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Georgina Durrant runs The SEN Resources Blog which is a site for parents and teachers of children with a Special Educational Needs. Georgina is a qualified teacher and former SENDCO with a BSc in Medical Sciences and Post Graduate Diploma In Vulnerable Learners and Inclusion. Her site SEN Resources is visited by thousands of parents and teachers each month. This is a blog post written by Georgina about the best Orchard Toys resources for children with Autism. I’m a huge believer in the importance of play. It can help children to develop a whole range of skills and consequently, good quality toys, games and resources can play a huge part in a child’s learning. One area I’ve been looking at recently are games and puzzles that could be beneficial and enjoyable for autistic children. Autism is a life long development disability that effects certain areas of development such as social interaction, communication and the way people experience the world. Therefore, I was searching for games and learning resources that could help support children in these areas. In particular I’ve been looking at the range of games and puzzles by Orchard Toys. It must be stressed that...

Our new game Magic Spelling was a winner of the Hero Toy Award at London Toy Fair! Toy Fair’s Hero Toy Award represents the top toys expected to influence the industry in 2019. Orchard Toys is delighted to be recognised amongst some of the most innovative items launched at Toy Fair 2019! Launched last month alongside four other new releases, Magic Spelling is the literacy counterpart to our best-selling Magic Maths. Players race against time to search for hidden letters- the first player to fill their spell book gets to cast a spell and wins the game! This magical literacy game helps develop children’s letter recognition and spelling skills. The rub and reveal cards and magic viewer add a fun new element to the game that reinforces our ethos of ‘learning made fun’. Magic Spelling is proving to be incredibly popular since its launch last month and we can’t wait to see what else is in store for this spellbinding game! Read full article

To celebrate Norfolk Day, staff at Orchard Toys will be designing and decorating their own Norfolk rocks to hide around the county. Finders keepers…whoever finds an Orchard Toys rock gets to claim a free game or jigsaw of their choice! On Norfolk Day the 50 strong workforce will spend time creating their rocks and hiding them across the county in the days following. Members of the public who find an Orchard Toys rock (which can be identified by the Orchard Toys apple tree logo) need to contact us and quote the unique identifying code on the back. Orchard Toys relocated to Norfolk over 12 years ago and as a result, the business has more than doubled in size in less than a decade. Orchard Toys’ Managing Director Simon Newbery commented: “Our roots are very much Norfolk based now and we waited to celebrate with the rest of the county. The Norfolk Rocks initiative has been fantastic and we thought it would be a fun way to celebrate and give something back to those in the community. Orchard Toys very much remains a friendly, family-run company, even as we head towards 50 years in business.” Read full article

One of the biggest changes to UK data privacy law, in the form of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), comes into effect on 25th May 2018. This will change the way we collect, process and store your personal data. The GDPR gives you more rights around how your personal data is used. It also enables you to have a say about what information you would like to receive from us via email and postal communications. Protecting our customers’ data is a priority for us. However, to ensure you feel confident with how we process your personal data, we’ve updated our Privacy Policy and Cookies Policy to make things clearer. If you have any questions about how to use your personal data, our privacy policy or wish to comment on how we use your data, please contact data@orchardtoys.com. 

Today we're celebrating as Smelly Wellies takes silver at the Mother & Baby awards for ‘Best Toddler Toy 24 Months+’. Launched in January, this fun first game for ages 2-6 teaches matching and memory skills as players match the brightly patterned wellies! There are two ways to play the game, either as a simple pairs game or a more challenging version for older players. Children will love the yucky monster characters too! Products submitted to the Mother & Baby awards are rigorously tested by a carefully selected panel of mums, who look at play value, educational benefits and value for money to choose the coveted bronze, silver and gold titles. Orchard Toys’ Marketing Manager Ali Brown commented: “We are incredibly proud of this product, which perfectly embodies our core values of learning and fun! We knew that it was a strong addition to our range and we are therefore delighted that it has received this recognition.” Read full article

Orchard Toys has won 'Bronze' and 'Shortlisted' awards, for Cheeky Monkeys and Smelly Wellies respectively, in the Right Start awards for 2017! We're delighted to have won these prestigious awards, especially for Cheeky Monkeys which has seen great success already this year with four other awards wins to its name. The Right Start awards recognise products which are not only fun and appealing, but also include key educational benefits which help children develop.

Our Smelly Wellies game, launched in January this year, has been shortlisted in the prestigious Mother & Baby awards. This fun first game teaches matching and memory skills as players match the brightly patterned wellies! Products are tested in the awards are rigorously tested by an army of mums, who look at play value, educational benefits and value for money. Awards winners will be announced in a glittering ceremony on 28th November, keep your fingers crossed for us!

We're delighted that both our Cheeky Monkeys and Magic Maths games have been shortlisted in the Made for Mums toy awards. These were in the 'Best Board Game' and 'Best Educational/Learning Toy' categories respectively. These prestigious awards are tested and voted for by editors, mums and most importantly of all...children themselves! This is the perfect audience for us to be recognised by and we are keeping our fingers and toes crossed. Keep an eye out on our blog and social media pages to see who will be announced the winner!  

Our Cheeky Monkeys and Smelly Wellies games have won 'Gold' and 'Silver' respectively in the online Bizziebaby awards. Products submitted to the online awards are tested and reviewed by parents for their quality, play value and learning benefits. You can read the full users reviews for Cheeky Monkeys and Smelly Wellies on the Bizziebaby website.

We are absolutely delighted to have won in 3 different categories in the Early Years Excellence awards! These included a 4* award in the 'Under Twos' category for Farmyard Heads and Tails, a 4* award for Spotty Dogs in the 'Maths' category and a 5* award for Match and Spell in the 'Toys and Games' category. Products were judged on their educational value, cost and capacity to withstand the rigours of use in a busy early years setting. The Early Years Excellence awards (founded by Teach Early Years magazine) were newly launched this year to celebrate exceptional educational products that can be used in a nursery/childcare setting. However, they have already built up a prestigious name for themselves, with products being judged by renowned educational and early years professionals. We are proud to add the Early Years Excellence award stamp to our collection and hope to add many more awards to our range over the coming years. Read full article

Members of the Design Department at Orchard Toys donned tights to dress up as their favourite superheroes, all to raise money for local Norfolk charity East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH). Orchard Toys have been supporting EACH for a number of years now with their fundraising efforts, from cake sales to charity bike rides, as well as customer donations from their much-loved Free Parts Replacement Service.  There is a great synergy between Orchard Toys and EACH, and it seems fitting that a toy manufacturer should support their local children’s charity. EACH support families throughout their experience of caring for children with life-threatening conditions and complex healthcare needs.  Orchard Toys’ superhero Design Department really pulled out all the stops, dressing up as the aptly named ‘Illustrator’, Superman and Wonderwoman to raise money for this fantastic cause. Here’s to much more fundraising and fun from Orchard Toys!

Have you ever wanted to see behind the scenes of Orchard Toys at Christmas? Now you can! Here's our take on the popular Mannequin challenge, we hope you enjoy it as much as we did making it! Merry Christmas from all of us here at Orchard Toys! You can find a link to the video on our YouTube channel here.