It has been wonderful to catch up with so many of you at our outdoor Teddy Tots meet-ups in the churchyard.   Please note will not be meeting for the next two weeks.

The Teddy Tots team has been discussing how we can continue to meet in the coming term.  We have decided that meeting indoors will not be safe or viable, and after much thought we are very excited to bring you…. Forest Tots.

Forest Tots will meet outside in the churchyard every Friday morning in the coming term, whatever the weather(!).

Each week we will walk together around the churchyard, stopping to do an activity together, to say rhymes and play instruments, to make things and collect things. We’ll pause at the “thank you tree”, the “worry tree”, the ‘quiet tree” to chat, think and say a prayer.  We’ll plant bulbs and watch them grow, look at the churchyard and fields beyond, noticing how they change through the seasons.  We’ll splash in puddles and run around in the fresh air.

We really hope you can join us!  

Forest Tots will begin on Friday 9th October, meeting at 10.30am in the churchyard.  

As always, please do spread the word to anyone who might like to join us. We would particularly love to reach out to new parents who haven’t had the opportunity to join baby groups during lockdown.  

We do hope you’re as excited as we are about Forest Tots – see you there!

With love from The Teddy Tots Team x

Once again, St Mary’s Holiday Club was an action-packed week with 72 young people signing up for five days of fun.  Huge thanks to all the adults and young leaders who make this possible every year.

Here’s just a taste of what we got up to:

 

 

In the last weekend of June, 14 adults and 11 children spent the weekend at the Chellington Centre in North Bedfordshire. It was located in a beautiful part of the Bedfordshire countryside, overlooking the River Ouse.

The weekend included some families staying over (sleeping in bunks in the converted church, with a few camping in tents) and some visiting for the day. Blessed with wonderful weather, time to spend with each other, great food (and drink!), a fire pit, BBQ, table tennis and table football, and so much more, it was a wonderful way to spend a summer weekend.

Here is what some of those who came have to say about it

“For me this weekend gave the opportunity for all of us to share and see the beauty of God’s Earth. The location and weather all helped but it was the coming together of old and young enjoying, companionship and spirituality in a relaxed way. My abiding memory was observing parents, adults and children of all ages all working together to create their ideas of God’s Wonderful world in paint and craft, all chattering away and engrossed in putting their ideas down. We had such diverse ideas about what creation meant.”

“Doing the nature art was really fun because we could use all the things we collected by the lake.  And my favourite bit was toasting marshmallows on the fire when it was really dark.  If we want to look after the planet we have to collect everyone’s litter.”

“What I liked about our time at Chellington was the opportunity of a different way of being together.”

“I loved the relaxed and interactive nature of Saturday; the focus on God’s creation in the park and then the opportunity to create something in groups around what we had seen, heard, collected, stimulated conversations and fun. This mixed well with the times we ate together, and worshipped and thought about how we can help safeguard God’s beautiful world – at home, in our places of work, education, church – reducing the use of plastic, composting, recycling.”