** UPDATE ** The New Ark Trustee Board would like to invite you to attend New Ark Play Association’s Annual General Meeting on Tuesday 19th July at 6pm for tea/coffee with a 6.30 start.  Please ring to let us know that you are coming.

Do you have a passion for children’s play? Would you like to see New Ark stay open and accessible to all in the future? Would you like to help a charity organisation that has worked with children and their families for over 40 years?

If the answer to any of these questions is yes, we would love you to join our Management Committee.

All we ask is a few hours of your time each week to fit around your personal commitments, to attend our monthly Committee Meeting, and to help out at occasional fundraising events. If you have a little more time you can work on some of our development and planning projects.

What you can gain from being part of the New Ark Management Committee

• Learn skills: Management, Finance, Childcare, Farm, Funding and Fundraising.
• Gain experience to add to your CV, increasing your job prospects.
• Socialise and work with like-minded people.
• Ability to put forward your views on how New Ark develops in the future.

Roles we are currently recruiting for:

• Vice Chair – deputises Committee meeting in the absence of the Chair.
• Treasurer – to oversee the financial operation at New Ark.
• Secretary – minute taking at monthly meetings, plus issuing agenda/minutes.
• Funding/Fundraising – planning and organising to help New Ark.
• General Committee Members – helping to make informed decisions at monthly meetings.

Our AGM will be taking place on Tuesday 19th July from 6pm – so now is the perfect time to find out more about having your say in the future of New Ark

For more information, please speak to a manager at New Ark.
Newark Play Association Ltd
Hill Close
Peterborough
PE1 5LZ
Registered charity: 1026751

The New Ark Play Management Committee recently wrote to current members of Afterschool and Holiday Playground to explain why it has become necessary to increase charges for our Playground sessions.

For current Holiday members the changes apply from July 2016; for new families registering for Holiday sessions the changes are immediate. Afterschool families are already paying the new charges.

The letter explains that, in the present economic climate with rising costs, we have made these changes in order to maintain our current level of care given to your child/children. Some of the circumstances that have affected us include the Government introducing the living wage, and further limitations on the funding we are able to obtain from Government sources,

It is unfortunate that we have had to increase our charges. We have made every effort to ensure that they are as modest as practicable to reduce the effect it has on family budgets.

Further details about the pricing structure can be found at the below links

Playground school holiday sessions

Playground afterschool sessions

The below document has details of our 2016 term dates and closures.

Term Dates 2016

Please note the following closures for our Repairs and Maintenance weeks.

Our annual report for 2014-15 is now available to view online as a low res PDF document – please click the link below.

New Ark Guide and annual report 2014-2015

If you wish to receive a printed copy, please contact us on 01733 340605 or info@newarkplay.co.uk

We have lots of fun summer 2015 activities planned during our playground sessions (weekdays 10am-noon and 2-5pm) including:

• Week commencing 27 July – bring a light coloured T shirt to paint
• Week commencing 3 August – pebble painting
• Indoor baking planned for the first 3 weeks of the holidays – booking advised cost 50p
• Outdoor fire and cooking – Thursday afternoons weather allowing
• Water play/water slide – only on the hottest days
• City Farm open daily (access may be restricted access eg if the weather if very hot).
• Eco sessions running on Tuesdays and Thursdays – see details below

Keep your eye on our Facebook page and look for notices in our lobby to see further announcements, such as the end of summer party, water slide days, further planned activities, etc.

If you are thinking of visiting our adventure playground/city farm for the first time, as a one-off, or with under 5s please take a look at www.newarkplay.co.uk/visits.

If you are planning to register for our holiday sessions, you can save time by downloading the forms from www.newarkplay.co.uk/holidays. Remember that we also offer additional childcare outside of normal session times for registered children.

Eco sessions

This year we are delighted to be running our Eco Sessions again, 9.30am-12noon every Tuesday and Thursday throughout the summer holidays (not 4/6/11 August). During these sessions the children are invited to take part in forest school type activities such as shelter building, mud play, charcoal making and bug hunts. Booking is essential as places are limited – the sessions cost £3 per child. Priority is normally given to registered children aged 5-8.

On Tuesday 18 August Froglife will be running our Eco Session – it will be open to children aged 12 and under

Toddler Group

Don’t forget that our Toddler Group meets 2pm-4pm during the summer holidays. Older siblings can play next door in our adventure playground. More details at www.newarkplay.co.uk/toddler-group.

Important dates

The final day of our summer holiday programme is Friday 4th September – we will no doubt be having a party/celebration on that day watch our Facebook page for an announcement

On Monday 7th September our preschool playgroup resumes. There will be no playground afterschool sessions that week due to our repairs and maintenance week – afterschool sessions resume on Monday 14 September. It is essential that parents requiring afterschool walkover from Newark Hill School book in advance.