Despite the torrential rain the night before, the ground was still not too bad on the School field and so at 1:30pm the re-scheduled Outdoor Classroom Workday began.
Work began as you would expect with a cup of tea, (well it was a bitterly cold day!) and a briefing from Tim Frayling, Parent Governor who was co-ordinating the afternoon's work.
Digging up the turf and soil to create the new path seemed to happen in the blink of an eye with so many hands to make the work lighter and plenty of wheelbarrows to move the excavated earth over to the new planters.
The team then proceeded to board the path and barrow in 5 tonnes of stone.
A drainage gulley was concreted in and the path was well compacted, many thanks to Rich Mann for the loan of his Wacker.
While work on the path continued other members of the team felled the overgrown willow structure, and created a habitat pile. The logs were heaved into place, staked, sculpted and transformed into a fantastic seating area for 30 children.
As the adults worked away the children who came along, not only played together nicely all afternoon without getting in the way of the work, but also spent some time shovelling and working too. They were actually really helpful and played their part in getting the job done.
There were a few more tea breaks and the PTA were very please to be able to serve the team hot drinks and a healthy consumption of cake all round. These were well deserved, however, as everyone worked really hard and there was a great atmosphere of camaraderie.
It’s now all ready for use, and hopefully the whiteboards will arrive soon and can go up to complete the facility. There are many people to thank, so listed below (in alphabetical order) are all the parents who attended on the day:
Catherine & Pete Burgess, Susie & Adam Cornish, Andy Cunningham, Julie & Tim Frayling, Sam & Simon Hopwood, Sarah Hunter, Tara Knight, Albert Knott, Emma & Richard Mann, Kaz Martin, Donald MacDonald, Helen & Patrick Mouat, Ben Reynolds, Louise & David Stokes, Henry Tobin and Wavell Vigers.
Not only did everyone work incredibly hard, but they also brought along their own tools and expertise, without which, it would have been impossible to achieve what we did in a single afternoon.
Thanks also go to Ian Durrant, who wanted to attend but was unwell, for all his help with the planning & ideas and to all the other parents who have been very supportive, but were not able to attend on the day.
A couple more to thank: Fred Hutt from the National Trust at Parke for supplying and delivering the logs. Huge thanks to Ben Nock and his team – not only did he donate the shade sail and posts, and the tyre planters, he also came, with fellow parent Jim McLeod to install them, and has been very generous in giving his time and support.
Here are the rest of the photos from the day:-
Many Thanks
Your PTA
