history

1976 - Woodgate Residents Committee members, put forward a proposal to try to get funds to build a children's play area on The Rally Park which was agreed.

1977 - An inner area bid was put forward to get funding from parliament which was successful but plans to close Rally Park and build a road on the land were put forward by the council, which put the proposal in jeopardy.

1978 - Woodgate Residents Association put in a successful bid to buy a canal boat to take local children on canal trips, which had to be converted to suit this purpose.

1980 - The canal boat was named and 'The Charlotte' was launched, made and ready for trips.

-The Oil Depot site on the Rally Park became vacant.
- A model of the Rally Park, including the proposed play area, was made by Woodgate Residents Association to use in their campaign to stop the road being built and convert the disused Oil Depot into a play area for local children.
- The city Councillors who saw the plans were dissuaded from continuing with the road plans and gave support toward the play area proposal

1983 onwards - The joint management of both the playground and canal boat trips became too much so a new committee was formed for 'Leicester Kid's Afloat' which gave children across the city access to trips. Woodgate Adventure Playground ran as an open access Playground.

1990- Newly elected County Council voted against road proposals as The Rally Park could only be used for recreational purposes.

1981 - in April, playworkers were employed and Woodgate Adventure Playground Management Committee was formed, building work started and the playworkers continued work on the Canal Boat to get it ready for summer trips.
- In November, Management Committee moved into offices on the playground site and work began on outdoor play structures.

1982 - The Adventure Playground opened to the children in June and was officially opened by the Local MP.

We are now a well-established organisation attracting over 500 individual children each year between 6 - 14 years. We open to children after school and during school holidays, providing safe stimulating activities through supervised play throughout the year.
Throughout the years funding from various grants and fundraising initiatives, the playground has been developed from very basic derelict buildings and overgrown land into a range of well-ordered and established play areas through landscaping, planting trees, creating purpose built outdoor play structures and an all-weather sports area.
Whilst the outdoor play structures are the heart of the playground, the buildings have been renovated and we have a sports hall, art room, sensory room, kitchen and games room.
Funding from Children In Need in 2002 enabled us to to employ a worker to support children with additional needs to access facilities, this work has been highly successful and has developed over the years.

2010 - from talking to parents and liaising with other local organisations we became aware of the growing demand for more nursery provision in the area.
From this we decided to develop an under used area within our existing provision and opened a Nursery operating five mornings a week during term time.

2011 - this nursery provision was extended to provide five corresponding afternoon sessions.

2015 - Due to local demand, we started discussing our options of expanding our services as we were full to capacity.

after COVID-19 the need for nursery provision for 2 year olds dropped and we sadly had to temporarily close the 2 year old room.

2023 - Happily, parents requesting nursery places for their 2 year olds has increased and we are looking at re opening the second class room early in 2024.

Structure & Funding:
- Adventure Playground Grant aided by Leicester City Council (core funding).
- Children In Need - Additional needs funding.
- Woodgate Nursery NEE funded places.
- registered charity (No 1070451)
- Ltd company (3539551)
- Managed by a Voluntary management committee comprised of local parents and professionals.

2017 - we opened a second classroom which point we divided the children in two age groups; 2 year olds and 3-4 year olds.

YOUR PLAYGROUND HISTORY.

Nursery Background Information