Newsletter for Members - Q2 2025

Welcome to our quarterly newsletter for Our Free Minds’ members and their families.

We are excited to have two volunteers officially joining our team! Big welcome and thank you to Mouse (parent of our member Jemima) who will stay in our Tuesday and Wednesday sessions, and Millie (sister of our members Miles and Hugh) who will stay in most of our Thursday sessions before she goes to university. 

We The Curious

We are going to “We the Curious” in Bristol on their home-ed day on Friday the 6th June. You are welcome to join us. You will need to book your own tickets through this link https://www.wethecurious.org/schools-education/home-education We will send a reminder when tickets for that day are available.

Swimming… and more fun!

We also plan to have a day out in the outdoor swimming pool in Newbury in July. We will share more details nearer the time. 

We would invite you to more activities like this in the future. We will pick an activity, place and date, and invite you all to join us. You are also very welcome to do the same! If you are taking your child to a park or somewhere, for example, you are welcome to make use of the OFM - Parents WhatsApp group and see if anyone would like to join you. 

These will be like family get-togethers or playdates. The main aim is to spend time together and have FUN!

Family Camp Out

This year our annual family camp out will start from 3.15pm on Thursday 10th July, right after the session at Group. All are welcome, whether your children attend Thursday or other days.

If camping is not your thing, you are very welcome to spend time with us just in the afternoon, and / or have the barbecue in the evening. 

All the above are family events - parents will be 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.

Depending on our resources and families’ interest level, we are considering organising a two-night residential in the Foxlease Park from Friday 26th September to Sunday 28th September. 

Foxlease Park is a 63 acre site near Lyndhurst in the New Forest. The site offers a range of activities such as archery, fencing, bush craft, kayaking, bouldering. We would propose to book two such instructor-led activities. This would allow for plenty of free time to explore the site, relax and enjoy each others' company. As a price guide, we are aiming to budget for around £85 to £100 per person, depending on numbers. 

For more about the site, take a look at www.foxiesfuture.co.uk. We will share more information nearer the time.

Summer is just around the corner! If you are about to book your summer holiday, don’t forget to check if there is a good donation amount with easyfundraising first. Sometimes there'll be a cash donation available if you book with a particular retailer. 

If you haven’t done so yet, please sign up to our easyfundraising page and choose OFM as your cause. 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 - https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/our-free-minds/. 

For people who prefer to donate goods rather than cash, 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. Thank you!

We are delighted that our member Eva has completed her Silver Art Award programme and received her certificate! 

We have spaces available on the Arts Award programme. We offer either Bronze or Silver Award (level 1 or 2 equivalent). For more information, please see: https://www.artsaward.org.uk/site/?id=64

Apart from the above official roles, there are endless other ways you can help us, e.g.  offering skill share sessions, administration, marketing, financial advice, legal advice, provision of storage for our resources, fundraising, looking for a permanent location or other resources, business management… If you are (or if you know anyone who is) happy to contribute, please get in touch! 

We are recruiting for one more trustee or task force leader: especially those who are able to specialise 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.

We submitted our first ever Annual Report to the Charity Commission! Please scroll to the end of this page https://ourfreeminds.org/mission-and-policies to see it. 

We are in the very early planning stages of creating a OFM promo video. We will see if any members and parents are interested in participating. Let us know if you would like to do so!

We find that members who attend multiple days per week are more settled and involved in the community. As such, our medium term goal for the future is to have members attending at least two sessions per week.

Our term dates for the year 2026 are ready! You will find them on the Community calendar on Google. We have also listed the dates out here. We will adhere to these dates as much as possible, unless there are unforeseen circumstances.