FAMILY fun will help boost fundraising for more training courses at a children’s centre in Wood Farm.

Mums from the Slade and Headington children’s centre have already gained food hygiene certificates as part of a “muffin mums” project, and now they want to raise cash to run more training courses at the venue.

They have planned a fun day at the centre, in Titup Hall Drive, tomorrow.

Centre manager Janet Law said the centre’s courses were designed to get parents working again after having children.

She said: “They’re going to be making and baking cupcakes and muffins, initially to sell in our cafe, but we hope to expand it eventually.

“It’s a retraining project for the parents in the Wood Farm area, because part of the centre’s brief is to help people get back into work.”

Oxford City Council supplied £600 of the £900 cost of the hygiene training for 10 volunteers, who only paid £17 each to take part.

But Janet said funds were needed if parents wanted to do other courses.

She said: “We will be running other courses, and some of them will be free, but for example if they want to get someone to come in to teach them sugarcraft or first-aid, that will cost money.”

Organiser and mum-of-two Simone James, 29, said: “The centre is mostly run by volunteers.

“It’s a community-based children’s centre so we need everybody to help out.”

Courses planned at the centre include health and safety and first- aid, and volunteers may also be able to train to run creches and become teaching assistants.

First-aid classes can cost more than £50 per head, and teaching assistant training costs can run to hundreds of pounds.

Kimberley Jordan, 28, another volunteer and co-organiser of the fun day, said she got involved to give something back.

She said: “I’ve got five kids ranging in age from eight down to four months, and the children’s centre is really good for them, but it’s good for parents as well.

“I already volunteer there, helping out and talking to people who want to come along.”

She said no fundraising target had been set, but added that the more money raised, the more volunteers would be trained.

The centre opened in July last year on the site of Wood Farm Primary School.

It was built as the first part of an £11m project to join together the primary, Slade Nursery School, Slade Day Nursery, the children’s centre and other community facilities.

The building cost about £4m and includes a cafe, primary classrooms, a temporary school hall and a kitchen.

It was funded by Oxfordshire County Council , with an additional £125,000 from the city council.

Tomorrow’s fun day, between noon and 4pm, will include a raffle with a top prize of a Jamie Oliver barbecue, games of “splat the parent” using custard pies and other actitivies.