Hello,
In this newsletter we would like to tell you more about our big project this year, which is to install a woodland play area in the school’s garden. We also give you the latest FROGS news, including how much money we’ve raised recently, and how you can help at our next events.
GARDEN WOODLAND PLAY AREA
Why is this our next big project?
After feedback from the school, we’ve decided to focus our efforts on completing the garden where we recently installed an outdoor classroom. The garden is one of Grasmere’s most unique features, and the school is keen to have it look its best, and to allow the best play opportunity for the children. Outdoor play and access to nature are key to our children’s learning and wellbeing and we want to ensure that the space meets their needs and is full of greenery, but also tools to allow to play – and learn – differently.
Transforming it with a fun, interactive play area would also mean adding some wow factor for prospective parents (the school needs to stay full to stay open), and open up rental opportunities, as the school hopes to rent out the space to complement its budget.
How much?
Our first option for now is the locally based company Made From Scratch, who created the wonderful play structure in the KS1 playground. They have given us a minimum budget of £30,000 for a made-to-measure playground with input from the children through a series of workshops (£2,000) – most playgrounds they build are around £80-100,000.
To give you an idea of average costs, an medium size playground in the UK would normally cost between £50,000 and £70,000; a larger play and activity area for Key Stage 2 (including Climbing Platforms and Trim Trail items) generally costs between £70,000 and £160,000.
One of our volunteers is currently looking into several other companies, including Sovereign Play and Touch Wood, to make sure that we get the best quality and price for this project.
Which type of play equipment are we hoping to install?
In terms of priorities our wish list (agreed with the school) includes: a magnificent mud kitchen area as this is a favourite of all year groups; platforms around tree trunks and climbing elements (the old ones had to be removed as not safe anymore); a loose part play shed or Imagination Station containing bits and bobs to foster imaginative play such as den building; and also a outdoor resource shed for staff to help them take their class to the garden as often as possible.
The idea is not to take too much space with a giant structure, but to leave kids room to make up their own games, build things and use their imagination. We would also need to remove some of the kitchen garden beds (which don’t get enough light) to leave more space for kids to run around, and introduce herbs and bulbs and softer planting around the edges.
How can you help make this project a reality?
You can donate directly to our Woodland Play Area project here. £30,000 may sound like a big number, but if every Grasmere child helped fundraise £150 then we would hit our target and more. Obviously we don’t expect every family to donate such a sum, which is why we will be organising fundraisers throughout the year to raise money for the project.
We will add the proceeds from our garden party (see below) to this fund, and we will be voting at our next meeting to add some of our savings to the woodland play area pot. We are also looking for grants for this project, so please let us know if you can help with this.
Our other ideas in terms of fundraising are to organise a silent online auction using the GalaBid app, and to organise a rainbow raffle in the Spring term. As ever we run on parent power, so if you can help organise any of these please get in touch!
If you would like to be part of the team of volunteers who is working on this project, and more generally on greening up the school and adding trees, plants, shade etc in a sustainable and easily maintained way, please get in touch and we will add you to our dedicated FROGS Garden Whatsapp group.
GARDEN PARTY
Thank you so much to the handful of parents who attended our Garden Party, and to our volunteer organisers who helped make this a lovely evening! We raised nearly £300 for our garden play area project, and we hope to organise another garden party in the Spring.
Cake SaleS
Well done to Year 6 who raised £198 towards their upcoming trip to the Globe Theatre!
The next cake sale is the Year 5 cake sale this Friday 13 October. They will be raising money for a IMAX session during their trip to the Science Museum in October.
JUMBLE SALE
Thank you to everyone who donated, helped and bought stuff at the Jumble Sale: we raised £1,756.30 (and €1)! An excellent result, with further money coming from the sale of leftover books and clothes. Here’s the breakdown for each stall:
Toys & games: £350.61
Books: £180.71
Designer corner: £178.60
Adult clothes: £230.40
Children and baby clothes: £170.68
Bric-à-brac: £341.20
Soup, cakes and toasties: £304.10
If anyone who helped at a stall can match-fund through their company, please let us know.
Our next Jumble Sale will be in March 2024.
BONFIRE NIGHT DISCO
Our next event is the Bonfire night disco on Friday 3 November. We are hiring a DJ for this so please support us by buying a ticket (£2) from our online shop. Tickets will also be on sale on the day. This year we will have a schooltime session for the early years, and then at 3.30 everyone (including the early years if they would like to boogie some more!) is welcome on to the dance floor.
We will be selling sweets, snacks, candy floss and drinks in the kitchen. There will also be a bonfire and marshmallows in the garden until 6pm for those kids who would rather play outdoors.
If you can help for this event, whether it is decorating the hall in the afternoon, or running the kitchen stall, please sign up here, thank you!
WINTER FAIR
We are also planning our Winter Fair on Friday 8 December and need a volunteer organiser or two to help manage the event. It’s very easy to run as each year group has its own stall, but we need someone to oversee it and help with the setting up from 1pm and tidying up at the end. It would be great to get a couple of parents from KS1 involved! All the posters, sign up sheet etc will be done by the FROGS committee, and the class reps are in charge of the stalls, so it’s really just about being there on the day. Please get in touch on frogs.grasmere@gmail.com if you can help with this.
The volunteer sign up sheet is ready here, so you can already put your name down for a slot at the fair, which is our second big fundraiser of the year! Year groups are welcome to suggest other stall ideas of course.
We’ve also had an early delivery from Santa’s elves, so if you can help by wrapping grotto presents after half-term please let us know. We need at least 5 volunteers and lots of wrapping paper!
Please look out for our next newsletter which will introduce our Tesco Stronger Start campaign and the launch of our seasonal shop with lots of Grasmere T-shirts and sweaters! Also coming up are our Christmas Card project, and Christmas trees order.
Thank you and take care,
FROGS