“Smile” drama/music show in libraries, Nottingham/Notts, October

“A delightful musical adventure for children aged 3 – 5 and their families”

Date: Various dates from 9 to 20 October 2017.

Day & date in Oct Which library
Monday 9 Beeston (sold out)
Tuesday 10 Nottingham Central
Wednesday 11 Dales, Sneinton
Thursday 12 Bulwell
Friday 13 Worksop
Monday 16 Mansfield Central
Tuesday 17 Hyson Green
Wednesday 18 Wollaton
Thursday 19 Sutton-in-Ashfield
Friday 20 Arnold

Time: 10.30 to approx 11.10 (running time 40 minutes).

Age range: Aimed at ages 3 to 5.

Price: £2 per child; accompanying adults free.

Bookings: List of dates, libraries and how to book for each one.

Details: Not specifically a home ed thing – open to anyone.

“Augustus the tiger was sad. He had lost his smile.”

Based on the book Augustus and His Smile written and illustrated by Catherine Rayner and published by Little Tiger Press, www.littletiger.co.uk

Find the book in the library system

Access, parking, maps etc: Most library listing pages have some access & travel info. List of Nottingham City libraries, inc Central, Bulwell, Dales (Sneinton), Hyson Green & Wollaton. List of Nottingham County libraries, inc Arnold, Beeston, Mansfield, Worksop and Sutton-in-Ashfield.

Show poster, with a painting of a sad-looking tiger. Main text is: "SMILE. Augustus the tiger was sad. He had lost his smile. A delightful musical advenure for children aged 3 - 5 and their families."

Forest School, Tuesday & Thursday afternoons, Sneinton

Date: Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, from September 2017.

Start dates for autumn 2017: Tuesday 12 & Thursday 14 September. (Lauren will also be running a similar session on Mondays in Heanor, Derbyshire – out of area for this blog, but do contact her if you’re interested.)

Booking deadline for those sessions: Friday 1 September.

Time: 3.30pm to 5.15pm.

Venue: On land behind the Iona school. 310 Sneinton Dale, Nottingham, NG3 7DN.

Area: Sneinton, on the 43 (red) bus route, not far from Colwick Woods.

Age range: 4 to 12, divided into 2 groups by age.

Day Age
Tuesdays 4 to 7*
Thursdays 8 to 12*

* These are guideline ages; there’s potentially some flexibility. An example might be if siblings of 7 and 8 wanted to be in the same group. Have a chat.

Price: £10 per session, booked in blocks, typically 5 sessions to a block. Sibling discount of 25%. “Provided we are not fully booked, we are happy for your child to attend the first session as a trial before committing.” If the groups are full, you can go on a waiting list.

Booking: To book, contact Lauren who runs it. Email lauren at intothewildwood dot co dot uk, or use the contact form at Into the Wild Wood.

This isn’t a home-ed-only group, but home edders are welcome.

Into the Wild Wood

Drawing of woodland. Mostly green, with dark green leaves in the foreground, and a bird flying away up ahead.

Sessions led by Lauren Kinnersley, a Steiner Waldorf trained practitioner who is Level 3 Forest School trained, supported by staff from the school. Sessions include storytelling, tool use, games and nature crafts. Maximum group size is 10.

Bigger map showing the Iona School.

Access info:

At Iona there is a compost toilet and the site is accessible with paved paths. We have a maximum group size of 10 with two adults supporting. Parents do not normally stay at the sessions, but if your child has a particular support need, parents are invited to stay and support their child to enable them to participate.

Nearest bus stop: “Skipton Circus”, on the 43 route, Red Line.

Parking: There is parking at the school.

Art: Nottingham city centre on Tuesdays, Bingham on Wednesdays

These groups are run by Sam of Altered Art, for home edders 8+. Optionally, this can be part of working towards Arts Award qualifications (in which case you’d also do other things, e.g. going to some kind of arts event and reflecting on it). Or you can just explore creativity in different ways.


Bingham on Wednesdays

Date: Wednesday afternoons, potentially all year round.

Time: Two groups, each one hour. 2pm to 3pm, and 4pm to 5pm.

Venue: Folks and Fables café, 37 Long Acre, Bingham, Nottinghamshire, NG13 8AF.

Area: Bingham is about 9 miles east of Nottingham, via the A52, or 15 mins by train.

Price: £5 per young person per week, payable in 5 week blocks after an initial trial session, if required.

Physical access: The room where the art happens is up a flight of stairs. The main café area is downstairs, and parents are welcome to stay there.


Nottingham on Tuesdays

New group, starting soon. (The Bingham groups have been running a while.)

Date: Tuesdays, middle of the day, potentially all year round.

Time: 11am to 1pm.

Venue: The Dice Cup Café, 68-70 Mansfield Rd, Nottingham, NG1 3GY.

Area: North side of Nottingham city centre, next to Victoria Bus Station and just slightly north of the Victoria shopping centre.

Price: £8 per young person per week (2 hours), payable in 5 week blocks after an initial trial session, if required.

Physical access: The Dice Cup has flat access. There is a toilet with flat access and a wide door, but without extra bars to help with transfer from a wheelchair.


Information which applies to both venues

Booking or enquiries: contact samalteredart at gmail dot com. Not everyone has to start their five-week block on the same week, so you can potentially start any time if there’s space.

Age range: 8+

For Bronze Arts Award it’s ideally 10 years plus but in my current group in Bingham I’m currently teaching 8 – 14 year olds. I’m happy to discuss with parents their young person’s individual needs. I am qualified to teach from 4-25 years old under the Arts Award scheme and have taught Primary age within schools and adults in the community.

More about the activities:

I teach creative arts. Not drawing and painting as such but experimenting with different mediums and using different techniques. I vary my classes depending on where the young people’s interest lies. I use a lot of recycling and eco friendly products. My group in Bingham have created handmade books using a variety of techniques, some scrap doll/creature/monster/robots and we are now working on a set of Artist Trading Cards to swap with each other! I provide lots of exciting and stimulating materials. I show the young people the techniques needed to complete a project but I encourage a lot of exploration and personal development. There is no “getting it wrong” with my classes and I aim to boost self esteem and self-directed creativity.

I enjoy teaching art to home schooled young people for a number of reasons, including smaller group sizes allow my attention to be more concentrated on each young person, there’s no need for a fixed “learning outcome” and the development of the art projects flow more organically to where a young person’s interest lies rather than, in my experience, where a school wants them to be taught. There are more details about my education background and arts experience on my WordPress site.

Access:

I am happy to accommodate any young person or parent with autism or any learning disability, the location is quite calming and I have a lot of experience with young people who are on the autistic spectrum.

Altered Art website

Altered Art on Facebook

A collage of several photos. The one in the middle has a flower made of fabric. On the left, a young child is making a collage of an owl. Only a glimpse of their face can be seen. Their hands are holding a small piece of something. On the right, an older child with long hair is smiling to the left, as if interrupted in the middle of doing something with a small tin and some kind of pink craft. Across all the photos are the words "Altered Art by S size-mediumam",.


Travel info for Bingham

Map showing Folks and Fables:

Larger version of map showing Folks and Fables

Train: Bingham railway station is about 470 yards’ walk.

Bus:

The bus from Nottingham to Bingham is the Rushcliffe Mainline, run by Trent Barton buses, available to pick up on Friar Lane or Broadmarsh bus station.

Rushcliffe Mainline timetable at Trent Barton

Parking:

There is a free car park 5 minutes walk away and often some onstreet parking in front of the café.

Travel info for Nottingham

Map showing the Dice Cup:

Bigger version of map showing the Dice Cup

Nearest tram stop: “Nottingham Trent University”, about 800 yards’ walk. All trams through the city centre stop here. Tram information.

Nearest bus stops: “Victoria Bus Station” (where many of the Trent Barton buses terminate), “York House” and “Victoria Centre”. Many of the Nottingham City Transport buses come to one or other of these stops; the ones which don’t, mostly have stops on or near the Old Market Square, about 700 yards away.

Nottingham railway station and Broadmarsh bus station are less than a mile away.

Parking: at the Victoria Centre car park (click link for prices).

Tap jam, city centre, Sunday 19 February

Date: Sunday 19 February 2017.

Time: Tap jam itself is 7pm to 9pm. Extra workshop at 6pm, optional.

Venue: City Arts, 11-13 Hockley, Nottingham, NG1 1FH.

Area: Hockley area, east side of Nottingham city centre. Venue is about 700 yards east of the Old Market Square, just north of the ice rink.

Age range: All ages – as long as young ones are able to cooperate with the atmosphere. So when it’s not their turn to dance, they’d either be watching and encouraging the other dancers, or entertaining themselves fairly peacefully, e.g. with a game or book.

Price: Entry to tap jam £6 / Free after 8pm / Free for under-14s. Loan of tap shoes included if you don’t have your own (if they have the right size for you).

6pm-7pm workshop with special guest Junior Laniyan is £12, or £8 for under-14s. Or £15 combined price for workshop and jam.

Booking: No need to book, just pay on the door.

Organiser: Jess Murray from the Tap Rhythm Project. This isn’t a home-ed-specific event, but Jess ran some tap dancing try-out sessions for local non-schoolers last year, which were much enjoyed 🙂

Text: Tap jam with live band! Sunday 19 Feb. Colourful background, mostly abstract shapes, including some music notes. "Tap Rhythm Project" logo in blue at the top.

Facebook page for the event

A Tap Jam is a place for tap dancers to improvise with musicians and other tap dancers. Everyone is welcome, whether to take part or simply to watch and enjoy. Tap Rhythm Jams are open to dancers of all levels of experience, from complete beginners to professional performers. We even have tap shoes that you can use for free if you don’t have your own!

About the tap improvisation workshop, 6pm – 7pm (additional cost)…

Special guest Junior Laniyan will lead a musicality and improvisation workshop before the jam starts. You can try improvising in a low key environment and learn some easy approaches to get you started.

Video clip of Junior Laniyan and Andrew Nemr dancing at the London tap jam in 2010

Video clip of Annette Walker and Jess Murray dancing at the London tap jam in 2010

(You don’t have to be amazing dancers like them to give it a go! Beginners welcome!)

City Arts “how to find us” page, including access info.

The tap jam will be in the ground floor space, which has a wheelchair-accessible toilet and flat access.

Nearest tram stop: “Lace Market”. Any tram through the city centre will stop here. Tram information.

Nearest bus stops: “Hockley” opposite the venue (all red or lilac line inbound buses), “Boston Street” 150 yards (all red or lilac line outbound buses), “George Street” 350 yards (which is on the “city loop” bus route, so turquoise line all buses, green line all buses, orange line number 34). Bus information.

Parking: “Arena” car park, Lower Parliament Street, 150 yards – or on nearby streets. Outside the venue you can only drop off or pick up, not actually park.