Bath Area Play Project have successfully been providing family play days for more than 10 years.
Playdays provide and support the child's right to play in their own community and we are proud that we have been providing these since we started back in 1979. For the first 20 years, we ran Open Access play schemes but we moved out into parks following consultation with children and parents to enable us to support more children and families.
Our Family Playdays are held mostly during the summer school holidays and occasionally at Easter, and are for the whole family to attend together where parents and children can enjoy a range of outdoor play opportunities and activities facilitated by our wonderful team of Playworkers and Family Support Workers. As the sessions take place outdoors, we strongly recommend wearing old clothing and footwear suitable for the weather and nothing important as we use clay, paint, water and mud all of which may well get on clothes!!
Play opportunities will include creative and messy play, physical an active play, opportunities 4 risky play including cooking on the fire pit, using the slackline, as well as exploring the environment and building dens. Play is often the only time that children are in control and our sessions support this by providing the space and resources, enabling children to explore and respond how they choose to with support available if needed.
Parents remain responsible for their children at all times and we expect that you remain close by to your children throughout the session.
Playdays are only possible thanks to funding from grants and trusts as well as support from parish and town councils. We very much appreciate a donation of £3 per child at each session to ensure we can have enough resources and equipment for everything we provide. You can donate through local giving help insuring these can continue.
On publicity we show the post code for the location, and strongly recommend you walk or cycle or use the bus rather than driving if at all possible. Some locations have very limited if any parking. Some locations will have toilets indicated by a capital T, there are some which do not have toilets.
Play days are over 3 hours and you can join us from the start and stay for the whole session or pop in when suits you.
When you arrive please make your way to the table where an orange come and play banner is flying. We count how many people attend so we can report back to our funders. We my use a QR code which we ask you scan and enter in your child's name and the school they attend.
Follow us on Facebook www.facebook.com/people/Bath-Area-Play-Project/61555181315375/ for early release of session dates as well as any updates or changes to sessions. For example if the weather has high wind levels, we are unable to erect any shelters and where it is torrential rain, there may not be any other option other than to cancel.
At each play date, we will have the Alice Park cafe van providing hot and cold drinks, snacks and ice creams for sale.
We ask that you take all your rubbish home with you but please do not take our resources and equipment. Sadly last year we had a significant number of things removed or stolen which puts us in a difficult position when we don't have enough for the following sessions.
We welcome other providers to support these sessions which may include sports coaches from Bath City FC foundation, the public health team, B&NES library service as well as individuals to provide specific activities (clay) and inflatables.
Playdays Tailored for your Organisation - We provide a service for groups and organisations requiring support for play based activities at local events across B&NES, Bristol and Wiltshire. We provide appropriately qualified staff, all the equipment and resources needed for the individual occasion. Contact us for information: enquiries@bathareaplayproject.co.uk