Below is important information for our members about our services over the summer. If you have questions, please call 0131 476 4506 during office hours or email us. We will share details about our plans for after the summer holidays over the coming weeks.

Pre-booked play sessions for The Yard members

On Friday 11 June, we invited all our member families to provide your availability for the upcoming block of play sessions. Please complete the form with your availability before 16th June to guarantee a space. This block covers the school summer holidays, so we will allocate all those sessions over the next couple of weeks. Please email [email protected] to resolve any issues with your membership. If you have not received our email, please check your junk/spam folder, and if not, please get in touch.

Summer in Fife

Our pre-booked play sessions for members will continue at The Yard Fife every Saturday and Sunday from 3rd July to 15th August. These sessions are year-round so no changes over the school holidays.

Summer in Dundee

Our pre-booked play sessions for members will continue at The Yard Dundee every Sunday from 4th July to 15th August. Our Wednesday afternoon sessions run term-time only, not in school holidays.

Summer in Edinburgh

Early years returns to weekly in-person sessions over the summer every Wednesday from 7th July. These are pre-booked sessions for new and existing member families with children aged 0-5. You will receive an email about this if you have attended before. Our live Zoom and video sessions for our early years members will both stop by the end of June. We will share more information about our early years plans for after the summer break in due course.

Members’ play sessions run on weekday afternoons and Saturdays (morning and afternoon) during the school summer holidays, all of which will be allocated to member families in advance, as above. The dates for these sessions in Edinburgh are 28th June to 17th August due to schools finishing one week early. During that first week, from 28th June to 2nd July, we are running these sessions for members in both the mornings and afternoons.

Respite sessions (ie for young people without their parents/carers) run on weekdays through our holiday support provision. The local authority has changed the way they offer support to families during the holidays, so we are one of a few providers, but they are responsible for allocating places. Please speak with the local authority social work department directly about accessing their services.

Local authority families, ie those who we have supported throughout the pandemic, will continue to visit The Yard during the summer holidays in the same way as during term-time. The local authority also allocates these spaces.

The Yard is running an additional holiday support service based at Oaklands School this summer, again with places being allocated to families by the City of Edinburgh Council.

Clubs over Zoom will finish by the end of June due to projected low attendance over the summer. We are hoping to be able to bring in-person clubs after the summer, but due to changes in the funding landscape along with COVID-19 restrictions, we are currently reviewing how best to deliver them. We will keep all our members who are in clubs and/or on the waiting list informed.

We do not currently have plans in place to bring back Sunday Funday. Even when Scotland moves into level one, meaning soft play centres can re-open, it would not be viable for The Yard to do so. We will share any changes via our social media channels.

Maintenance closure in Edinburgh runs Wednesday 18th to Friday 20th August (inclusive).

Driving to The Yard Edinburgh

The City of Edinburgh Council has removed the right turn option for southbound traffic on the B901 into Eyre Place (coming up the hill from Canonmills). You can still turn into Eyre Place heading north (down the hill). If you are travelling up the hill, you can continue and go right round the roundabout at Mansfield Traquair, then come back down. This is part of the Spaces for People project delivered by Sustrans on behalf of the City of Edinburgh Council.

Dundee development

We are still in discussions with potential partners to help us realise our new development in Dundee. There is no definite plan for how and when this will happen, but we will of course keep you updated.

Linn Park in Glasgow

Glasgow City Council has decided not to progress our application for a Community Asset Transfer to operate Linn Park Adventure Playground in Glasgow. However, we are still in very positive discussions with them and Glasgow Life to find a different route to make this happen. We will let you know of any updates.