Planned closures

Please note that New Ark will be closed for Repairs and Maintenance on the following dates:

  • Thursday 29th March (all day)
  • Monday 16th April 3-6pm (affecting after-school sessions only)
  • Monday 3rd September (all day)
  • Tuesday 4th September (all day)

If you can help us carry out Repairs and Maintenance to our site please contact us on 01733 340605. The kind of things we need help with are:

• People to paint, clean, garden, sort and organise – both individuals and group working parties are welcomed.

• Donations of cleaning products including bleach, scourers, cleansers, cloths, etc.

• Unwanted tins of paint – unopened or recently opened

• Money, so that we can repair/replace anything faulty as we find it. You can make an online donation at www.localgiving.com/charity/newarkplay

Easter holiday activities

During the school Easter Holidays New Ark is open daily between Tuesday 3rd and Friday 6th April, and from Monday 9th to Friday 13th April.

Registered children of school age can drop in between 10am-12 noon and 2pm-5pm, or be booked in for half day/full day childcare. Further details about holiday registration are available here and prices for our 2 different types of registration are here. Please do call us on 01733 340605 if you have any queries about registration.

We welcome visiting families with children of all ages between 10am-12 noon and 2-5pm. You may drop in, but numbers are restricted and therefore we highly recommend prebooking on 01733 340605. Further details about one-off visits are available here and the suggested donation is £1 per adult/£2 per child.

Vote for New Ark in Tesco’s Bags of Help

Please help New Ark by voting for us when you shop at Tesco

From the 1st of March to 30th of April, New Ark will be one of Tesco’s local chosen charities to be a part of their ‘Bags of Help’ scheme.

Whenever shopping at any of the Tesco’s mentioned in the advert, you should receive a token to put in the box for the charities. Please support New Ark by giving us your token to help us get some much needed funding!

Thank you for your continued support.

Easter Hunt 30 March 2018

Now an annual event, our Good Friday Easter Hunt is on Friday 30 March 2018 from 11am-2pm.

There will be all the usual fun including a raffle, tombola, hot & cold refreshments and children’s activities. You can also visit our city farm which opens at noon, and play in the adventure playground.

Entry is £3 per child to include the Easter hunt. Parents and others gain entry by silver donation. There is no need to book – just turn up on the day and every child participating in the Easter Hunt will gain a prize. Everyone is welcome whether or not they are currently registered at New Ark ?

If you can help out on the day, donate raffle prizes or home-baked goodies, please contact Nikki on 01733 340605 or drop off items at New Ark anytime Monday to Friday between 8.30m and 5.30pm.

To help with our fundraising we are particularly looking for donations of:
– Raffle prizes eg bottle of wine/alcohol, cuddly toy, vouchers of any kind, toys.
– Tombola prizes e.g. hand soap, toys, toiletry sets, unwanted gifts, stationary, reading books
– Easter chocolate – Easter eggs, chocolate bunnies, mini eggs
– Boxes of chocolates, sharing bags of chocolates
Thank you for your support

PS Another way to help is to share this page on social media.

Christmas Bazaar – 18 November

Our fundraising Christmas Bazaar is now an annual tradition, with hot food, children’s activities, outdoor play and the city farm. Entrance is by silver donation. Planned activities include:

Main building 12-3pm Activities include * treasure hunt * cake stall * gift tombola * children’s tombola * soft toy stall * chocolate tombola.. We also have refreshments for sale, including hot food

Adventure playground 12-3pm Open for playing dependent on weather

City Farm – open 12.30-3pm * feeding our animals * sponsor an animal * buy reindeer glitter food, and more

Father Christmas
This year Santa’s grotto will be located in our new barn between 12.30 and 2.30pm. Tickets are on sale now for £2.50 to include a small gift. To book call Nikki/Sam on 01733 340605 – you will asked your child’s age and given an approximate time slot.

Please do book early, as numbers are limited and we need to make sure the elves have enough gifts for the right ages. A few tickets may be available on the day of the bazaar.

Preschool playgroup vacancies

We have preschool playgroup vacancies for children aged from 2 years 6 months – starting in September 2018. Please call Nikki in our playgroup on 01733 340605 for more information or to book a visit.

Please note that we have recently introduced all day sessions in line with the 30 hours free childcare funding. Please ask for more details.

If you know of a Peterborough parent who may be interested in sending their child to New Ark then please tell them about us – we rely on word of mouth recommendations.

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New Ark offers young children a unique preschool experience

5 reasons to bring your child to New Ark playgroup

Staff – We provide a caring environment that nurtures the individual needs of young children.
Space – Fantastic play area to build physical skills for life..
City Farm – Every child is given the opportunity to feed and care for our animals.
Eco-Centre – Den building, pond dipping, bug hunts and use of natural materials to help young children learn and develop skills.
Recognition – Parents love the imaginative work of our staff.

More information about our playgroup is at www.newarkplay.co.uk/preschool

Open Day – 7 October

Help to spread the word about New Ark by inviting your friends to come and visit during our annual community open day on Saturday 7th October 2017 11am-2pm, with entry by silver donation. Or download a copy of our open day 2017 poster  and put it on display somewhere that parents will see it.

All areas of New Ark will be open including our city farm, eco centre, play support building and of course our playground. Come and see our history trail, meet our animals, explore our woodland garden and play in our traditional adventure playground. Our 2016-17 Annual Report will also be available to members and supporters.

Entry on the day will be by silver donation to our charity. We’ll also be selling refreshments. Donations of cakes and other bakes are very much appreciated to help us with this – please let Nikki know that you can help by calling 01733 340605.

 

Summer 2017 activities

Our 2017 summer holiday sessions are aimed at school-aged children and will be running Monday-Friday from Monday 24th July until Friday 1st September. We will be closed on Monday 28th August for the bank holiday.

Our theme for play sessions during the summer holidays is Around the World – Families and Cultures. As part of this we will be making culture boxes and focusing on the following:
Week 1 Great Britain
Week 2 Eastern European
Week 3 France
Week 4 Asia
Week 5 Africa
Week 6 All countries

Some of the regular activities we have planned include fabric painting to make bunting, cooking in the kitchen, den building, cooking dampers on an outdoor fire, icing biscuits, water play and making finger puppets.  Our adventure playground and city farm will also be open daily.

We will be having drop in workshops to design and make a mosaic coaster, do food tastings, and paint using spices.

And we are also holding more of our popular Eco Sessions on the following dates 9.30-12 noon. Cost is £3 per session if registered with New Ark, or £5 as a one off.
Tuesday 25 July
Thursday 27th July
Tuesday 8th August
Thursday 10th August
Tuesday 15th August
Thursday 17th August
Tuesday 22nd August
Thursday 24th August

If your child is particularly keen to attend any of these activities, please speak to a member of staff to book onto them/find out when they are running.

To find out more about our school holiday play sessions and childcare, see here

 

Changes to holiday registration 2017

This letter is currently being given out to parents who use our playground holiday sessions. For further details of our playground holiday registrations please see here, or for one-off visits during school holidays see here.

 

June 2017

Dear parents

Our funding continues to reduce, but we still have to pay more for materials, running costs, and maintaining our building which is now over 40 years old.

We have made the decision to make changes to our holiday registration and charges to suit parents working patterns and to make ends meet.

After talking to parents and understanding their needs for childcare, below are the changes to our registrations. Registration 1 is similar to our existing price structure with slight registration price increases; Registration 2 is new.

Registration 1

  • A termly registration fee, which varies depending on time of year/number of children in family.
  • This option allows the registered children to attend between the hours of 10am-12pm and 2-5pm, on days when our school holiday sessions and after school sessions are running.
  • Any wrap around care is still charged at £4 per hour/per child.

Registration 2

  • A one-off admin fee of £10 per family, which covers the year July 2017-July 2018.
  • Half day sessions costing £10 per child per session, covering either 8.30am-1pm or 1pm- 5.30pm.
  • All day sessions costing £18 per child per day, covering 8.30am-5.30pm.

All of our sessions will have to be pre booked a week in advance (not on the day) as we need to make sure enough staff are working to cover the ratio of children. We will give a week’s grace for those parents who have not had communication with us before the summer break.

There will be NO refunds for places that have been pre-booked, if cancelled.

All of our playground holiday session prices are summarised on the attached page. If you have any queries please do contact us by telephone on 01733 340605. We ask for your patience while we implement the new admin processes associated with this change.

We hope that you understand why we have had to make this change. If our fees prevent your family from accessing New Ark please do talk to a manager in confidence.

We are grateful for your continued support.

Staff and trustees of New Ark