The Garden Classroom is fundraising for
The Garden Classroom
Charity No. 1168587
£20,045
+ estimated £3,869
Started on 7th May 2020
London, England, United Kingdom
Updates 4
There are just three hours left to help The Garden Classroom reach it's Crowdfunding target!
Thank you so much for supporting The Garden Classroom in the past.
We have a live Crowdfunder as part of the Aviva Community Fund where every £1 donated (up to £250) is instantly doubled by Aviva. We’re 89% of the way to our target of £12,000 with only three hours left on our campaign - can you help us get over the line? Find out more on the link below.
https://www.avivacommunityfund.co.uk/p/tgc-transformational-nature-connection/
Since we launched this campaign, we have been busy behind the scenes developing one of our most ambitious projects to date - a five year community gardening programme across Islington to improve the quality of our urban green spaces for all, and to create vital opportunities for our communities to come together in fun, rewarding and purposeful activities.
- thank you!
Here are some suggested messages for social media to share your support:
Twitter:
I’m supporting @grdnclassroom in their work to connect urban people with nature for health, happiness, and to inspire care for the environment 🌳
Each £1 donated up to £250 is doubled by @AvivaUK!
Take a look, donate, and share: tinyurl.com/dy9wjrca
@CrowdfunderUK @RSPBEngland @WWFUK
Instagram:
I'm supporting @The_Garden_Classroom in their work to connect urban children with nature for health, happiness, and to inspire care for the environment 🌳
Each £1 donated up to £250 is doubled by @AvivaUK!
Take a look, donate, and share: tinyurl.com/dy9wjrca
@CrowdfunderUK @RSPB_Love_Nature @WWF_UK
#SaveOurWildIsles
Facebook:
I'm supporting @GardenClassroom in their work to connect urban children with nature for health, happiness, and to inspire care for the environment 🌳
Each £1 donated up to £250 is doubled by @AvivaUK!
Take a look, donate, and share: tinyurl.com/dy9wjrca
@Crowdfunder @RSPBEngland @WWFUnitedKingdom
#SaveOurWildIsles
You helped us survive - and thrive!
It’s been a while since you supported us - please take a moment to read how your timely contribution helped us go on to deliver our most incredible years of nature-connection for urban children yet.
In 2021 we ran 593 transformational nature-based sessions to support physical and mental wellbeing after lockdowns. We reached over 4,336 people, mainly children living in Islington and Hackney. In 2022 we delivered 1,240 sessions to 13,341 people. In short, we've more than doubled our impact thanks in no small part to you!
Our sessions included:
- Supporting parents and carers and encouraging outdoor and messy play through free and fun Little Explorers sessions for under 5s.
- Teaching children outside of the classroom in hands-on and illuminating curriculum-linked lessons.
- Inspiring a love of learning and of nature through weekly Urban Forest School sessions for class groups.
- Building confidence, relationships and resilience in urban school children with life-changing countryside residential trips to Kent and the South Downs.
- Improving urban green spaces for us all to enjoy through community gardening projects.
- Training adults in Forest School education, beekeeping and other outdoor skills so we can amplify the physical and mental health benefits that a connection with nature can bring.
The pandemic has shown just how important spending quality time outdoors can be for health and wellbeing, and evidence of the link between nature-connection and mental health is gaining strength.
Despite these challenging times, we at the Garden Classroom have exciting plans ahead. If you’d like to hear about our work occasionally please sign up to our mailing list for quarterly updates on all our goings-on, including how you can get involved. You can do so here.
Thank you.
"We all know magic things happen when the Garden Classroom is around!" - Headteacher, Hackney
Nearly there!
We're at 85% of our target with just minutes to go. Please share our crowdfunder and help us reach our target.
Thank you so much for all your support to our charity The Garden Classroom. With your help we will adapt our services to reach more disadvantaged urban children who have been greatly affected by being locked in confined spaces, many without green spaces, gardens or balconies. Connecting children to nature has proven mental health and well-being benefits. Our crowdfunder will help the team support many more vulnerable young people in our community to overcome the negative impact of Covid-19. Never has it been more vital.
We've now hit 70% of our target!
Thank you so much to everyone who has helped support The Garden Classroom's fundraiser.
We have now hit 70% of our target but still need help getting over the finish line. Please do spread the word and keep sharing our fundraising page if you can.
We really want to be able to adapt our service to support children's mental health and wellbeing post lockdown.
On behalf of the whole team thank you for supporting our charity The Garden Classroom during this difficult and uncertain time.
Please support The Garden Classroom, a small charity working to connect urban children, families and community to nature.
For over 10 years the charity has grown, delivering over 2,500 sessions of outdoor learning activity to over 75,000 disadvantaged urban children and their families. Over the last few weeks we’ve lost all of our traded income during our peak period of educational delivery. This has major implications and impacts on our ability to keep the charity alive and to keep the unique team we’ve grown, trained and nurtured for over a decade.
Right now during lockdown there is a greater understanding of the importance of connecting to nature. Our charity works hard to ensure that the most disadvantaged in our society have access to the health and wellbeing benefits of urban green spaces.
Can you donate and help us survive the impact of COVID-19? With your help we will be ready to support our community when they need us most.
About The Charity
The Garden Classroom (TGC) grew out of the needs of its local community. Islington has the least open access green space per resident of any borough in the country except the City of London. This, plus fear of crime, social and economic pressures meant that families were not using the parks and a generation of children were growing up without gaining the physical, educational, social and health benefits of connecting with the natural world. TGC started small, working with one Islington primary school in 2008. Now it regularly works with some forty primary schools in several London boroughs on a wide variety of programmes and has reached over 75,000 beneficiaries.
About Our Work with Children
TGC mainly works alongside primary schools so that all children have an equal opportunity to get into nature. The main education programme offers half-day curriculum-linked education sessions taught in parks and gardens close to schools. This means that no time is wasted on travel and it increases the awareness of school staff and pupils of the opportunities for teaching outdoors on their doorsteps. Some of the education programmes, such as The Wonderful World of Bees, have been so popular that they regularly have waiting lists. TGC also offers a teacher training CPD programme which is customised to meet the outdoor learning aspirations of individual schools.
Over the past 11 years TGC has continued to respond to the needs of schools. When teachers reported that their pupils were arriving at school stressed and unhappy TGC developed an urban version of the Forest School programme which is proven to have very positive benefits to children’s mental health. Teachers are finding that weekly half-day sessions discovering nature in a local park, led by a qualified TGC practitioner, are changing the attitude and behaviour of some of the neediest children. An invitation from a farming family in Kent to use some of their land to give London children a day in the countryside has grown from extended day visits to a five-week camping programme. This is a magical experience for disadvantaged urban children and one they describe as “so beautiful, everything you ever dreamed of”.
Our Community Work
TGC reaches out to the wider community with programmes such as Green Walks, Little Explorers, a regular nature discovery drop-in for parent/carers and toddlers, holiday clubs and free community events in parks and gardens. Recently TGC joined Islington and Camden Health Authority as a stakeholder partner in piloting the council’s ‘green social prescribing’ service to create healthier parks.
Our 'Green' Experiences, Events and Courses
In 2020 TGC has launched the first inner London training centre for teachers who want to train in Forest Schools or other aspects of outdoor learning. The training centre will also offer individuals who are interested in ‘green’ knowledge and crafts including forest bathing, meditation, Nordic Walking and botany drawing, giving residents an opportunity to have these experiences in beautiful outdoor spaces close to their homes.
Our Impact
TGC has a clear ambition and impact statement: Children and young people in England’s diverse communities are empowered to lead healthy and happy lives through curiosity, respect and care for our natural world. As Sir David Attenborough said, “No one will protect what they don’t care about and no one will care about what they have never experienced”. By giving urban children regular opportunities to learn outdoors and immersing them in urban parks, woodlands, forests and the countryside TGC is creating a generation which will care about nature and protect it and nature in its turn would add immeasurably to their health and happiness throughout their lives.
Activity
The Garden Classroom
15th May 2023Posted a new update on HELP TGC SUPPORT CHILDREN'S MENTAL HEALTH
The Garden Classroom
5th January 2023Posted a new update on HELP TGC SUPPORT CHILDREN'S MENTAL HEALTH
Anonymous – £5 + an est. £1.25 in Gift Aid
11th July 2021
Anonymous – £20
4th January 2021
Anonymous – £100 + an est. £25.00 in Gift Aid
24th August 2020
Anonymous – £100 + an est. £25.00 in Gift Aid
3rd August 2020