Easter Gardening and Playground Improvements

A very special thanks to the few volunteers who gave their time to help improve the playgrounds and garden area during the Spring Break.

In terms of the work that as undertaken, Susan Taylor and Helen Rolph, along with a small number of volunteer helpers, managed to undertake the following:

  • paint both dens
  • cleaned up the toadstool area which was also painted
  • the playground mural was refreshed with a new background colour
  • wooden fences were painted
  • a new garden path was installed (still to be finished)
  • a new planter wall was built along the length of the wall at The Afty
  • filled the new planter with 8 wheelbarrows of soil collected from the front of the school once all the weeds were sieved out
  • a sandpit was placed in the P1 playground; this was found in the garden last year all rusted and ready for the skip, but was refurbished and had a lid made for it, so will hopefully squeeze another couple of years out of it; therefore, a great example of recycling

One of the most popular “amendments” in the playground was the addition of a steering wheel on the “Pennies for Playgrounds” boat. Unfortunately, this was broken within the first week due to a child fleeing a wasp, and hopefully a replacement (steering wheel not child!) will be obtained asap.

Unfortunately, there were a lot of jobs that the volunteers didn’t manage to start or complete due to running out of time and also too few volunteers. However, the volunteers who came along could not have been more inspired and motivated and returned more than once throughout the holidays to climb the mountain of jobs/tasks.

It is hoped that the next request for the Summer Break Clean Up will bring in more volunteers, as there is a lot of work that needs to be undertaken to improve and maintain the garden and the school playgrounds, to ensure that they are maximised as attractive, enjoyable, educational and fun learning and play areas for all of our kids at the school.

Work that wasn’t able to be done on this occasion, but is planned for the Summer Break, includes creating another boat and painting the seaside mural; but really, there is a lot of work still to do, and then there’s the ongoing maintenance beyond that.

We cannot stress enough the importance for volunteers to come on board to help with these ongoing improvements. Therefore, we’d like to start collecting contact numbers of parents and carers (and children) potentially willing to give some of their time and energy for future Clean Up events, initially over the summer. Even if you can only spare a day or a few hours, it all helps spread the workload.

Please text Susan Taylor on 07882 942 945 and ask to be added to the HPS Clean Ups mailing list.

The Head Teacher, Ms Helen Brown, says: “Everyone is amazed and appreciates the wonderful work that has been done all over the school campus by Susan and Helen and the parent/pupil helpers. [The children] are very excited about getting involved, they are also bouncing with enthusiasm about their nature topic and would love to take on some duties and activities in the school garden this term.”