Scrapstores
Self Directed Imaginative Play with Found Materials
‘Scrapstores around the world and particularly in the UK ensure that children
are able to have a rich and varied diet of textures, colours and types of
materials with which to feed their imaginations. For those of us old enough or
poor enough you’ll no doubt remember days spent creating dens and
imaginary worlds with things you’d found; you may even remember how rare it
was to have toys with construction and play instructions.
Fortunately like all good quality things imaginative play has never gone out of
fashion and is accessible to anyone regardless of age, culture or social status.
Scrapstores UK has been set up by members of the scrapstore community to
support the reuse of unwanted resources for the benefit of children and
communities. Clean reusable scrap materials (which businesses find hard to
recycle so would otherwise be landfilled) are made available for children to
play with through a network of 100 independent 'Scrapstores' across the UK.
We along with many other professionals believe that children allowed
unstructured play opportunities (over those who were given set instructions
and outcomes) helped improve their:
Communication skills
Creativity and problem solving
Team working and collaboration
Ability to explore textures and colours
Willingness to experiment
Scrapstores are a fantastic resource for community groups who are in need of
high quality art and craft materials for their members. The range of materials
in your scrapstore changes from day to day and could include card, paper,
textiles, paint, corks, wool, cardboard tubes, netting, gauze and a thousand
other things!
All scrapstores have different means of accessing their scrap materials. In
some you need to pay an individual membership fee, at others you simply pay
for the scrap you take on the day. Many scrapstores also have shops open to
the public selling high quality art and craft materials from glue to paintbrushes
to complement the scrap’.
Scrapstores UK. Registered charity no. (1126044)
Scrapstores open to Leicestershire childcare/play providers
Leicester:
Children’s resource centre
70 Knighton Lane
Aylestone
Leicester
LE2 8BE
Tel: 0116 2232056
Annual membership £36 for OOS. £24 for childminders
May use the scrapstore to take away card, paper, fabric remnants etc as often
as you wish.
Phoenix Resource Centre
47a Kenilworth Drive
Oadby Industrial Estate
Leicester
LE2 5LT
Tel: 07963 367726
Life-time membership costs £10.00. Members pay £15.00 per token (cost
reduces if tokens are bought in bulk) to collect whatever resources you need
from the warehouse (some limits apply)
http://phoenix-resource-centre.org.uk/
Derby:
Play and recycling centre
Werburgh Street
Derby
DE22 3QG
Tel: 01332 299165
www.derbyplayandrecyclingcentre.org
Annual membership £18 - £40 depending on type of provision
Nottingham:
Nottingham Playworks
Alfred Street North
Nottingham
NG3 1AE
Tel: 0115 9589199
www.playworks.org.uk
Annual membership £10 - £35 depending on type of provision
Members pay an additional £2/£10 fee to take away either a basket or trolley
load.