Newsletter - 13/08/12

This weekend is our very first (mini) festival at Court Farm Country Park.  We'll be there from 10am on Saturday 18th till 5:30pm on Sunday 19th, with lots and lots to do for the kids, including arts/crafts and dressing up with WsMum Karen B, storytime with Gail Richardson, crazy music from Cosmo 4 Kids, martial arts with Sweat FA and arts workshops with b-creative and B&Q Weston.  All the usual Court Farm attractions are open to all festival goers too!

We'll also have a disco on Saturday night (thanks to Ade from Action Pussycat and WsDad Mark Bradshaw for the equipment).  Phew!  And We're inviting YOU and, ahem, the kids to add your favourite songs to dance to on our collaborative spotify playlist - just put them on and we'll play them!  

And remember, we've got the run of the barn, which is huge and UNDER COVER! 

Camping is, of course, optional - but if you do stay overnight, you get 2 days entry to Court Farm for the price of 1 (camping is only £6 per pitch).  

Please bring your own food and drink, alcohol is allowed but no fires or BBQ's.

We're really excited about this festival - it's quite remarkable when you think that everything is voluntary and we are doing this with no funding or extra charge to families whatsoever.  We welcome your input over the weekend - we'll need help with workshops and making sure it all runs smoothly.  We'll also have a collection bucket for donations - so if you can spare a couple of quid to help pay for the materials we've had to buy, that would be really, really helpful.  Thanks ♥

In other news:

* Reptacular Reptiles are back at Puxton Park this week

* RNLI are hosting a Sandcastle Competition and a Children's Day in WsM next week
* The Blakehay Theatre want to know whether you and the kids would be interested in regualar children's theatre.  Please do comment!
* In the Grove has been awarded £27k for youth provision and they would like parents and young people's views on how to spend it!
* NEW MEMBERS - we'd love to meet you so please do introduce yourselves

Weston Community COG - A project that could transform our town centre

A few of us local residents in Weston have set up a Town Team that will make a huge impact right at the heart of our town centre.  With a view to getting the full commitment of Town Centre Partnership and Economic Development Team at NSC, we have created the “Weston Community COG” (Centre of Gravity) that is applying for a government grant, under the Portas Town Team Pilot fund. 

By the end of this week, we aim to apply for a grant that will really make positive changes for the residents and businesses of Weston.  The aims and objectives of COG are outlined below.  We need the support of as many interested parties as possible and we hope you can see the benefits to you personally and to the wider community in general. 

Please read through our proposals and, if you agree with all that we want to achieve, a letter of support from local residents and businesses would undoubtedly go a long way to adding gravitas to our application.  If you have any suggestions about how we could make our vision even stronger, please do let us know.  This is for every member of the local community we really welcome your input.

AIMS:

- to match and balance large scale, big budget, top down regeneration and development schemes with a strong, grassroots culture of independent, innovative and community led projects 

- to create confidence and resilience in the local community

- to re-generate social and economic capital and build social cohesion

- to work with Council, NHS, schools, college, influencing businesses to build lasting partnerships which encourage independent business and social enterprise

OBJECTIVES:

- Build a digital hub bringing together local information, independent business marketing, community bulletin boards and discussion forums, allowing conversations and information sharing to happen online, 24-7. The website will be richly augmented by social media - Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube/Vimeo, Delicious social bookmarks etc - giving people multiple ways to interact with the project and each other.

- Build a mobile app to provide location specific information (GPS and QR code) and enable collaborative marketing.

- Work with the Town Centre Partnership to support and facilitate their existing BID aims and objectives which address a number of nuts and bolts issues.

- Hold monthly community led town regeneration meetings and quarterly day long training/jam sessions. (For example: http://transitionculture.org/2012/03/22/the-reconomy-project-local-entrepreneurs-conference-totnes/ )

- Work with the Council and local businesses to identify training needs and provide courses, mentoring, take- away materials (print and/or download) at little or no cost to independent businesses, community organisations and social enterprise to ensure there's no barrier to access. Pull in existing expertise from Plunkett Foundation, Co-operatives UK, FARMA, ATCP etc.

- Build a Centre Of Gravity - a co-operative community enterprise hub and events/arts space - in a prominent high street position, providing enterprise expertise and a space for happy accidents to occur and provide innovative solutions to the problems we face.

Please also have a look at our ideas on the Geovation Challenge, here and here and vote for us if you’d like to see our idea get noticed.   A strongly supported idea posted on Geovation could bring in anything up to an additional £40K to help run our project so, again, your support would go a long way.

We need to gather all supporting documents by the end of the week, so if you want to add a letter outlining your support of our project by Thursday 29^th March, you can send it to us at info@westonsupermum.com

We will then share our ideas and a supporting film we are currently working on through dedicated webspace and in the press.  We’ll be sure to let you know when this goes live.

The Power of Imagination: Stones and Bones by Squashbox Theatre, Bristol Old Vic

Q: Where can you get a whole lot of laughs, a lesson in prehistory, a selection of entertaining puppets, a spot of magic and a sing along, all for £6 a ticket? 
A: At Squashbox Theatre’s Stones and Bones at the Bristol Old Vic.

Funnyman Craig Johnson delivers everything and more that his website promises in his 45-minute slot at one of Bristol’s favourite theatres, a show perfectly pitched to children of 5+ years. 


The audience is invited to use the power of imagination to travel back millions of years to a time when dinosaurs ruled the earth and volcanos raged in Cornwall.  From the moment we are introduced to the first of Craig’s alter-egos, Archaeologist Dr Winifred Jones, it becomes clear that his set will be full of delightful little surprises.


The young audience remains fully engaged and their chaperones belly laugh as we meet a catalogue of characters, either in the form of Craig himself, one of his puppets or a model.  Prehistoric facts are shared with us: did you know that dinosaurs didn’t eat grass? Or that the word Dinosaur means terrible lizard?


We learn about stone circles, the earth’s make-up, Arthurian legend, fossilisation, Druidry and … rock music.  As the accordion-accompanied rock song prompts rows and rows of little people to bang their heads in rhythm to the music, we know that the content of this production has laid foundations that we, as parents, can build upon. 


Bristol Dinosaur Project also make a good job of providing free activities for the kids to do before or after the show - fossil making, puzzle solving, book reading, face-painting or simply drawing dinosaur footprints on the canvas-covered tables.


Yep!  History is Fun!




Stones and Bones runs at Bristol Old Vic until Wednesday February 15th




By Becky

Newsletter: 11th January 2012

Here are the winners of our Christmas Raffle:


Jenny Lines: Family portrait shoot at WoW Photography
Moffat: Cut & Finish at Hair Associates
Viv Kennedy: Cut and Finish at Hair Associates
Hobson: Cream tea for 2 at Dr Fox's Tearoom on Knightstone Island
Rej: An illustrated, unique Babimal picture (name of your choice)
Susan Oldfield: One month's free membership to Sweat FA
Lucy Frampton: I am Going to Save the World by Gail Richardson
Willow: Gift Set of all 3 Ping and Pong Books, by Amy T* revaskus
Sarah Fletcher: Aladdin Pantomime programme, signed by the cast members
Richmond: Whittard of Chelsea Lemon Balm & Lavender Bathtub Teabags
Mollie:  Two tickets to The Liminal event


Thank you to everyone who donated a prize.  We raised £85, which will go to putting on future Weston-super-Mum events ♥


News, Views and Discussions:
* Priory School to accept pupils from 4 years old - what are your views?
* New events on our events wall
* Family camping 2012 - for all members, on a local and inexpensive site
* Weston-super-Mare Food Buying Group - join up and save money
* The Liminal - an evening of book readings by local authors (for adults) - this Saturday and on February 18th at Dr Fox's Tearoom
* The new edition of Mum's Diary is out!
* Our Christmas Residence at the Blakehay Theatre, in the Mercury