Newsletter for Members - Q3 2025

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

Location

A potential location came up for Group recently. The site is what used to be Wendy's Café in the Great Bedwyn play park. It is owned by a charity who also manages the village hall and their objective is to create space for activities that foster community. We put forward our proposal to their board of trustees and are awaiting their decision.

New Volunteer & Facilitator

Big welcome to Joanne, parent of our members Miles and Hugh, who will stay as a volunteer in our Thursday sessions from now on. 

Big welcome to Alice who is staying with us as a temporary facilitator for this term (Sept-Oct) while Guy is on adoption leave. Guy will be back with us at Group in the November term.

Autumn Family Walk

We will go to Lydiard Park in Swindon for a walk around the lakes and a play at the playground on Saturday 25th October morning. All are welcome!

Halloween Party

We are planning to hold our halloween party this year on Thursday 30th October, 3pm to 5pm after the group session. Party food for sharing and fancy dresses are welcome. There will be some spooky activities too. All are welcome! 

We the Curious Home Ed Day

We spent a day at “We the Curious” in Bristol on their home-ed day in June. We had a lot of fun and so are planning to go again on Friday 7th November. We will let you know when we book the tickets.

Christmas show and party 

We plan to have our Christmas party and a theatre show on Thursday 18th December, 3pm to 6pm after the session. We will send you more information when we know which show it will be and the ticket price. Save the date!

A Day at Bowood - in review

We spent a day at Bowood House and Gardens (https://bowood.org) as a group on Monday 29th September 2025. We had 17 grown-ups and 30 children altogether. In the morning we participated in a workshop called Searching for Sleeping Seeds, in which members learned about seeds and collected them in the beautiful Walled Garden. After the workshop, we enjoyed lunch, chatted, and played at the amazing adventure playground. Some visited the house and gardens, while some went for a walk. 

Newbury Lido Trip - in review

A few of us went to the Newbury lido for a swim on Friday 22nd August. It was fun to have done it while it was still warm.

We intend to continue inviting you to 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!

Fireworks Night

The annual Burbage Scouts fireworks is coming up on Saturday 1st November.  We helped with the barbecue and the sweet stall in the last two years. This brought in around £1000 per year of funds for us each year. Thank you to those who signed up to volunteer and help run the stalls this year. If you are able to help please get in touch with us. If not, you are welcome to buy the tickets and enjoy the event, and support us that way. Either way, we look forward to seeing you there!

Easyfundraising

If you are about to book your holiday, renew your insurance or make any big purchase, 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 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.

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 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.