The Bradley Stoke Journal

Bradley Stoke Leisure Centre is staging a free swimming session this Sunday (24th August) to celebrate the handing over of the Olympic Games to London for 2012.

The free session runs from 4pm to 6pm and forms part of a series of events organised by South Gloucestershire Council, timed to coincide with the end of the closing ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing.

Elsewhere in South Gloucestershire, an official Olympic handover flag will be raised at 4pm at Kingswood Civic Centre by the Chair of South Gloucestershire Council, Councillor Brian Freeguard; local libraries will be playing world music to highlight the start of a four year programme to celebrate culture in the build up to the 2012 Olympics; and churches have been invited to mark the occasion by the pealing of bells.

Further afield, a family-friendly Olympic handover event will take place in Bristol’s Millennium Square, where a giant screen will show the final moments of Beijing 2008.

Parents of school-age children in Bradley Stoke looking to keep their offspring occupied during the summer break can choose from options offered by (amongst others) Southern Brooks Community Partnership (SBCP), Bradley Stoke Leisure Centre and Bradley Stoke Library.

SBCP, through its Five Alive scheme (previously Four Towns), will be providing four weeks of free activities for children aged 5-11 at three different venues throughout the town:

• Monday 28th July to Friday 1st August:
  Baileys Court Youth Club, Baileys Court Road
• Monday 4th August to Friday 8th August:
  Jubilee Centre, Savages Wood Road
• Monday 11th August to Friday 15th August:
  Bradley Stoke Community School, Fiddlers Wood Lane
• Monday 18th August to Friday 22nd August:
  Bradley Stoke Community School, Fiddlers Wood Lane

More details can be found in the Five Alive leaflet [PDF, 258KB].

Bradley Stoke Leisure Centre’s Summer Holiday Programme runs from Monday 28th July to Friday 29th August. Activities are focused on the 4-11 age group and include roller-skating, trampolining and fencing.

Bradley Stoke Library’s “Team Read” reading challenge gets underway on Saturday 19th July, with young readers being set the target of reading six books over the holiday period. Free activity sessions for children aged 5-10 will be held at the library on Sunday 27th July, Monday 4th August, Monday 11th August and Thursday 21st August, while a “Just Do It” session for those 11 and over is planned for Wednesday 13th August.