ALDI SWINDON - HOBLEY DRIVE

Swindon Children’s Scrapstore is a registered charity, community resource centre and social enterprise that benefits local people and communities. We operate several projects, from art & crafts to office furniture, refurbished computers, DIY, play, and a community fitness centre. The Scrapstore collects businesses' redundant, reusable materials which are then made available to local people, schools and community groups for reuse in educational and recreational activities, “Turning Waste Things into Play Things”. We also promote the benefits of reusing waste by diverting over 100 tonnes of waste from landfill every year back into reuse. We also provide volunteering and work placement opportunities for an average of 90 people each year.

We provide a developmentally appropriate environment so designed to meet the emotional, social, cognitive, physical and creative needs of our children and ensure they have every opportunity to access the opportunities to grow and develop therein. We work with the families and care / support agencies to provide a unique, creative, innovative and supportive program to help the children develop in these vital years meeting their individual learning needs. We aim to equip our children with a positive self-image, a love for learning so they can observe, question and appreciate their world – allowing them to explore their creative potential, this will be born from a balanced curriculum of structured/child-led time which incorporates learning goals of play, social, emotional, physical and academic content. The Partners in this Nursery have a co –joined focus to bridge the gap currently felt by the children and families that are under SEND whilst also catering for mainstream children we are committed to creating an environment that encourages inclusion and understanding of diversity within our community and actively promotes equality. The Nursery of Narnia has been designed with a specific focus to have the capability to receive mainstream children as well as those with special educational needs or disabilities (SEND), the design has ensured the ability to receive all children in all areas and we will continue to ensure we do all we can to remove any hurdles to a child’s development based on their individual needs as they arise The Nursery of Narnia team are focused on supporting our children and their families in our community whether this be through movie nights or food parcels and our food bank all of which is free of charge .. everyone needs help sometimes and we are here to be help when our families need us most. We identify needs though effective engagement with our families and those that use our warm space and food bank. We distribute our surplus through the food bank provided and maintained at our premises, we deliver food when necessary to those isolate and in need and we reach not only do this but we also run community events such as Santa Grotto not only for our children at the nursery but we also open our doors for free to all children in our community ensuring no child sees christmas without a gift and working towards ensuring no one has to be hungry or cold in our community an effort we hav eextended by supplying warm clothes, hot water bottles, flasks blankets and acess to our warm space all year round.

Nobody who wants company should be without it. We want to make this happen by ensuring that: We have operated for 8 years with an aim help reduce loneliness and isolation via our Lunch Club and Day Centre, providing affordable hot food and companionship. Our participants are signposted via social services or living in the locality. Engaging in communal social and health activities to enhance a sense of wellbeing. For many members our lunch clubs’ interactions are the most valued social participation they have outside of a family settings. For those members without family support, our lunch club is a vital source of a support system, that helps to maintain their sense of connectedness, improves confidence and overall general health and wellbeing, we run various games, quizzes, raffles and events. We charge £2.00 for a full English breakfast and £5 for lunch. We are partnering with RVS and local colleges providing supervised placements and volunteer posts for individuals with learning difficulties. Whilst our Small community group is being encouraged to scale-up activities, we continue to face challenges in recruiting more volunteers.