Jobs and Training Event

Today we held a Jobs and Training event in partnership with Duffryn Community Link/Job Centre Plus and our local Communities First Team.

The event was supported by many local employers including Home base/Mears/Wales and West /Admiral/Recruitment agencies and many more. There were also many education and training providers offering advice on routes into training and employment including WEA/Newport University/Forest Children’s Centre/Careers Wales/A4E/Carers Project/Want 2 Work/JCP Parent Employment Advisor.

The day was a great success with over 100 attending, all visitors were invited to complete an evaluation form after the event and entered into a prize draw. (All prizes kindly donated by Duffryn Community Link) All winners have been notified by telephone and a few prizes remain uncollected.

See photos of this event in our gallery here...

Nursery Graduation 2011

There were smiles and tears today at the centre as the Nursery children had their graduation day. The children wore gowns and mortarboards (hats) and were each presented with a certificate scroll.

This was followed by a dvd presentation of their time in Nursery over the last year.
Finally all parents/carers and children were treated to cake, lollies, strawberries and cream, sweets and of course a slice of graduation cake.

Chantelle would like to thank all of the FCC staff team for their hard work in making this a memorable day.

The Nursery children move up to “big school” in September and we wish them well and will miss them greatly.

See photos of this event in our gallery here...

Father's Day Breakfast

To celebrate Father’s Day we held a special breakfast club for the Saturday morning dads group. All members of the group were invited to come along with their children for a fun morning of arts and crafts and messy play. To ensure they had plenty of energy the group started the session with a full ENGLISH breakfast (LOL you would never guess the Manager was English-would you!) expertly cooked by Andy (Centre Managers hubby).

The group were also surprised as the Centre had arranged a professional photographer to come along and photograph each dad with their children and this was presented in a magnetic photo frame.

Our thanks go to Lee Dare (www.leedarephotography.co.uk) who gave up his time and supported the event for a hugely reduced fee.

See photos of this event in our gallery here...

FCC Internet Cafe

Did you know about our great little cafe based within the Children’s Centre. We offer freshly made sandwiches, baguettes, toasties, salads and jacket potatoes as well as a daily special hot meal (changes with the seasons). We also sell a selection of take away snacks and hot and cold drinks.

If you use the cafe you are also welcome to use our internet cafe computers free of charge.

To read more about the cafe, click here...

Open Access Play

Did you know that children between 8-12 years old can attend the open access play scheme in Forest Children Centre?

Open Access Play Provision is a service for children ,it is intended to provide an environment where children can explore and extend their own play. The term Open Access means that children are free to come and go, as they want. It is not a childcare service and Playworkers will not be responsible for children once they leave the play scheme.

Children are able to enjoy arts and crafts/sports/interactive games as well as puzzles and board games if they wish. The sessions are very much child led, meaning the children choose the activities they wish to do rather than being chosen for them.
The sessions take place on a Monday and Wednesday- 3.30-5.00pm term time only. If the weather is fine the group meet in the Junior School Playground , otherwise they meet in the Oak Room within the Children’s Centre.

If you wish your child to join in pop in and speak to one of the playworkers, available from 3.00pm on Monday to complete a registration form and emergency contact form.

Family Information Day

In the centre today we organised a Family Information Day. There were representatives from Family Information Services, Forest Children’s Centre – Outreach Worker, Dad’s Advisor, Crèche team, Job Centre Plus Parent Employment Advisor and Duffryn Community Link-Community Development Officer, volunteer coordinator.

Each service provided information and literature on their service and a few freebies were handed out!

The event was also a chance for the community to complete Community Consultation forms, with the help of staff and use of our internet cafe.

The event was a chance to highlight to the community all the services available in Duffryn.

We also had a visit from the Ezeee Play Bus to keep the children amused; they had fun on the slides and in the ball pits.

See photos of this event in our gallery here...

Job Club

Come and join us for a coffee and a chat about local job opportunities.

Job Club is held every Wednesday between 9am-11am in the Oak Room in Forest Children’s Centre. We provide laptops for you to complete job searches and download application forms. We also provide a telephone and postage stamps for job applications. The Club is supported by FCC staff and Collette our Parent Employment Advisor.

We are also able to refer you for 1-1 support to Careers Wales/Want 2 Work and A4E as well as give you the latest information on training in your local area. We are a friendly bunch, happy to help so call in and see for yourself.

DIY Skills Course

Over the last 8 weeks we have been running a DIY skills course for the community. The course was kindly jointly funded between Newport City Homes and Newport Construction Initiative.

The course covered basic plumbing, tiling, decorating, construction, woodwork skills and design aspects.

As part of the presentation on the final session all students were presented with a certificate and a tool box.

All participants thoroughly enjoyed the course and we hope to repeat the course in the future, depending on funding.

See photos of this event in our gallery here...