As you may know, we’re now running regular play sessions at the new Bulwell Riverside centre on Main Street/Coventry Road in Bulwell.

The new sessions include:

Play & Lend session for children aged 0 to 5 years
Every Thursday from 9.30am to 11am
Costs: £1 per family

Join in with fun play activities specially designed for little ones, run by our experienced playworkers and volunteers, whilst you enjoy a coffee and a chat! Plus, you can borrow toys and games to take home in-between sessions for just a few pence.

Baby Play session for babies aged from 0 to 14 months 
Every Tuesday from 1pm to 2.30pm
Costs: £1 per family

Join in with fun play activities designed exclusively for babies whilst meeting other parents and carers.

After school session for 9 to 13 year olds
Every Monday from 3.30pm to 5.30pm
FREE

A free session for 9 to 13 year olds designed to give children a fun, safe place to meet their friends and join in with a whole host of activities including games, sports, arts and crafts.

After school session for 5 to 13 year olds
Every Thursday from 3.30pm to 5.30pm
FREE

A free session for 5 to 13 year olds designed to give children a fun, safe place to meet their friends and join in with a whole host of activities including games, sports, arts and crafts.

For full details of all our other sessions please visit our 0-5 years section or our Over 5′s section.

We held our first ever session at the new Bulwell Riverside on Tuesday 1st November.

It was a special play session for babies and as you can see from the pictures, a lot of fun was had by all!

Nine parents came along to the session and you’re more than welcome to join them next week – we’ll be holding a regular play session for babies aged under 14 months every Tuesday from 1pm to 2.30pm at the Riverside.

It’s never too early to start playing with your baby – as well as helping you to bond with your little one, play will help your baby to develop skills such as speech and language as they grow.

Plus of course, our baby play sessions are a great way to meet other parents and carers with young children.

You’ll also find us at the Riverside on Thursday mornings from 9.30am to 11am – where we’ll be running a Play and Lend session for 0 to 5 year olds. Our Play and Lend sessions include lots of fun activities for little ones run by experienced playworkers and volunteers. Plus, you can borrow toys and games from our toy library in-between sessions for just a few pence a week.

Each session costs just £1 per family.

We look forward to seeing you soon!

We’re running new play sessions from Tuesday 1st November at the Bulwell Riverside – in partnership with Nottingham City Council’s Family Community Team.

The sessions will include after-school play sessions for children aged from 5 to 13 and also daytime play sessions for families with children under 5.

We’ll be running a special baby-play session too, which will use play to help develop children’s language and communication skills from an early age.

The after-school play sessions for 5 to 13 year olds are free and the sessions for under 5′s will cost just £1 per family.

We hope to see you at our first session on the 1st!

You’re welcome to call us on 0115 975 3898 to find out more about the sessions.

Bulwell Riverside is on Main Street and Coventry Road, close to the River Leen and Bulwell Bogs Park.

Read more here…

Check out our recent article in the Nottingham Evening Post – about the work children from the toy library have been doing with artists from the Nottingham Contemporary.

It’s worth a look for the lovely photo!

View the Evening Post article in full

Why not come down to the Nottingham Contemporary art gallery in Nottingham city centre this Saturday at 11.30am for the launch of our outdoor play resources – designed by children who attend the toy library’s sessions?

Children from our Play on the Wildside outdoor play sessions have been working with artists from the Contemporary to design the resources, which you’ll be able to borrow free from the toy library from next week.

The resources have been created to help families have fun playing in the woods at Bulwell Hall Park and are suitable for children of different ages.

The magic of outdoor play - courtesy of Jo Wheeler

The children’s work has also inspired a new Play & Learn Trail at the Contemporary which you’ll be able to try out on Saturday.

The launch coincides with the Contemporary’s free Family Extravaganza weekend, on from 11am to 3pm on Satuday 22nd and Sunday 23rd.

Hope to see you there!

A range of free play resources for families – created by children who attend the toy library’s ‘Play on the Wildside’ sessions – is being launched at the Nottingham Contemporary on Saturday 22nd October at 11.30am – to help families explore and enjoy playing in the woods at Bulwell Hall Park in Nottingham.

The magic of outdoor play - courtesy of Jo Wheeler

Anyone who’s interested is very welcome to come along – and you’ll also be able to join in with the Contemporary’s free Family Extravaganza event, which is on from 11am to 3pm.

The resources will be available to borrow from the toy library from Monday 24th October and they’ll include a storybook based on real families’ experiences of playing in the Bulwell Hall Park 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 include children’s favourite trees, great spots for hide and seek and lots of ideas for making up your own stories.

Artists from the Contemporary have helped to make our resources and their work with the toy library has also inspired a new Play and Learn Trail at the Contemporary, which will help children to explore the gallery’s exhibitions in a fun, inspiring way. The Trail will feature the toy library’s logo and the wording ‘inspired by work done with children from Bulwell Community Toy Library.’

A slide show showing a selection of photographs capturing the children and artists in action will also be available to view at the Contemporary.

Hope to see you at the Contemporary on Saturday!

We’ve got a story in the Nottingham Evening Post (13th Oct) about the work we’ve been doing with local families and the Nottingham Contemporary art gallery.

Families who attend our play sessions have been working with artists from the Contemporary to make games and activities for other families to use – to help them enjoy playing in the woods at Bulwell Hall Park.

Families have also helped to make a special Play and Learn Trail for the Contemporary – which will be launched at the gallery on Saturday 22nd October.

The Trail includes hands-on play activities and interactive maps to help families explore the gallery.

Eventually, the Trail will be handed back to us, so we’ll be able to use it in Bulwell as well.

If you’d like to come along to the Contemporary on the 22nd, please feel free to let us know.

We’ll let you know more details about the launch very soon!

We’ll also let you know how you can get your hands on our wonderful new games and activities!

Read the story in full in the Nottingham Evening Post

Nottingham charity Playworks is holding an Open Day on Saturday 1st October from 10am to 1pm for families.

They’ll be free craft activities for children and parents/carers and you’ll also get the chance to look round Playworks’ Scrapstore.

The Scrapstore houses an amazing range of arts and crafts materials which you can buy for a fraction of the cost of similar materials sold in the shops.

Plus, Playworks can give you loads of hints and tips on how to do arts and crafts with your children at home.

The event will also include free refreshments.

To find out more please call Playworks on 0115 958 9199. Playworks is on Alfred Street North, off Mansfield Road, not far from the Victoria Centre. The postcode is NG3 1AE.

Please help us to win £6,000 worth of funding to help keep our Girls’ After School Club running next year by voting for us!

The money is up for grabs via NatWest bank’s CommunityForce initiative and we’re just one of many organisations competing for the funding so we really need your help.

Vote for us online or call 0800 2100 246. Anyone with hearing or speech impairments can contact CommunityForce on Minicom number 0800 0155 545.

Voting closes on 23rd October and you’re allowed to vote 3 times.

As you may know, our girls’ club gives girls aged from 9 to 13 the chance to get involved in activities after school such as arts, crafts, games and discussions about things that they choose.

Many thanks for your support – it’s always appreciated.

Don’t worry if you can’t make it along to our Annual General Meeting today, you can find out what the toy library’s been doing over the last year in our Annual Report.

It includes a report from our Chair, Judy Berry, news of our new projects including our nature-based play project ‘Play on the Wildside’ and a review of the services we provide for families.

Don’t worry, if you haven’t got time to read the whole thing, the Annual Report is full of photographs that really sum up the importance of play in children’s lives, for families and for the community as a whole.

Bulwell Community Toy Library Annual Report