Spring Newsletter 2026
Going from Strength to Strength. There is an old Chinese saying…may you live in interesting times. Well, goodness me we certainly are living in interesting times. Such a lot has been going on already this year. We thought you’d like to know what has been happening.
ASRUS & Mayfield Clubs
Woodworking ar ASRUS
Firstly, as you know, thanks to Torbay Council and their support funding the neurodiversity clubs, we were able to restart ASRUS and Mayfield. The format has changed slightly and the reason for this is to help create a more sustainable future and make greater use of the fantastic range of skills within our own play worker team.
One of the new activities introduced has been woodworking and tool craft. It is already proving to be a great hit with the children. WE have aslo launched these new ASRUS and Mayfield website pages to showcase the services.
Parent Advisory Groups
As part of the evolution of the clubs we decided that parents should have an opportunity to be more involved and to have a say. As a result of this decision we have set up the Parent Advisory Groups (PAGs) for our clubs and Forest School.
These small groups will give families the opportunity to share feedback, ideas, and experiences to help shape the development of our provision. It’s a chance for parents and carers to work collaboratively with the Play Torbay team and ensure parent voices are heard as our clubs continue to grow.
IT’S BEHIND YOU!
Beverley Holiday Park came through for us once again, even though we are no longer their charity of the year. In February they invited us along to their pantomime, Peter Pan and it was, as you’d expect, good, chaotic, noisy fun. The children loved it and there must have been a few hoarse children the day after as there was a lot of shouting, “It’s behind you!” and screaming when the hilarious crocodile appeared.
Paignton Library Eco Takeover
Also in February, Paignton Library invited us to take part in their Eco Takeover event.
What a busy day! We took along lots of natural materials to be creative with and at times children were queuing up to join in the fun. Even mums and dads were joining in.
We’ve made some new friends!
Last October we attended the Riviera Business Expo. That’s not our natural stamping ground but we went along and met lots of really lovely people.
While we were there we met a couple of ladies from the local Rotary Club and got on famously with them. They were really interested in the work we do and in fact their own children used to go to Indigos when they were younger so they absolutely understand what we are all about.
Since then they have come along to Indigos and Wild Fox several times to see if there is any practical help and support they can give us. They have very kindly offered us an entire team of people to do some ground clearance and gardening at Wild Fox! How amazing is that!
The plan is that they will clear the bottom part of the playground which is now all overgrown and where the pond used to be and slowly start to develop it into a garden. Apparently, they are as excited as we are as they have a whole group of enthusiastic gardeners looking for a project. Everyone’s a winner - and that’s exactly the way we like it!
Play Skills Seminar
Last but not least. Our very own DRJ co- delivered a play skills seminar to teachers and after school club leaders.
It was very well received and it was very heartening to hear that attitudes in school sessions are finally changing and play is being embraced as an integral part of education. We are aiming to provide some training sessions for our own staff which will be rolled out to you all later this year.
Happy Easter!
So there we are all up to date. All there is left to say now is, thank you all for your hard work and support and we wish you all a very Happy Easter!
