Friday 10 October 2008

Lockleaze Primary - bringing Lockleaze together

One of the memories that sticks out for me as a child was being taken to what was then called a "Rumpus Room". I faintly recall the one my parents took me to was somewhere in Bristol and was called "Mr. B's". Does this ring any bells with readers?

It was amazing. You could throw yourself about all over the place and jump around a padded room a lot with a load of padded big objects. Which, for some reason when you're anywhere between 3 and 8 years old, is virtually heaven. I remember pestering incessantly to go to Mr.B's which attained almost mythological status in my 5-year old eyes.

So it was with those memories in mind, that I visited Lockleaze Primary School and their new soft-play area. They described how successful the soft-play area has been and told me of their ambitious, but hugely exciting plans to create a soft-play cafe, in the school grounds.

The whole idea of the cafe would be to provide somewhere for children and young parents to come and have fun and socialise - whether by jumping around in a padded environment with colourful toys, ( the children) or having a nice cup of coffee and a chat while the children let off steam. It would continue the work (already successfully underway) by the school to become a real heart of the community, instead of simply a school building open from 9am-4pm. And it would also become a base for other services to come and meet parents ( eg. advisory services, support services etc) instead of parents having to go to find them.

The Head teacher, Gareth Simons, has already begun transforming the school. I look forward to watching progress and supporting wherever I can in the future!

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