2023 Parent and Toddler Fayre Event

Our Parent and Toddler events were successful across all centres this year and we all enjoyed every second of each event.

These events are a great way for new and expecting parents to come and browse various stalls ranging from toddler classes, family photography, handmade gifts and SO much more. Each event also includes free entry to the centre so that new guests could experience all the amazing facilities we have to offer here at 360 Play for the first time, including taster sessions to our NEW Music and Movement and Sensory Play classes.

If you are interested in holding a stall at our next event then please contact your local centre (or, if you are interested in holding a stall at our next event then please book your stall HERE) , booking for customers will be available nearer to the time.

Event dates:

January 10th

April 24th

September 11th

See you next year!

What is it about water play that is so good for children?

The summer is here and it’s the perfect time for getting the children outside and having some fun with water!

It may be one of the most entertaining ways of cooling off on hot days, but there is much more to water play than meets the eye.

Water play provides valuable childhood experiences through hours of absorbing fun. Children love it – splashing and pouring, spraying and creating waves. It enhances their creativity and imagination, promotes good health and well-being and provides opportunities for some wonderful investigative and scientific learning.

Water play promotes well-being

Water play can be a wonderfully calming, therapeutic activity, especially for children who are a little hyperactive and enjoy the soothing touch of water and the sensory stimulation that it offers.

Focusing on one gentle and repetitive activity such as scooping, sieving or running their hands through the water can really help a child to relax and unwind. This is a useful technique for improving their ability to concentrate, too.

On the other hand, some lively splashing is a great outlet for pent-up energy, allowing kids to let off steam, have fun, laugh, play, be happy (surely the most important thing of all!).

How does water play help children’s development?

A water play area, whether indoors or out, can foster cognitive development, teach mathematics and science concepts, enhance physical skills, promote social learning and cooperative effort, and enrich language experiences. In the 360 environment all these benefits stem from the children just playing with each other or by parent led play having fun together.

We have heavily invested in our water play tables, which are exciting and colourful with so many activities from fishing and shooting balls, a vortex, an Archimedes screw and many different fountains, tippers, dams and pumps.

Endless play and learning opportunities at your fingertips.

 

Founder and MD of 360 Play joins the annual 5K run at international attractions expo

The 16th annual 5K run/1-mile walk benefits Give Kids The World

As the sun rose on Thursday, Nov. 17, attractions professionals from around the world began affixing their race numbers and stretching their legs in anticipation of the 16th Annual IAAPA Footprints From the Heart 5K Run/1-Mile Walk Benefitting Give Kids The World Village.

Held on-site at Give Kids The World Village, the event attracted individual IAAPA Expo attendees, as well as groups of employees from exhibiting companies.

Runners warming up

Sophie Masse, marketing specialist at Falcon’s Creative Group, attended the run with several of her colleagues. “At Falcon’s, we’ve been doing the race here every single year for a very long time, so it’s a cause that’s close to our hearts,” she shares. “This is my second year personally doing it, and last year we had such a fun time … it’s just great to get together with your coworkers to do it and help motivate yourself.”

At the start line

The event drew in many international participants as well, with 35 individuals from the British Association of Leisure Parks, Piers and Attractions (BALPPA) opting to run. Duncan Phillips, United Kingdom-based theme park and family entertainment center (FEC) operator and chairman of BALPPA, detailed his long relationship with Footprints From the Heart.

 Duncan Phillips 360 Play MD

“I came here ten or eleven years ago, saying, ‘Well, I’ve never run in my life, but I’m just going to run it,’ and I’ve not missed one since,” he reflects. “I just think [Give Kids The World] is an amazing organization, and for me, it rounds off what we do in the industry. It puts a smile on everyone’s faces, and nobody needs it more than those here.”

Give Kids The World provides cost-free vacations to children with critical illnesses and their families. The week-long vacation includes visits to beloved Orlando area attractions and theme parks.

Before the start of the race, 2022 IAAPA Chairman of the Board, Ken Whiting, welcomed the crowd and thanked sponsors for supporting the event. Pamela Landwirth, president and CEO of Give Kids The World, also took the stage.

“I know you’re getting ready to walk the show floor. From what I understand, that’s 11 miles, so this is going to seem like a piece of cake for you this morning,” she joked. Landwirth then took a more sentimental turn, noting the impact that the attractions industry has had on the Village. “And when you look at the Village, every single inch of this village has been touched by IAAPA, a member, a partner, a manufacturer, a supplier. We couldn’t have this incredible village without all of you.”

After the speech concluded, IAAPA Expo attendees took off running with their attractions industry family—kicking off a new day of IAAPA Expo on a joyful and charitable note.

Autumn Toddler Fayres very popular

We had a fantastic time at our Autumn Toddler Fayres across the centres over the last few weeks and hope you did too. 

We met lots of new guests experiencing 360 for the first time at the Autumn Toddler Fayres and lots of stallholders promoting their products and classes for the children. We even had local libraries attend in some areas and the Police!

Watch out for the next Toddler Fayre in your area later in the year. If you have any queries re classes or having a stall next time just ask in-store and one of our managers would be delighted to help you.

Play centre launches corporate offering in response to demand for family rewards

A leading entertainment group, with play centres across the UK, has launched a new corporate rewards scheme this month due to increasing requests from local employers, looking for unique family friendly benefits to provide to their staff. 

360 Play is primarily an activity and entertainment complex for children aged 0-12 years old. Historically, the business would offer bespoke solutions to companies, but this has now been formalised into an exclusive offering of discounted tickets and passes for employers, as demand for family-focused benefits continues to grow. 

Recent statistics from the ONS (Office of National Statistics) suggest that 67% of UK employees are looking to their employers to offer a solution to improve their work/life balance, whilst 77% say that the most important thing to them post-pandemic is spending time with their families.

There have been concerns raised about the lack of social interaction that children growing up during coronavirus lockdowns experienced and this is one potential explanation for the recent shift in values that companies like 360 Play have seen amongst visiting parents.  

As a result, many companies are now looking for innovative ways to offer incentives and corporate benefits packages that go beyond the member of staff, but also fulfil this increasingly common desire to strive towards benefits that will impact wider families as well. 

Founder and managing director of 360 Play, Duncan Phillips, says, “We have all come to realise just how important in-person contact is for the well-being of children and parents in recent times. At 360 Play, we strongly believe in the value of settings where people can meet up, learn and rediscover the joys of playing together in person. 

This latest initiative is our way of connecting work with play, allowing local employers to attend our centres with their teams and their families to reconnect, or just have a bit of a thank you from the boss. The visitors we welcome as part of workplace trips and rewards often give glowing feedback on the experience, as do the employers, who find this encourages workforces to remain connected, focused and feeling like a valued member of the company.” 

For more information on Corporate Away Play, visit our employers page

New outdoor area for Rushden Lakes Centre

The newest addition to 360 play Rushden lakes complements the existing indoor offerings combining rides, attractions and role play in one location at one price.  360 Play, like many has seen long closure during the pandemic and this latest addition to the attraction is aimed at providing wider choice and the ability to play outside as well as in.

Centre manager Lauren Jenkins:

“It’s great to be opening our newest attraction at 360 Play Rushden Lakes just in time for the summer holidays.  The new addition has been built over the last 2 months and involves climb towers slides, rope bridges and lots of sand play too.  This new area gives families the ability to play inside and out as we see the sun finally come out. “

We have also upgraded the sand play at our other sites with outdoor areas in Basildon, Milton Keynes, Leicester and Stevenage. Visit any of our sites with your play pass or membership.

 

 

A Successful Spooktacular Halloween

Our Halloween sessions went down a treat this year, with customers enjoying the new Pumpkin Patch along with the always popular Trick or Treat Street. Children could also create magic in Messy Play as well as enjoy all the usual 360 play features.

Here are just some of the lovely comments customers have made:

“Great Halloween fun with my 1 year old, all staff are so lovely and fun, love it here. Enjoyed the pumpkin patch best :) Thank you!”

“First time coming, lots of fun. My 14 month old loved the sand patch with pumpkins. Loved looking at all the Halloween decorations. Thank you so much, worth every penny.”

“We really enjoyed Halloween at 360 Play, my kids love burning off energy in the centre, it’s a real work out for me and the kids, getting the kids off their phone is so essential to their welfare.”

We are accepting vouchers

If you have a 360 Play day pass or voucher then we have great news for you, you will now be able to use this on your next visit to 360 Play!

Up until now we could only accept advance online bookings and we haven’t been able to process vouchers due to the restrictions placed on us by Covid-19 through our booking system. The team has been working hard behind the scenes and you can now visit us using your voucher or day pass and without pre-booking Monday – Friday until 23rd October. We know that your voucher may be out of date but don’t worry! We will still accept them when you visit us before this date.

The vouchers we can accept include:

• Day passes

• Birthday vouchers from parties

• Easter promotion vouchers (buy one child ticket get one free- cheapest child free)

• Short breaks vouchers

We apologise for any inconvenience but we are unable to accept Tesco Clubcard vouchers at this time.

Covid-19 Safety and Cleaning Measures

Welcome back, we would like you know about the precautions we are putting in place. All the following will apply:

 

Here is a video demonstrating the highly effective cleaning products we use – watch here

We politely request that you refrain from visiting 360 Play should you start displaying any of the symptoms associated with COVID-19.

The main symptoms of coronavirus are:

  • a high temperature – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature)
  • a new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)
  • a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste – this means you’ve noticed you cannot smell or taste anything, or things smell or taste different to normal

Please contact our bookings department on 01908 670160 or email bookings@360play.co.uk should you need to amend your booking.

To support the health and safety of guests and staff during the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic 360 Play will be using non-contact thermometers to screen the temperature of each guest and employee before they enter. Guests who do not wish to undergo the temperature screening or who have a raised temperature of [37.8°C or above], along with their household group, will not be permitted entry but will be offered a full refund of the admission price of their ticket. No record of the temperature will be retained and the data will not be used for any other purpose.

360 Play COVID-19 Update – Sorry 360 is closed for the time being

We are sorry to announce that following the government advice to us all on reducing social interaction and to avoid smaller public spaces, we have taken the difficult decision to close all our 360 Play centres until further notice.

The health and safety of all our staff and guests is our top priority. The decision we have taken today has been made with all of you and your families in mind and to try to help reduce the transmission of the virus. Please be assured our team has been working hard over the last few weeks to do everything within our power to ensure 360 Play was as safe as it could be but in light of the changing advice over the last few days we have had to take the decision to close. All our centres and our head office are now closed and staff members at home with their families helping to do their bit to stop the spread of the corona virus.

Birthday Parties – our sincerest apologies to anyone who has a birthday booked with us, we are so sorry that we have to disappoint any child. We have tried to contact everyone who has a party booked with us until the 10th April and if we have been unable to contact you or if you have a party booked from the 10th April until we reopen, don’t worry we will be in touch as soon as we reopen offering to reschedule your party or refund monies already paid.

Annual Passes – these will be extended by however many days we stay closed.

Direct Debit Passes – we will not be taking payments from members for their passes while we are closed. 

Upcoming events and classes – we will be updating schedules and will keep you posted via our website, emails and social media.

 As a family business we are devastated to announce this decision but everyone’s health and safety must come first. We’d like to thank you for your loyalty and understanding during this uncertain time. We look forward to welcoming you again, hopefully very soon.

 With our very best wishes,

 Duncan Phillips & the 360 Play Team