YOUNGSTERS at a respite care and play centre in West Swindon were celebrated on Saturday for their progress over the past few months.

Families visited Hop, Skip and Jump to watch as their little ones were rewarded for fun and wholesome activities like making friends, helping other children, making everyone laugh, fitting in well, and being good at football.

Debbie Watson gave out certificates and rosettes to the young users of the facility in a short ceremony full of song and celebration.

Reverend Celia Carter, one of the founding directors of Hop Skip and Jump, which has other centres across the UK and abroad, attended the uplifting event.

She said: “They have had to overcome tremendous difficulties, there are children here with every sort of special need.

“They come here and they don’t know how to play with other children and in a few months they have progressed so much.

“The idea of this place is to give the parents a day or half a day that they can spend with other siblings or just have a rest.

“The staff here are amazing, they’re highly-qualified and trained and they have endless compassion and patience.”

Nicola Hewlett, head of care at Hop, Skip and Jump, said: “We’ve invited a lot of parents to come along today and recognise their children’s achievements over the past year.

“You don’t really get these sorts of events in respite centres so we wanted to have a day where we mark their success and give them some food and a big well done.

“There are around 35 awards and 15 of the children made it here today to receive them. They present different challenging behaviours, but they’ve done well to come away from those and use other methods of coping, they’re more welcoming, more engaged and sharing.

“There are 170 children on our books, they don’t all use the centre at once, some come during holidays, some come here after school.

“I’ve worked with these children for a while and it’s quite an emotional challenge but very rewarding.

“We are here to help, we don’t turn anyone away, if we can help someone, we will.”

Becci and Gary have brought their son Mason, who has autism, to the centre regularly since he was three years old.

Becci said: “He’s come so far since he started going here and he loves it, it’s nice that he gets his own time. He’s calmed down a lot and he’s made so many friends, something we were told he would never do.

“The staff are fantastic, it’s a lovely place, being in the right environment helps him an awful lot.”