In the Autumn Half-Term 2000 Children’s World was commissioned to run 4 workshop sessions for children with profound and multiple difficulties and their siblings on behalf of Somerset Impact and Somerset County Council Social Services Department, who were consulting with parents and carers. These workshops were based on the theme of "Circus" and were extremely successful.

THE SENSORY DOME has visited many out-of-school venues to work with families with children who have special needs, & SPECIAL PLAY PACKAGES have also been provided for many different organisations such as Take-A-Break, Dorchester Opportunity Playgroup & Glastonbury Social Services.

CHILDREN’S WORLD’S 20th BIRTHDAY was celebrated on 28 May 2001, with approximately 500 children joining us in Glastonbury’s Abbey Park for an afternoon of free performances, participation and fun.

Our 2nd BRISTOL CHILDREN’S FESTIVAL took place on Bristol Downs on 21 & 22 July, and our 20th GLASTONBURY CHILDREN’S FESTIVAL was celebrated at the Abbey Park on 27, 28, 29 & 30 July. Both Children’s Festivals were blessed with good weather and were hugely successful. More than 20 performances took place each day from clowns, jugglers, story-tellers, magicians and puppeteers; there were art and craft workshops where children could make hats, masks & costumes for each day’s Grand Parade; there was a daily Talent Show, large-scale co-operative games, inflatables, a velcro wall, ball pools, giant inflatable animals and much, much more.

We are most grateful to the many performers who attend our Children’s Festivals for far less than their usual fees because they appreciate the work that Children’s World undertakes, and also to:

The Bristol Evening Post, Central Somerset Gazette and Venue Magazine for advertising sponsorship, Georgian Toilets, Wessex Water & Cleanaway Limited for toilet and rubbish collection, Burns the Bread for their most generous donation of cakes for our cafe, Eric Lukins for fire extinguishers, C & J Clark Limited and Mendip District Council for financial contributions and all our many volunteers, without whose invaluable assistance we could not hope to stage such safe, happy and wonderful events.

Each Children’s Festival attracted an audience of approximately 4,000 well-satisfied customers and between the two events we made a profit of almost £15,000, all of which will be spent on our extensive workshop tours for children who have special needs.

Our Sister Charity, CHILDREN’S WORLD INTERNATIONAL, had planned to undertake an exploratory NORTHERN IRELAND PLAYTOUR , in conjunction with Contact-a-Family, Belfast, in August 2001, but sadly there was conflict in the Province and it was felt that we should delay our trip. It now looks likely that Children’s World International will undertake a pilot exploratory trip to run integrated workshops and play activities for children with special needs and their sublings from both Catholic and Protestant communities in Belfast in June 2002, in conjunction with Contact a Family and Asbah.

Our Charitable Trading Subsidiary, CHILDREN’S WORLD ENTERPRISES, was virtually dormant for the year. We normally run bars and cafes in the Theatre & Circus Fields of the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, but as the Festival was cancelled this summer, that trading could not take place. We felt the financial loss considerably, and very much look forward to trading again at the 2002 Glastonbury Festival.