Welcome pack for new families

Welcome to our quarterly newsletter. In this newsletter, we invite your support, share news, upcoming events and plans for OFM.

News on Grants

We've made encouraging progress on fundraising since the start of 2026. We have secured a total of £4,000 in grants so far. This is made up of £2,500 from the Wiltshire & Swindon Community Foundation (the first instalment of a £5,000 two-year award), £1,000 from Tesco/Groundwork UK's Bags of Help programme to support our woodworking activities, and £500 from the Marlborough Area Board Youth Grant. 

In addition, we are starting to receive funds from the Wiltshire Community Lottery. This is a win-win situation. If you sign up and select us as your nominated cause, OFM gets 50p from every £1 ticket. Each ticket gives you a 1 in 50 chance to win, with a top prize of £25,000! There's a better chance of winning the jackpot than the National Lottery! 

If you'd like to support us this way, you can sign up here: https://www.wiltshirecommunitylottery.co.uk/support/our-free-minds-cio?uutm_campaign=cause-page-social-share&utm_source=cause-page&utm_medium=social&utm_contentHyperlink 

We have several other applications underway and pending decisions, and will continue to look for more. If you become aware of any grants or other fundraising opportunities, please get in touch with David Norris at danorris14@gmail.com.

Family Activities

Heritage Crafts Camp - 3rd to 7th September (Scout Hut)

We will be holding a multi-day Community Heritage Crafts Camp at the Scout Hut in September. Camping each night or visiting us during the day is welcome. There will be demonstrations and skills sharing of traditional crafts. If you have a skill to share we would love to hear from you.

Activities will include:

• wool & textiles (offering wool processing, weaving, knitting, crochet and more),
• plants & pigments (foraging, dyeing, painting and cordage making), 
• fire & food (fire building, backwoods cooking, pit firing ancient bread), 
• wood & tools (whittling, woodwork, lino cuts and pyrography), 
• clay & earth (pottery throwing, pinch and coil pots), 
• ways & wisdom (talks and workshops sharing knowledge and ideas ranging from sheep farming to permaculture, creative writing and debating, 
• bookable wellbeing sessions

A Day at Bowood - Monday 5th October

We are going to Bowood House and Gardens in October. There will be an organised activity on offer. Alternatively we could have a tour of the house. Either of these is optional. Please let Mouse know if you are interested in joining.

Halloween Party - Thursday 29th October (Scout Hut)

Our Halloween Party will start at 3.30pm, after the session of Thursday ends. Please feel free to bring food to contribute to the feast. Costumes are welcome. We will provide some spooky games as usual. 

All the above are family events - parents are responsible for their own children. If you are unable to attend, you can make arrangements with another parent who is willing to be responsible for your child.

Ofsted Registration

We are getting Our Free Minds ready for the Ofsted registration process. We believe it is a forward-looking step that prepares us for any changes the Schools Act 2026 will bring, and ensures our setting continues to thrive.

There will be no noticeable change to your child’s day-to-day experience at Group. Our ethos, approaches and the activities we offer will remain the same. 

We will update you when we submit our application. We reassure you that throughout the registration process - and at all times - we fully comply with GDPR requirements. 

Fundraising 

Fireworks Night - Saturday 7th November (Scout Hut)

We are coming towards that time of year when we begin to prepare for the annual community fireworks event. This year it will be on Saturday 7th November. We usually run the barbecue and sweets & treats stalls. If you would be able to come and help, we’d really appreciate it. Thank you!

Easyfundraising

Please sign up to our easyfundraising page and choose OFM as your cause - https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/our-free-minds/. It’s simple and FREE. Many retailers you already use take part, like John Lewis, Argos, Tesco, Uswitch, Just Eat, Wayfair and GoCompare. Please also share the link with your friends. 

Wishlist on Amazon

For people who prefer to donate goods, we created a "wishlist" on Amazon:  https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/1615ZBX7SL27B/ref=hz_ls_biz_ex . Please share it with family or friends, or donate something yourselves. 

Board of Trustees

We are recruiting for two trustee roles: https://ourfreeminds.org/recruitment. We are also looking for a taskforce leader - someone specialises in finding investors to support us in our hunt for a permanent home. Please contact us at info@ourfreeminds.org if you would like to be considered for any of these positions.

Your Support

At Our Free Minds, we are building a community where children, families and facilitators can support one another and grow together. We see OFM as more than a drop-off space, and we value the sense of community that you help to create.

As we continue to develop OFM, we find that our time and resources are quite stretched. There is a significant amount of work happening behind-the-scenes to keep everything running smoothly, and we are managing much of this work on a voluntary basis. We would value some additional support so we can focus more of our time on the children. 

With this in mind, we invite you - parents and carers - to contribute a small amount of your time to help the community run smoothly. As a guide, this could be around one day per term, in any way that feels manageable for you.

This could include:

• Spending time at a session (whether simply being present or sharing a skill)
• Helping to organise a family event
• Taking part in our cleaning day
• Resource tidying
• Provision of storage for our resources
• Repairing shipping container window
• Strimming the grass in the field
• Replacing the two lights in the hut
• Refreshing the hut
• Helping to promote OFM
• Fundraising
• Looking for a permanent location or other resources
• Looking for people who understand our ethos and are happy to work with us 

There may be other ways that better suit your time and skills, and we welcome your ideas. If you’d like to get involved, please speak to us. Even small contributions can make a big difference. Thank you!

Term Dates

Our term dates for the rest of this year and next are ready. You will find them on the Community calendar on Google. We have also listed the dates out here.