( In addition to running our busy resource centre)  

Nottingham loves learning - Face painting workshops. Sunday, 14th Feb 2010

A day of family facepainting workshops with a story telling theme. The tutor was  Lynne Adger and participants were from our local community.   We painted faces, arms, hands, made puppets, learnt new skills and had fun. More family workshops have been requested.

Participants enjoyed the demonstrations, learning new skills and having fun.

Chinese New Year in the Park. Saturday 13th February 2010

We worked with Gedling Borough Council Leisure an Arts development and provided craft activities for 180 children and families. GBC provided an excellent facepainter and chinese story telling sessions.  We provided a mixture of activiies including lanterns, dragon callers (it worked one appeared) envelopes, fans, bouncy dragons, hats etc. We were supported by Ethel Swan from Fair play for children who helped the children make costumes. 

The day ended with over 100 people joining in with a lantern and dragon parade around the lake -Woodthorpe Guides did a great job in controlling the dragon. Thanks to all who helped make a great day.

Friends of Arnot Hill ,Park Christmas  Event  12th December 09 

We worked with Friends of Arnot Hill Park and Gedling Borough Council to provide families with a free afternoon of making Chrismas decorations, lanterns, bird feeders, beaded doves, snowflakes, stars  and table decorations.  Children could enter a winter wonderland and come out face painted.    Approx 130 people took part. We finished a a lantern parade around the lake, it finished at the play park when the banner bearers  took a detour into the play park. Children filled in wish stars with ideas for future events.

   Childrens christmas wishes, one of our activities.               After the sensory workshop, others still benefitted

Sensory Area Workshop - A Gedling Out of School Networking event Nov 28th

Vicki Moss, Childcare Development Worker Notts County Council, out of school team held a workshop for local after school care schemes.

Groups came to the Resource Centre to discover low cost ideas and tips on how to develop and build sensory areas within their settings.  The area was left up after the event and many other groups are still benefitting  from this training.

Winter Craft Workshops in our Resource Centre 14th November

Local play and childcare workers and their children came and took part in a day of workshops. From angels,wreathes, hats, xmas bird feeders to mice and gitterbugs. Participants could access the scrap store when inspiration took hold, we saw some spectacular creations.  

We received funding through Notts County Council Play Service, workshop leader Linda Cox, and from workers from Gedling Play Forum.         

       Making circuits - the first stage in bug making, bodymaterials from scrap store.  Winter crafts sessions, networking.

Friends of Arnot Hill Park Halloween Event. 31st October

A free afternoon of crafts, story telling, pumpkin carving, face painting, all finished off with a lantern parade around the lake.   Organised by Friends of Arnot Park, supported by Gedling Borough Council.

Our staff and volunteers provided a range of craft activities including banner making, owl shaped birdfeeders, lanterns, flying bats, hats.  Ethel Swann from Fair Play For Children helped the children make costumes.  The parade stretched around the lake. Over 100 bird feeders went to new homes.

 The Friends of Arnot Hill Park and Gedling Borough Council Leisure provided some excellent pumpkin carving, refreshments, story telling, face painting and parade marshalls.

The Friends Group funded an owl and bat die cutter, for this event and our members use.

Many thanks to Cllr Mel Shepard for helping us with funding for other die cutters and material costs.

We now have new owl, bat, spider,web, and christmas die cutters ( watch this space)for our members use. These have already been used by members, including pre schools, out of schools and faith groups.

 Using the die cutting machines. 100s of shapes were cut from a variety of materials from our scrap store, including fabrics, papers, foam, and wood. Some decorate the banner, the children, gardens etc.

 EYFS Coffee morning - organised by Vicki Moss, Childcare development worker from The Play Service, NottsCounty Council.

October. We made  our resource centre available to out of school groups to meet and share ideas.

We hope Vicki's Support  mornings will be held on a regular basis.

In responce to members requests we also invited PlayTraining Service from N.C.C. to bring information on the excellent Active Skills Training Passport scheme. This was a repeat visit and more playworkers were able to sign up for their free passport.

Open day and McMillan Coffee Morning

On Saturday October 3rd and in response to requests we opened our new centre to our community and held a coffee morning to support Mc Millan Nurses.  Visitors include Vernon Coaker MP, County Councillors Mel Sheppard and Rod Kempster and over 50 supporters. On the day a young visitor (age 7) made up gift bags using materials he found in the scrap  store and charged £1 a bag, he raised £9. Altogether we raised £153.

Gedling Show

on  Sunday 5th September we provided free play activities for families at this popular and successful event. Our activities were funded by Gedling Borough Council. We provided various craft activities including firebirds, boxes, bags, rockets, fish and ships. Our  staff and volunteers again worked wonders 

Opening of New Resource Centre at Wollaton Avenue Community Centre Gedling on 1st September 2009

Thanks to Gedling Borough Council we have an affordable home, with disabled access and parking.

We received funding from Boots Charitable Trust for some new shelving, this has made a huge difference to accessibility and has enabled us to make best use of the space available. We now have a training area again.  Our staff and volunteers worked very hard and moved every box, roll and tube.

In the first month we had over 160 visitors

Gedling Playday

On 12th August we worked with Nottinghamshire County Council, Play Service, Gedling Borough Council, Leisure Service and other community groups including Pop Divas and The Force to provide free play opportunities for local children. Over 5000 people joined us.

Our Play Forum activities included circus skills, table top crafts, rocket making and launching, We offered all children fresh fruit and water in exchange for filling in a quick questionnaire.

Notts County Council and Gedling Borough Leisure.

The Play Service ran a range of activities for children and young people, these included den making, pottery, wishes, painting and much more. See link to Gedlling Borough site for further details Link

We and other county Play Forums supplied free resources from our scrap stores for many organisations including NCC Play Service and PCT,  to support all county Play Days.

Closure of Arnold Resource Centre on 30th July 2009

Due to increases in overheads we had to find a new home. After 9 years in Arnold we closed our first scrapstore and resouce centre and moved to Gedling

Grand opening of the refurbished park in Papplewick.

On 23rd July we worked with our partners from the Gedling Play Partnership to celebrate the opening of new park facilities. Papplewick Parish Council successfully bid for Big Lottery money to improve facilities for children and young people. Event Supported by Gedling Play Partnership and Ethel Swann from Fair Play For Children

A Papplewick Parish Council Event

 12 hr Paedriatric First Aid  course at Wollaton Avenue.

On 20th and 21st July. Working in partnership with Vicki Moss from NCC we organised this course to ensure groups had this qualification before the start of the summer activities.

Summer workshops, our Annual General Meeting and 1st day of our lease.

July 18th was the first day of our lease for Wollaton Avenue Community Centre

Wollaton Avenue, Gedling NG4 4HX.  We held craft workshops followed by our Annual General Meeting

Workshops funded through Notts County Council Play Service.

Workshops included seaside crafts from Kerry O'Brien

Summer crafts from Linda Cox

Crafts from Gedling Play Forum inc making weaving sticks, beasties and bugs.

Location:

Thank you to all who took part - over 70 attended throught the day.

An excellent start at our new home.