Just before the children broke up from school the children at Gossops Green Community Primary School were treated to some special DIY.
Headed up by Neal Allison and his team from The Apollo Group once again came up trumps for the school (some may remember the write up on the school play area at GGCPS. Apollo were the company who donated their time to install the play area to help the school <click here to see the write up>), now, with their bird box programme. Neal told us “it’s a great programme. We take our our old wood and pallets and give them to Mencap who then make them into easy to assemble flat packed bird boxes. We then buy them back. This helps us with the programme and gives Mencap some much needed funds as well as being proactive. It’s good for them, good for us, and great for the environment”. We asked Neal what the children think of it. Neal said “the children love building the bird boxes. They love to take them home to put up in their garden. It’s also good exposure to simple power tools, especially safety wise, at a young age”.
Pictures:
Crawley Happy Times popped in to watch the bird boxes being put together. We were most impressed with the patience and expertise of the children. Mrs Martin, Head of GGCPS was very pleased with the programme and welcomed Neal and his team with open arms.
We took some footage of the children whilst putting together the bird boxes who accomplished a massive twenty four very attractive looking bird boxes.
Video:
If you would like to know more about this programme and many other community programmes run by The Apollo Group please feel free to visit their website here.
Claire Mowl-Seegobin is an independent Usborne representative who is making it her mission to assist children of all ages to improve their reading and writing.
Claire is currently heading a project on behalf of Gossops Green Primary School in association with Usborne. Usborne are a worldwide publishing company who supply books for home, schools and libraries Usborne will donate 60% of the total sales over £500 in extra books to Gossops Green Primary School. In real terms this would mean if every parent with a child at the school, donated £1.50, this would give an estimated total of £723. Usbornes would then donate and extra £433 in books making a total of £1156 for the school. All this from a simple £1.50 donation, astonishing!
Claire is going one better than this by actually donating 15% of her own earnings to any individual who wishes to purchase additional books for a child personally. All they need do is email Claire and inform her the value of their order.
Companies or individuals can either donate a sum or purchase books on Gossops Green Primary Shcool’s behalf to which Usborne will donate a percentage to the school for more books.
Claire told us this would be easily achievable for most schools in our area if companies were to get involved and make a donation of some kind. Do you think your school could benefit from such a project?
An average book from Usbornes costs just £5.99. The books are all extremely good value for money and very educational. Children respond to the books extraordinarily well because of their irresistible content – humour, colour, surprise and originality.
If you would like your school to get involved and benefit from Claire’s and Usborne’s generosity, then please contact Claire directly via email claire.usbornebooks@googlemail.com or visit the website here.
Claire would also like to announce the FOGGS Xmas shopping night at Gossops Green Primary School is on Thursday 8th October from 19:00 till 21:00 (adults only). Entry is free.
If anyone would like to have a stand at this event the cost is £10 and a donation to the raffle. Please contact Crawley Happy Times on 01293 572182.
When Gossops Green Primary School had a meeting about an Ofsted report, one of the parents, went in support of her five year old son who is a pupil at the school. Who was this parent? Why, Shelley, the founder of the Crawley Happy Times of course! Shelley asked Mrs Martin, Head Mistress, why the playground had been shut for the year her [Shelley's] son, Logan, had attended in the reception year. The playground in question was for the reception classes; years one and two, but of course, being shut meant the young children had to play with the older ones (for the morning and afternoon breaks) who may play ‘harder’ than the little ones.
Mrs. Martin explained that the playground required some work to make it safe but they had run out of money due to excessive costs on various serious issues that had occured at the school. Shelley, being a local businesswoman, pointed out that she may know a few people (including herself) who would be willing to give up their time to help these children, if they were also able to raise some funds to pay for the necessary materials.
Before - Work in progress
Before - Dull and dangerous
Tangled web of shrubs
Shelley never one to welch on an offer, went to speak to her friends David and Tina Pring of D&T Properties to see if they would consider their time for free. David and Tina were more than willing to help out. The next step was to raise the money. Shelley had wanted to lose weight for some time, so decided to go on a sponsored diet to raise at least £1000 by shedding 3 stone. Shelley then wrote a letter to her local Council representative, Keith Blake, and got a reply from Henry Smith, Leader of West Sussex County Council, who explained it was more his jurisdiction and that he would see if he could arrange a meeting to discuss the possibility of funding.
David of D&T Properties cleaning up
Martin Toyne of Toyne Gardening
Martin hard at work
In June, Shelley met with Leigh Houlgrave and Peter Proudley in the school offices alongside Mrs. Martin and Tina. It was agreed the council would fund the project up to £2000 which would go with the £1000 Shelley had committed to raising through her sponsored diet. This was more than enough money to get the playground up to scratch and open for the children’s return to school in September.
After - Number Ladder
After - Martin's great work
All hands to the painting
August came and the work was under way. David and John of D&T Properties erected a wonderful wooden fence all the way around the playground, preventing any chance of the children playing on the concrete banks, safe from harm. Whilst David and John worked hard on this, Shelley and Tina set about painting the snakes and ladders and number games by hand so the children could see them properly and could play on them. They were so faded in places they were virtually non-existent! They even had help from Miss. Crawley (Natalie Fagence), who took time out to come and help. There was plenty of help in the form of our children too. Logan & Stacey (Shelley’s son and daughter) and Lilly (Tina’s daughter) both added their artistic skills with a paint brush. Shelley’s friend Rebecca Fuller was happy to help as her son is attending in September.
Nearly there!
The last finishing touches came from Martin of Toyne Gardening. Martin, a self employed gardener, donated his time to sort out the the shrubbery and the weeds and made the flower bed look a lot more inviting than the tangled mess which had presented itself previously. Shelley was there too, busily trimming the hedges around the top, sweeping up and generally making the playground look presentable for the children.
The end result is a fantastic playground with brightly coloured games, clean and tidy plants and, more importantly, a safe area for the young ones to play and learn freely without any chance of harm. We spoke to Mrs Martin who said “Shelley should be really proud of what she has accomplished here. Without Shelley’s determination and help from her friends, this would not have happened. It looks wonderful and the children love it”.
Finished Playground
After - Bright and beautiful!
After - Fenced off, safe for children to play & learn
Shelley has yet to complete her diet, but has just finished four weeks with Sussex Bootcamp and is feeling and looking great. Shelley is about to embark on another four weeks’ training regime on the 7th September at Hazelwick School. If anyone would like to join Shelley, please visit the website or call Ben Davis on 07832110311. We will be speaking more about that in the next couple of days. Please keep your eyes out for Shelley’s progress.
Crawley Happy Times would like to thank all the people who helped Shelley in this project. Shelley went on to tell us that if there are any other projects that need her attention, ask someone else, as she will be on holiday!
