WILD ABOUT ‘WYLDERNESS’

Please support our exciting new Outdoor Education Project for Robert Arkenstall School

We are always trying to improve the school for pupils and the community and we feel the outdoor learning and wildlife area could do with lots of attention and TLC.    

    

The project is called WYlderness.  Living in a community abundant with fertile land, we should like to collaborate with local farmers and food producers allowing children to produce their own kitchen garden. Vegetables, fruit, flowers and herbs could be produced on the land and in a safe, accessible polytunnel (our glasshouse is unsafe). We would like a pond dipping platform and planting to encourage pollinators, birds and mini-beasts.   

We are planning a seating amphitheatre, with fire pit, as an area for learning, reading, meeting friends, conflict resolution, group projects and a private space for children with special education needs.

WYlderness will be open to pupils of the school and be shared by community groups i.e. Scouts, Girl Guides, Brownies, local Societies. It will support the curriculum by using the natural world as the basis for study e.g. counting pond-skaters, inspiring story writing, recording changing habitats, studying materials and exploring our senses.  It will allow children to experiment and discover the What, Where, How and Why to the fundamental properties of life, growing and nurturing. It has the potential to help pupils and the community reconnect with the food we eat, the anatomy of living things and the people we live amongst. Please help us with this exciting project.

     

FORAS have applied for some funding from Aviva who are running a competition for the BEST PROJECT for YOUNG PEOPLE.  We have been asking parents to vote for us and by the time you read this we should know if we have been successful and shortlisted for Aviva funding.  Funding from external companies alleviates strain on existing resources so this is a great opportunity.

 

HOW YOU CAN HELP OUR COMMUNITY SCHOOL

It may well be that reading about this exciting new school project has whetted your appetite for more. We want to encourage as many members of our Haddenham village community as possible to become more actively involved in supporting school life. Many of you do a lot already and we thank you for all your active support, both now and in the past.

What more can we do as individuals to support school life? Please read on………

1.  Do you have a particular interest, talent, hobby that you could share – lunchtime or after school club?

2.  Do you have a trade with specific skills and could help with practical projects when needed – e.g. farmer, builder, plumber, electrician, gardener, decorator, printer?

3.  Do you have professional experience and can offer advice, guidance and active support– e.g. planner, architect, estates, fund-raiser, journalist, teacher, media, lawyer, medic?

4.  Do you have useful contacts with people who could offer advice, practical resources and financial support – e.g. business and industry links, school-type suppliers?

5.  Do you have some spare time in the school day to help e.g. help with reading, join school trips, sports day, run a lunch time or after school club or occasional workshop?

6.  Do you have some extra time to give to our enthusiastic FORAS – e.g. volunteering to help with fund raising events, Summer and Christmas Fayres, Raffles, Quiz Night, Discos etc

7.  Do you have time to find sponsors and write bids for school fund support – e.g. Lottery or Children in Need bids?

8.  Any other ideas support our school?

What next?

Please now complete a copy of the FORAS Community Action Team form (download PDF below or find copies around the village) and return to the school office. We will add you to our directory and get back to you as soon as possible to explain the next steps. Thank you for your active support.