Ninjas, yoga for babies and webinars - they're all helping this business to be a nationwide success

Atoms Education is a community interest company and it is proving to be a big hit from Scotland to London thanks to its fun and interactive sessions where children can become ninjas in topics such as stories, cakes, art, maths and science.

Children can become a cake ninja by making tasty treats with online recipes to follow.

They can become an art ninja by designing a cushion with flowers and grasses on it.

The Hesleden-based firm is a social enterprise which provides educational workshops based around Art, Design and Technology, Oracy, Maths and Science.

Director and company secretary Stacey Deinali said: “Before the virus, we provided different workshops for children to complement the school curriculum.

“We had to rearrange our services since the lockdown to still support families.

“We started looking at providing educational packs to go out to families and complemented that with webinars.”

The result was that children aged two and over benefited from everything from baby yoga to making cheesecakes.

Stacey added: “Most packs went out across County Durham but we have had packs going to Scotland and down to London. There is a large demand from families looking for support.”

Atoms Education director Alex Summerson said: "It's been an absolute pleasure to watch the Home School kit project flourish from an idea into something much more.

“We have been able to provide support to families across the North East and further afield throughout the Coronavirus Pandemic and have received beautiful feedback from parents and guardians about how the kits have helped to nurture a love of education for their children.

“There's nothing quite as beautiful as receiving photos from parents and guardians of their children beaming after the arrival of an activity or post completion of a webinar with a science project they have made with Science Ninja or a cake they have baked with our resident Cake Ninja.

“Being able to provide this support to families with no cost has been fantastic and as a result we have been able to help a number of disadvantaged families in our region through a terrifying time.

“We couldn't have done this without the support from our wonderful funders who have helped us take this from a dream, to a reality."

Fellow director Yvonne Hardman said, thanks to Atoms, she had developed ‘ways of teaching creatively in a way that puts happy children having fun at the centre of their own learning experiences.

“As a team we have a shared passion for teaching outside of the limitations of the curriculum and to work in our communities to provide these learning opportunities.

“During the COVID-19 pandemic we have had to adapt our approach whilst remaining true to our core values and I feel we have risen to this challenge and are providing support to our communities in the best ways we can."

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