What is New Ark?
We are an independent charity – our ethos is to provide a safe, caring, adventurous environment for everyone developing skills for life. Our facilities include a traditional Adventure Playground, an Eco Centre and a City Farm.
We are a place you can visit as an individual, family or group. We provide a wide range of services for children, families, young people and adults of all ages and abilities. You can find out more on our What’s On page.
We provide a variety of opportunities for volunteering and social integration, corporate social responsibility projects, enrichment activities for Duke of Edinburgh, Prince’s Trust and National Citizen Service, and animal care and child care work experience placements.
You can read more about our history here.
Our Management Committee which oversees the running of New Ark is made up of a group of committed local volunteers, who each bring unique skills and experience to benefit New Ark. We are actively seeking new trustees who have enthusiasm for New Ark – we especially need people with skills and experience in business and project management, HR, IT, finance, marketing and fundraising.
We also appreciate the dedication of the volunteers who support our fundraising activities, and help with a variety of essential tasks around the site – especially on our farm.
We employ professional play workers and childcare workers, and are registered with and inspected by Ofsted for our childcare and preschool services – our inspection reports can be found here – Ofsted | New Ark Play Association
We keep charges to our users as low as possible and try to ensure that lack of money does not prevent children from enjoying our facilities. We receive no local authority funding and need to supplement our income through applying for grants, and organising fund-raising events and appeals. We always need more help with fundraising! We are members of: Playlink, International Play Association, Early Education, National Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens, Peterborough Council for Voluntary Services, Learning Through Landscapes.
Officially we are called Newark Play Association, but everybody knows us as New Ark!