas

🌊 Summer fair at The Trafford Centre
📆 19 Jul–31 Aug, 12pm– 8pm
💷 £3+booking fee
ℹ️ Splash park, giant beach, food trucks, fairground rides (£1-£5), activities & free crafts

🌟 A few other dates for the dairy:
📆 Fri 18 Jul - Schools out BBQ at The Pavilion Tea Room in burslem park
📆 26 Jul - Biddulph Family Fun Day - Church Road Playing Fields
📆 2-3 Aug - Hartshill Community Festival with Chit Chat 4 U All
📆 2-3 Aug - Viking reenactment at Stafford Castle
📆 Fri 8 Aug - Caudwell Children family fun open day
📆 Sat 9 Aug - Summer in the square with Tunstall Town Centre Community Association
📆 Sun 10 Aug - Centenary carnival at Longton park with Queens Park Partnership
📆 25 Aug - Annual Caverswall Creamery Tractor run

✨ Please be sure to double check times/dates before visiting ✨

💙 If this post has inspired you to visit, I’d love for you to tag me at Instagram.com/stokie_mama 💙

27/05/2025

We didn't let the rubbish weather stop us from getting out today, we had a lovely trip to the arboretum

28/04/2025

This weekend we had a trip to flip out and built new friendships with each other whilst having lots of fun and burning some energy off

04/02/2025

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70wuKL-KdaI
At chestnut lodge we are driven by love.
By providing affection, care, stability and support to our young people and their families they are able to achieve positive outcomes, increased independence and build friendships and relationships.
Every single day is different, every single day is a new challenge and every single day is a new chance to make a change ❤️

Action for Children is driven by love. We take action so children don’t miss out on a safe and happy childhood. We have thousands of people working on the gr...

03/01/2025

Happy new year to you all
We celebrated with a lovely cake made by our young people and have created some wonderful experience lists in preparation for the year ahead
We are looking forward to opening them each month and seeing what we can enjoy

12/12/2024

We have had an incredible donation of gifts from buzz bingo in Hanley, this is wonderful and will ensure we have a present for each and every child who accesses our home, thank you so much for your kind collection.

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14/11/2024

We have had an amazing selection of hamper gifts from the very lovely Mae and Jonathan from Futures2gether
Our families will love these thank you so much
It was lovely to spend some time with you both and get to know what great opportunities you provide for adults focusing on getting into work skills, health and wellbeing understanding and volunteering in their community cafe
Futures2gether cafe is open 10-12 wednesday, I'm sure they would love a visit if you are local

14/11/2024

Cauldwell children have an amazing opportunity and are kindly gifting Pokémon prizes to young people this evening
If your child loves Pokémon there is still lots of cards left

11/11/2024

Our young people have created this beautiful wreath and also engaged in the memorial walk on Sunday, we are so proud of how well they stood quietly

31/10/2024

We spent some time this week focusing on our emotions and how we can manage these, thank you Action for Children - Staffordshire Emotional Health and Wellbeing Service for having us, we have continued some of the great activities you taught us with our other groups of young people who have all really enjoyed it

17/10/2024

We are getting Halloween ready, how spooky are our pumpkins ❤️

23/09/2024

We have an exciting new position available for the right candidate to support our young people accessing our short breaks home.
This is 16 hours per week annualised contract with the opportunity to be supported to complete your nvq level 3 whilst on the job if you don't hold this already.
Please apply below if this is something you feel you would be good at, skills needed are patience, love, and the ability to teach young people important life skills in meal preparation, making friends and exploring the world.
In return you get the opportunity to watch the young people grow and mature ready for adulthood, watch them learn how to communicate and develop skills and work with a fantastic team whose ethos is enabling not disabling.

Action for Children have an amazing and rewarding opportunity to work as a Residential Support Worker at Chestnut Lodge, our 5 bedded residential short breaks children's home.