Help us to support our children flourish into sociable, joyful and confident members of the community, who are both emotionally and physically healthy.
Like most schools, many of our pupils have been hit hard by the lingering after effects of Covid 19, and have had to cope with numerous unprecedented challenges:
- Many of our children missed out on valuable social interaction with their peers and wider community during lockdown and periods of isolation.
- Many children were unable to maintain healthy levels of physical exercise.
- Many children experienced emotional challenges from having no way to relieve stress and frustration of their situation.
- Some children have experienced bereavements and trauma.
This has left a large number of children struggling with underdeveloped social skills, low overall fitness levels, poor core strength, low levels of resilience, poor self confidence, and behavioral issues. This has a knock on effect on the children's ability to learn, as so many of our classroom based learning relies on working collaboratively.
Although we cannot change what has happened, we want to work hard to ensure children have access to the best possible provision in order to effectively support their recovery and skill development, so they can thrive in the face of adversity.
As part of this commitment to improving wellbeing, we have identified our EYFS and Key Stage 1 playground (at the front of the school) as one of the priority areas where we can make significant enhancements to the children's social and emotional experiences in our school.
Some of the areas we wish to improve are as follows:
- Resurfacing the playground - we want to ensure the playground is safe, visually appealing and represents the needs and interests of the children using it. We want there to be dedicated space where the children can run, roll, kneel, crawl, or skip without fear of injury or skidding, which will help enhance gross motor skills and general fitness levels.
- Buying large climbing equipment - this will support children gain valuable exercise and core strength building, whilst teaching the skills of cooperation, patience and resilience.
- Introducing a sensory garden - this will support children to connect with nature, and will provide a quiet space for reflection and relaxation.
- Creating quiet and cosy 'nook' spaces - this will give children dedicated spaces to engage with role play and small world play in smaller groups or independently. This will support the development of imaginative and creative play.
- Developing a stage area with seating - this will develop children's self confidence and creativity, and allow them time and space to work cooperatively with each other.
- Creating a pretend road - this will help us to encourage gross motor skills and turn taking, as children will be able to use physical resources such as scooters and bikes on the track.
We also have a survey where you can share your opinions and ideas on what else could be improved, accessible here https://forms.gle/ihqV1Q2Sj63t8yXn6 , and would welcome any support from the local community.
Creating something on this scale will take a huge amount of financial commitment, and our school budget is already incredibly overstretched. We receive very little funding to support us with projects like this, so we really need your help.
We hope that you understand the difference that this donation will make to our children's lives, and their overall health and wellbeing.
Thank you in advance!