More than 1,500 people helped raised £20,000 on Sunday, enjoying bungee jumps, carousel, crafts, archery and bouncy castles at Norwood’s inclusive Carnival at Edgware Primary School.
A concert stage hosted performances provided from across the community including musical acts from schools Hertsmere Jewish Primary School and Sinai Jewish Primary and academies Showstoppers and Big Time Academy, and dance acts Be On Pointe (BOP), Shoshana Burns School of Dance, and Vanessa School of Dance.
Away from the carnival buzz, there were a range of indoor and outdoor quiet zones and sensory spaces, offering safe, calming areas for overstimulated guests.
Norwood chief executive Naomi Dickson and chair of trustees Miles Webber took the organisation’s patron of volunteering Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis on a tour of its new neurodiversity sensory pod.
An interactive and educational experience launched for the first time at Carnival, it is designed to allow users to focus on their senses, taking people through a series of short, guided activities led by a Norwood expert, offering valuable insight into how neurodivergent people may experience the world.
Norwood Carnival May 2025. Pic: Volunteer photographers Amber Pollack and Hayler Posener
Handing out the medals to the children who took part, Chief Rabbi Mirvis commended Norwood, on behalf the community “for what it has done, what it continues to do and what it plans to do in the future”, which he said was “vital”.
