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Chesterton parent group page: tune in for changes to our regular schedule,  and events in the area and beyond. 

Chesterton Parent community : anyone can post and share. Events, campaigns, local child/family centered businesses. 

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We are in need of more volunteers for the core group and helping with events, web pages and social media presence. It's a laid back and friendly group, a great way to meet other parents of tiny people in  North Cambridge / Chesterton.
Would you like to find out more or sign up to our group? We want to hear from you!

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Latest Update - 23.03.17 - due to building works around the church entrance we need to cancel Little Music Makers again next Tuesday, 28th March. Sorry about this unexpected disruption. LMM will meet next on Tuesday 4th April (even though it's school holidays).

URGENT: Message to parents of future students of Chesterton Community College

Posting this on behalf the PTA of one of the feeder schools, Milton Road Primary School.

Open Public Meeting about the Future Plans for Chesterton on 24 January 2017 at Milton Road Primary School from 19:30 till 21:00

Dear parents and carers:

In 2013, Chesterton Community College was invited to expand the school with a £10M capital investment. This was due to the fact that demographic figures clearly showed that by 2019, there will be a critical shortfall of secondary school places for local children.

For no apparent reason, the project has been delayed by the council. It is A FACT that by 2019, when  all secondary school places are allocated, there will still be over 80 children in this area who will NOT have a secondary school place within their catchment.

What does this mean for you? 

If your child is currently in year 4 or below, this will have a direct impact on your parental choice of secondary education for your child. Even if you live in catchment or indeed your child has a sibling attending your local school at that time, this WILL AFFECT YOU!

Complacency won’t help - if you want to have a say in your child’s future education, come to the :

Open Public Meeting about the Future Plans for Chesterton

on 24 January 2017 at Milton Road Primary School from 19:30 till 21:00

Key decision makers from the council will be attending the meeting, sharing their views, and answering questions. Councillors Jocelynne Scutt, Lucy Nethsingha, Ian Manning, Zoe Moghadas are confirmed to attend.

They need to see that a significant number of parents are concerned. A poor turnout may well indicate a lack of concern - we must act now!

Happy New Year!

A reminder that Little Music Makers will not be starting again until 17th January 2017.  The building works at the Chesterton Methodist Church is taking a little longer.  But it will be worth the wait!!  Please share and remind your friends.

Happy New Year!

Picnic!

Teddy Bears picnic this Sunday (4th k(koei  at Stourbridge common play park. Bring a blanket, snacks and your favourite soft toy friend!

Details
https://www.facebook.com/events/1562774420695686/?ti=as

Soft Play Fridays...a message

Hey! You! Yes you!! 

Do you and your kids attend Soft Play on Friday at Brown's Field? 

You love having a sneaky go in the giant ball pit with them on quieter days? 

You love seeing your kids zoom around on the Diddy cars, climb giggling through tunnels, building forts? 

You would love for soft play to continue? 

Well...we need you help.

You might not know this, but we have to pay rent for the room. Brown's Field are very good to us and wonderfully generous, but we still pay for the room. 

So far we've been able to cover cost through some modest fundraising events and spare cash in the account. But sadly this has run out.

Some of the families who attend are on low income, we understand that. That's why we are trialling a minimum of £1 per family. This certainly will not cover the cost of the room hire, If you can afford it please consider giving more.

Also, we are all volunteers, mums and dads like you.  Some of our kids will be starting school in September so will no longer attend the soft play. We need a few more volunteers to join the rota to take attendance, and lead packing away from September. Responsibilities are minimal. Interested? Get in touch!.

Donations. Volunteers. 

Those are two things we desperately need.  If we don't get much of either, we will sadly have to discontinue the session. And it's so valuable for us, our kids, in these few short years we get with them when they are very small.

Would you like to help us or have a suggestion? We'd love to hear from you.

Contact us on facebook or send us a message.

Teddy bears picnic today!

11:30. See you there?

Don't forget your teddybear! Or your picnic.

https://www.facebook.com/events/871818126205901/

No soft play 28 August

Brown's Field Community Centre is closed for maintenance this week. So there will be no soft play session on Friday. See you the following week!

Teddybear's Picnic!

You (and your bears) are invited...

And here's a film to get you in the spirit!

Schedule for Regular CPG activities over the Summer Holidays

Soft Play (Fridays)

Soft Play on Fridays at Brown's Field will motor right the way through the summer, **apart from 28th August when the centre is closed**.
Got older kids for the holidays?  Bring then along too! They can't go on the soft play equipment (under 5s only, sorry) but we have a table and chairs for activities outside of the room. So bring colouring books, puzzles, games.

Little Music Makers (Tuesdays)

This is the schedule for the summer for Little Music Makers at Chesterton Methodist Church.

• July 23rd - Sonia leads 
• July 28th - No Sonia, BUT we will find volunteers to lead some singing
• August 4th - Sonia leading group - last session before summer break
• August 11th - Sorry, no group
• August 18th - Sorry, no group
• August 25th - Sorry, no group
• September 1st  - Sorry, no group
• September 8th - Back to normal, meeting every week!

Special Play Session for Older Siblings

24th July 10:15-11:30: Special play session for older siblings (5-8) as well as Soft Play

Do you normally go with your under 5's to Soft Play at Brown's Field on Fridays?

Are you worried what to do with your Older Ones, now that school is out?

We've got special permission to use the Youth Wing this week (the room next to the Sunshine Hall), so come along and bring the brood.

We'll bring a few activities to share, but bring colouring books and games to keep everyone amused if you like. 

After the session we'll have lunch in the cafe and a run around outside and giant bubbles if the weather is nice.

Please note: you are still responsible for your own children, this is not a facilitated event.

Baby Disco - Over and Under the Sea Photos

Finally, FINALLY we've gone through the photos from the event last month (sorry for the delay). Here are some of my favourites.

Do you have any from the event? We'd love to see, and perhaps show them here!

DJ Clarity Spins while Queen Elsa and Pirate GG boogie

Look at the gorgeous decor and lighting!

Nicolas the Disco Pirate guards the dance floor. If you can make him dance, you can come in. 

Shake Rattle and Roll at Chesterton Festival!!

We are very excited to announce a collaboration between Shake Rattle and Roll, Cambridge's premier live music event for tots, and Chesterton Parent Group as part of the Chesterton Festival! A chance for you and your little ones to see real musicians, playing real favourites. They have been persuaded to leave their usual Friday venue of Barnwell Community Centre and join us in our neck of the woods in Chesterton. So excited!!

Please come and join us at Brown's Field on 19th June 2015 at 10am. FREE.

Note: This will be happening instead of our usual Soft Play session.

Find out more about Shake Rattle and Roll

Publicity!

Well we at Chesterton Parent Group are positively reeling from all the good press we've been getting recently. Wow! 

Little Music Makers, Cambridge News, online, 22 April 2015

First Chesterton Parent Group were "big-upped" by our chairman and the deacon of Chesterton Methodist Church, Ian Murray, at the beginning of March in the Cambridge Evening News. Thanks Ian! (Nod of head, bump fists).

Following up to the recent news of qualifying for a Youth Music grant for our music group Little Music Makers (Tuesday mornings during term time at the Chesterton Methodist Church, Cambridge), we've got multiple features in the local paper, and an amazing slideshow online!

In the Town Crier on 23 April 2015, our picture was on the front page and a half page article.

Little Music Makers, Cambridge Town Crier

Gorgeous kids, and they included in a really nice Abba reference! Ha!

In the online version of Cambridge Evening News we have an online slideshow of Little Music Makers, with 23 pictures. Wow, you are a photogenic lot! What gorgeous kids!

Baby Disco - a success!!

The disco went without a hitch, and there was a fabulous collection of giggly, dancing and smiling pirates and mermaids at Brown's Field on Saturday.
Final figures will come in soon (just wait for us to catch breath an unpack all the things), but it was a fabulous community event. Watch this space for news of the next one!

Over and Under the Sea!!

Got your ticket? Got your costume?

Just over a week to go until the Baby Disco at Brown's Field!
Just in case you missed our excited blathering all over Facebook, here's the low-down.

We are putting on an event you would not want to miss.

Hold tight, it's...Baby Disco!!

Now you don't have to limit dancing to the radio in your kitchen. You and your Tiny Ones (children under 5) can strut your disco stuff on the dance floor at Brown's Field. Proper sound system, proper tunes. Excited? We are.

We have taken extensively counsel for what kind of music makes your kids LOSE IT (in a good way). It's...um...eclectic. We've got plenty of Disney, as well as disco classics and a few sneaky current chart toppers.

The music won't be too loud, we promise it will be a lovely first experience for them if they're not festival kids (yet).

If this is a success, we will have more events like it. So if you want more events like it COME ALONG and make it a success.

Happy Easter everyone!

We are taking a break for the holidays, but our regular activities will resume shortly. We hope you have a happy Easter! Dates for your diary:

Friday 10 April 10:15
Soft play
Brown's Field, Green End Road

Saturday 11 April 14:00
Baby Disco (more details in another post)
Brown's Field, Green End Road

Tuesday 14 April 9:30
Little Music Makers
Chesterton Methodist Church, Green End Road

We're happy to report...

Little Music Makers, our most popular and widely valued activity, has qualified for a grant.  This assures that we will be able to continue to run LMM well into the future.

Details coming soon! Watch this space.

Cambridge Multiples/Twins Club is now part of Chesterton Parent Group!

It's official, the Cambridge Twins (Multiples) Club will now be associated with Chesterton Parent Group. What does this mean? Well not a lot will change from the outside, the group already meets monthly in Chesterton, it is now hosted by the Methodist Church on Green End Road. They take a small fee (currently £1) to cover running costs.

The Cambridge Twins (Multiples) Club can now have the benefits of CCVS membership through the Chesterton Parents Group, for documents, safeguarding and all that essential legal stuff of running a volunteer organisation. Not the most exciting benefit, but quite essential.

Anyway, we just wanted to give them a big welcome on board, quite loudly - in stereo, triplicate, or quad.