The event gave groups the chance to meet one another and find out more about the help and support that’s available to them.

Groups also took part in a choice of workshops, one about how to recruit more volunteers and the other about how groups can promote themselves for free, or with limited funding.

The event had some interesting outcomes with groups saying that they’d like to get together again regularly. To find out more please call Celia Knight or Emma Shaw from the City Council on 0115 915 3232.

To find out more please call us on 0115 975 3898.

On Playday thousands of children and their families get out to play at hundreds of community events across the UK. As well as celebrating children’s right to play, Playday also highlights the importance of play in children’s lives.

We’ll let you know more about our plans for Playday nearer the time but in the meantime the organisers of Playday, Play England, are looking for families and individuals who are willing to share their stories and opinions with the media – to help them promote this year’s Playday.

For example, you could talk about your own experiences of play in general, or about a play event you’ve been to recently, or about an event you have planned for Playday in your community.

If you’d like to get involved please complete Play England’s short survey. We’ve done it and it only takes a few moments to complete.

To find out more about Playday 2011 please visit www.playday.org.uk

Thank you for your help!

Artists Sian Watson and Gillian Brent will work with us and families living in Bulwell to create free resources, designed to help other families explore and enjoy playing in the woods.

Resources will include a storybook based on families experiences of playing in the woods, together with hands-on play activities for children of different ages and creative maps designed by children to give other young people a ‘child’s eye view’ of the woods.

For example, the maps will include children’s favourite trees, great spots for hide and seek and lots of ideas for making up your own stories.

When we were researching our Play on the Wildside project, we found that many local families weren’t using the woods in Bulwell Hall Park, as they didn’t know the woods were there, or weren’t sure what to do there.

To help, we run regular sessions in the woods for children aged from 0 to 14, plus special family sessions every second Saturday of the month – which are open to the whole family including friends and grandparents.

Sessions give children and families the chance to enjoy adventurous outdoor play activities such as hide and seek and laying and following trails in the woods; whilst finding out more about nature and the environment and learning ‘bushcraft’ style skills like making campfires, building dens and cooking outdoors.

Hopefully the resources we’re creating with Nottingham Contemporary will help children and families even more. They’ll be available to borrow free of charge from the toy library from October onwards but we’ll keep you posted!

View details of Play on the Wildside sessions

Read more about the story

They did so without any prompting from us and clearly saw the Queen as the best person to write to!

We’re delighted to say that we’ve now had a reply from the Queen who said it was ‘most thoughtful of the children to take the time and trouble to write’.

The Queen also requested that her office send the childrens’ letters to Eric Pickles, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, so that he knows about the children’s concerns and that they wrote letters to the Queen.

Her majesty also sent the children her ‘very best wishes for the future’.

At present, we’re waiting to hear about our funding from Nottingham City Council.

You can read the letter in full below or for a copy please feel free to get in touch with us:

To find out more about what the children wrote to the Queen click here.

Did your parents or grandparents have a great idea for a plaything or game that didn’t cost the earth?

We’d love to hear about it!

Toys can be expensive and many families just can’t afford to keep buying new ones, that’s why the Toy Library was set up 30 years ago.

However there are also many ways to make playthings, fun activities and games for next to nothing. Children have been playing for a very long time before there were mass produced toys.

Do you have an example of something you’ve made or used for children to play with using everyday items or your local environment?

Whether you’re a child, parent or grandparent – or if it’s something from last week or 50 years ago, why not share your idea with us?

Some common ideas are making sock puppets, threading pasta necklaces, cars made of big cardboard boxes, hopscotch, walking along without stepping on the cracks in the pavement……. We know there are thousands of others and want as many as possible.

If you have an example to share with us, please tell us in the ‘Leave a reply’ box below or send your ideas and pictures to ideas@toy-library.co.uk