Hampton Park Way, Swaythling, Southampton SO17 3AT[email protected] 02380 335362
Community Playlink Toy Libraries
Registered Charity: 1184505
NEWSCAST
Hello there and welcome to our News section!
You can find information about all recent happenings, events and other important news about Community Playlink here – starting with our most recent news.
On Saturday 2nd November we attended the Mayflower Studio (MAST) Family Fun day.
We had lots of fun with children and families!
· 128 Families came to play with us, and a total of 208 children.
54 children under 4 years. 143 children between 5 and 10 years old, and 11 children over 10 years of age.
We would like to say a BIG hello to our new
Assistant toy Librarian
JOYCE HAMILTON-DYER
She joined us on 1st February 2024, and you can pop in to meet her on Thursdays and Saturdays every week! Joyce has been using the Toy Library for the last 4 years with her family, and many of you will already have met Joyce through our Playtime sessions. We are very pleased that Joyce has joined our Team – please pop in to see her and say hello!
In September Elaine and Jo took part in training with other practitioners in Southampton. The training was for PEEP.
The Peep Learning Together Programme (PLT) helps parents, carers and practitioners make the most of the learning opportunities in everyday life, supporting their babies’ and young children’s learning through play.
We are currently recruiting new Volunteers, who are so valuable in our Toy Library, especially during open sessions, enabling Staff to turn around our stock of Toys when they are returned by families.
Please contact Elaine – in person, by phone or by e-mail if you would like to find out more.
We are very pleased to announce that we have been successful in our bid for a grant from the Garfield Weston Foundation!!
This is a 3 year Grant which will enable us to increase the number of children we reach by offering further, supported Playtime Sessions across Southampton and to maintain the
number of Toy Library venues, so that we can reach more of our children – there are around 16,000 under 5s in Southampton with numbers rising. We will be able to employ a Play Development Worker now for 3 years which will be very beneficial!
Following the retirement of our founder, Ann Compton, Emma Barrett has joined our Trustee Board and was elected at our AGM last year. We welcome Emma and look forward to many years of working together with her.
Emma Barrett
Emma Barrett has 20 years experience in Further Education, She is currently the Assistant Principal at Itchen Sixth Form College in Southampton. Emma is responsible for community engagement and business development for the college and has a strong interest in supporting families across the city with a number of community projects. The Sixth Form and Adult Education department within the college supports a number of childcare courses which Emma oversees at a strategic level. Emma has set up a pathway for unemployed people within Southampton to become qualified in Childcare and move into work which has proven to be a success over the last year. This has been supported by Southampton City Council and DWP and is also responsible for the onsite nursery at the College.
As the newest Trustee in CPL Emma is committed to supporting the charity in any way she can with future projects.
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Our AGM November 2019
Retiring Trustee Ann Compton – our Founder 44 years ago – receives a Peter Harris Fellowship Rotary award from our Chairman Richard Maunder.Southampton Sheriff Susan Blatchford presents Ann with a bouquet of flowers
SUMMER FUN WITH COMMUNITY PLAYLINK
TEDDY BEAR PICNIC – 27/08/19 – in Watts Park.
The children had great fun building with our ‘Waffle’ construction – building a house for the Teddies!!!
BITTERNE FUN DAY – 08/08/19
All the children loved our large Lego blocks!!
Bitterne Festival 2019 was a great success with over 5000 people attending across the day. The success was down to all the hard work and efforts of the Bitterne Festival Committee, all the volunteers that helped on the day, local traders and support from other local charities.
Thank you to all the stall holders who attended, without them the festival never would have taken place. We hope to see you all again for Bitterne Festival 2020.
A busy day with lots of visitors trying out our large Jenga game too!!
We had a wonderful day at Hoglands Park for PLAYDAY on 26th July!!
6,000 children and their families attended – wonderful!!
Lego man had a great day!!!Many of our youngest children enjoyed soft play ball pits!!
PARTY IN THE PARK AT WESTON – 03/08/19
More summer fun at Weston – it was another lovely day of fun!!
Here are some pictures of our OPENING CEREMONY
Mayor about to cut the ribbon across the door of our new Toy Library premises in Swaythling Neighbourhood Centre. Richard Maunder our Chairperson introducing the Mayor. Mayor taking Selfies in Toy Library! Mayor in Toy Library with family. Mayor cuts our lovely cake! Finally, our Mayor gets to play with some of our youngest special visitors!
We can also open the Toy Library at other times which can be arranged to suit.
The Toy Library is also open on Playtime days – weekly on a Wednesday; from 10.30 – 11.30am.
NEWSCAST
Hello there and welcome to our News section!
You can find information about all recent happenings, events and other important news about Community Playlink here – starting with our most recent news.
On Saturday 2nd November we attended the Mayflower Studio (MAST) Family Fun day.
We had lots of fun with children and families!
· 128 Families came to play with us, and a total of 208 children.
54 children under 4 years. 143 children between 5 and 10 years old, and 11 children over 10 years of age.
We would like to say a BIG hello to our new
Assistant toy Librarian
JOYCE HAMILTON-DYER
She joined us on 1st February 2024, and you can pop in to meet her on Thursdays and Saturdays every week! Joyce has been using the Toy Library for the last 4 years with her family, and many of you will already have met Joyce through our Playtime sessions. We are very pleased that Joyce has joined our Team – please pop in to see her and say hello!
In September Elaine and Jo took part in training with other practitioners in Southampton. The training was for PEEP.
The Peep Learning Together Programme (PLT) he
lps parents, carers and practitioners make the most of the learning opportunities in everyday life, supporting their babies’ and young children’s learning through play.
We are currently recruiting new Volunteers, who are so valuable in our Toy Library, especially during open sessions, enabling Staff to turn around our stock of Toys when they are returned by families.
Please contact Elaine – in person, by phone or by e-mail if you would like to find out more.
We are very pleased to announce that we have been successful in our bid for a grant from the Garfield Weston Foundation!!
This is a 3 year Grant which will enable us to increase the number of children we reach by offering further, supported Playtime Sessions across Southampton and to maintain the
number of Toy Library venues, so that we can reach more of our children – there are around 16,000 under 5s in Southampton with numbers rising. We will be able to employ a Play Development Worker now for 3 years which will be very beneficial!
PLEASE NOTE:
Our Fees for larger, bulk loans for
Groups and Party Hire is changing.
Please see flyer below-
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We have our own garden plot now and here it is with our planted our Spring bulbs!!
Come and visit us to see how our garden grows!!
March 2021
HERE IS SOME USEFUL ADVICE FROM THE CHILD ACCIDENT PREVENTION TRUST for BUYING TOYS
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4th November 2020
* A new Trustee has joined our Board *
Following the retirement of our founder, Ann Compton, Emma Barrett has joined our Trustee Board and was elected at our AGM last year. We welcome Emma and look forward to many years of working together with her.
Emma Barrett has 20 years experience in Further Education, She is currently the Assistant Principal at Itchen Sixth Form College in Southampton. Emma is responsible for community engagement and business development for the college and has a strong interest in supporting families across the city with a number of community projects. The Sixth Form and Adult Education department within the college supports a number of childcare courses which Emma oversees at a strategic level. Emma has set up a pathway for unemployed people within Southampton to become qualified in Childcare and move into work which has proven to be a success over the last year. This has been supported by Southampton City Council and DWP and is also responsible for the onsite nursery at the College.
As the newest Trustee in CPL Emma is committed to supporting the charity in any way she can with future projects.
*******************************
Our AGM November 2019
SUMMER FUN WITH COMMUNITY PLAYLINK
TEDDY BEAR PICNIC – 27/08/19 – in Watts Park.
BITTERNE FUN DAY – 08/08/19
Bitterne Festival 2019 was a great success with over 5000 people attending across the day. The success was down to all the hard work and efforts of the Bitterne Festival Committee, all the volunteers that helped on the day, local traders and support from other local charities.
See more info at – http://bitternecc.co.uk/festival19/
Thank you to all the stall holders who attended, without them the festival never would have taken place. We hope to see you all again for Bitterne Festival 2020.
We had a wonderful day at Hoglands Park for PLAYDAY on 26th July!!
6,000 children and their families attended – wonderful!!
PARTY IN THE PARK AT WESTON – 03/08/19
Here are some pictures of our
OPENING CEREMONY
We can also open the Toy Library at other times which can be arranged to suit.
The Toy Library is also open on Playtime days – weekly on a Wednesday; from 10.30 – 11.30am.
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Here are some of the lovely activities the children took part in at our last few Playtime sessions!