Welcome to Big Night In. The aim of this event is to provide an opportunity for your school aged children to have a fun night “in” while you, the parents and caregivers, get to have a night off! A typical evening usually has a Christian-based theme and includes dinner, singing and dancing, puppets, craft, games and fun competitions.

Dates

Our Big Night In events are held Saturday evenings, 4:45-7:45pm at St Mary’s Church, Discovery Drive. The dates set for 2015 are:
14 March
16 May
25 July
12 September
14 November

Enrolling for big night in

Big Night In is open to all primary school aged children, but it is important for planning purposes for your child to be pre-registered for each evening. Once we have your contact details, an email will be sent approximately 3 weeks before each Big Night In inviting you to register your child(ren). Unfortunately due to space constraints, we have to cap each evening to the first 30 registered. You are welcome to pass our contact details onto your friends and family who may also be interested. 

The $7.00 per child (maximum $20.00 per family) we charge is to help cover costs, not to raise money for the church.

WHO WE ARE

Big Night In is run by members of the Anglican Parish of Whitby. Our church services are held each Sunday at 9:30am at St Mary’s Church. We are a family friendly community and love to welcome visitors and new people. You are welcome to join us at any time. 

Our Vicar is the Reverend Chris Darnell and our Deacon is the Reverend Felicity O’Brien. Either of them would be happy to meet with you at any time to discuss further who we are and how we may assist you and your family. Please feel free to contact the parish office at any time or call in for a visit. 

Contact details

To enrol your child(ren) or for further information, please contact  Cathy Hope - phone 04 2359651 or email cathy.hope@slingshot.co.nz

safety at big Night In

While we do our best to make each Big Night In as safe as possible, accidents do sometimes occur. At your child’s first event each year, you will be asked to complete a registration form. This includes emergency contact information and space for you to share any other health issues we may need to know, including food allergies as we provide dinner for the children. During the year you will also be asked to confirm this information, but we ask you to let us know if there are any changes to be included.

We also ensure there is a nurse or somebody trained in First Aid at every Big Night In.

Earthquake and evacuation procedures

The spate of earthquakes over the past few years have brought to the forefront the need for all organisations to be prepared should an emergency occur.  In the event of an earthquake we will make sure we all “Drop, Cover and Hold” until the shaking stops. As our church building is 97% of the building code we will stay inside unless it becomes clear we should go outside.  If we need to go outside, we would head to the park across the road, providing it is safe to do so.

As soon as we are able, we will attempt to make contact with the the emergency contact, most likely by text as the recent earthquakes have shown that the phone lines have been overloaded by people trying to ring. We will stay with your children until you are able to pick them up, or you have given us other instructions. 

In the case of other situations where we need to evacuate the church building, we will gather either on the church car park or across the road, whichever is safer. We will make contact with you as soon as we can.