On August 7th we were invited by Cardiff Council Children’s Play Services to run an art activity at their fantastic annual National Play Day! Following last year’s successful event held at Roath Rec, this year it was situated in the beautiful grounds of Llandaff fields alongside lots of other wonderful local organisations: Flying Start, Cardiff Library, HYB, Rhydypennau library and Beicio Cymru to name but a few!
53 individuals from local Caerau families and community group UNITY departed from our very own CAER Hidden Hillfort, accompanied by ACE staff Dave Horton and Caroline Barr. They were able to soak up the glorious sunshine and join in with a vast array of free activities such as soft play, loose parts junk modelling, singing and storytelling, and craft workshops.
CAER Heritage artist Nic Parsons, Becki Miller (ACE Senior Development Officer) and play worker Roxy Barnes ran an overwhelmingly busy clay workshop, producing pendants inspired by traditional Celtic and Iron Age patterns. We embraced the non-stop flow of participants, engaging with hundreds of enthusiastic and creative small people and their families on the day!!!
Organiser Justyne Sanderson – (Play Development Support Worker) spoke fondly about the event:
‘What a fantastic day with so many children and families enjoying free play and so many activities in one place. Lots of parents came and spoke to us about how amazing the event was and they couldn’t believe it was all for free. We ran out of wristbands very early on, but the estimate of children and families attending was over 2000.
It was great to meet everyone and put faces to names and get a better understanding of what everyone provides for children, young people and their families across the city.
We hugely appreciate everyone giving up their time and providing free activities for the day, and promoting the importance of play. Again we all managed to transform the park for a day with something for everyone!’
Paul Fortescue, Support Play Worker at Grangetown Play Centre added:
‘A wonderfully fulfilling day where creativity and guidance collided to allow the freedom of children, from all walks of life, to blossom on their own terms’
Thank you to everyone at Children’s Play Services for inviting us along – we’re already really looking forward to next year!
Nicola Parsons, August 2019
CAER Heritage Hidden Hillfort 