Creating an all year round accessible Nature Trail

On the initial site visit, the school had all sorts of ideas for sand play, a new structure, a new shed and so on.  The field was inaccessible during wet weather and for the whole of the winter.  While the school’s ideas were all relevant, they were missing the one feature which would connect their ideas, as well as allowing all year access – they really needed to create an accessible pathway around the whole school field.  Once that was installed they could add any number of features as requirements & future budgets allowed.  The point is they would always have access all year, a ‘daily mile’ circuit and nature connections.

School funds were tight and so we suggested a ‘community working bee’  – parent volunteers coming along for a 9am-3pm session to rake, shovel, lift and install the paths under our supervision.  We prepared the surface and had materials delivered on a Friday and next day, around 30 adults and children turned up to save many ££’s in contracted labour.  Read the testimonial below for the headteacher Gillian’s synopsis…