Connections Groups
Connections Groups are community-based educational, recreational and enrichment programmes for children and young people. They run in small groups with animals at the centre, and they exist to build confidence, develop new skills, form friendships and create experiences worth having.
The three groups
- Creative Connections
- Froxfield · Tuesdays, 1pm to 3pm
- Equine Connections
- Shamley Green · Wednesdays and Sundays, 1.15pm to 3.15pm
- Reptile Connections
- Froxfield · Wednesdays, 1pm to 3pm
Holiday sessions also run. Dates vary and are announced in advance.
Looking for riding lessons? These are a booked activity, not a Connections Group, and are offered separately on the Elysian Events site (opens in a new tab).
Connections Groups suit children and young people who can take part safely in a small group with light support, and who can follow guidance from staff.
What Connections Groups are not
These are community activities. They are not specialist SEND provision, therapeutic intervention, EHCP-funded placement or a high-support service.
If you are looking for therapeutic support, SEND-specific services, family sessions or an individual intervention programme, use our referral and enquiry form instead.
Creative Connections
Froxfield · Tuesdays, 1pm to 3pm
Creative Connections combines making things with looking after animals and being outdoors. Each term takes a theme, and activities are shaped around what each young person is actually interested in. Art is one way in but it is not the only one. Animal treat making, nature crafts and practical outdoor work sit alongside it, so nobody has to enjoy drawing to get something out of a session.
The atmosphere is deliberately low demand. Participants work towards AQA Unit Awards in areas including animal care, social skills and outdoor education, at their own pace.
Equine Connections
Shamley Green · Wednesdays and Sundays, 1.15pm to 3.15pm
Equine Connections is for young people who are drawn to horses and want to learn properly about them. Sessions cover grooming, stable management, anatomy and behaviour, and group tasks that need more than one person to solve. There is some riding, though this is not a riding lesson and the programme does not depend on it.
Participants work towards AQA Unit Awards in equine care and management. A good deal of what develops alongside that is not on any certificate. Learning to read an animal that cannot tell you what is wrong turns out to be useful practice for a great deal else.
Reptile Connections
Froxfield · Wednesdays, 1pm to 3pm
Reptile Connections works with the animals most people never get near. Sessions cover reptile care, animal welfare and environmental science, and are hands-on throughout. For a young person who finds the noise and movement of a busy room difficult, reptiles turn out to be unusually good company. They are quiet, they are precise, and they ask nothing of you socially.
Participants work towards AQA Unit Awards including Introduction to Reptiles, Animal Health Care: Exotics, and Researching Animal Habitats. Groups are small and arranged by age.
What to wear for Equine Connections
Equine Connections involves working around horses. Come in clothing suitable for the outdoors and for grooming, and footwear that covers the whole foot.
Every enquiry is reviewed individually. Submitting the form does not guarantee a place.
Connections Groups: £365 per term.
How to join
Every group starts the same way.
- 1. A parent or carer completes the form below for the group they are interested in.
- 2. Someone from our team gets in touch for a short, informal conversation.
- 3. If the group is a good fit, we confirm a start date.
There is no test and nothing to prepare. The conversation exists so that no young person arrives at a session that was never going to suit them, which is unfair on them and unfair on the group.
If you are a professional making a referral, please use the referral route on the Refer or enquire page rather than this form.
Register interest
Tell us about your child and which group interests you, and a member of the team will be in touch to discuss suitability and availability.
This form captures contact details and the nature of your interest only: please do not include your child's diagnosis, health information, EHCP content or safeguarding history here.