Therfield First School receives our Community Grant

We loved visiting Therfield First School to find out how they were going to invest our £500 Community grant

We were also really pleased that The Royston Crow generously shared the story in their print edition

Lucille Shears from The Accountancy Practice spent a fascinating hour at Therfield First School last week when head teacher, Tara McGovern, and forest school leader/wellbeing mentor Charlotte Oram, showed her around the school grounds and explained how the latest £500 Community Grant fund award would be used.
“We’re already a school that has an embedded ethos of learning outside. And we have been delivering weekly Forest School sessions for a number of years. But what we really wanted to do, and particularly in light of COVID and some children returning to school with some extra anxiety, was further develop our outside areas and our Forest School provision.
We have to self fund these projects and wanted to develop some spaces that our children could use during playtimes and lunchtimes as we really recognise the benefit for children of connecting with nature for their well being” explains head teacher Tara McGovern.
Charlotte Oram, who leads the weekly Forest School and Wellbeing mentor in the school explained that the grant funding would be used to develop a sensory path for the pupils.
“We have already created a treasure island sand pit, large digging site, den building area, hideouts and a magical fairy garden. The sensory path will connect all of the areas together. The path will include bark, stepping stones, archway and bridge, whilst being lined each side with different herbs and flowers.”
Tara McGovern concludes “As a school, we are very passionate about the benefits of outdoor learning. Not only does the outdoors provide a real-life learning context for a range of lessons, but specifically we recognise the benefits to children’s mental health when they connect with nature. Supporting the mental health of our school community is one of our highest priorities. We have an embedded culture of teaching mindfulness, led by a specialist practitioner and a number of our pupils choose to spend their outside play times in our newly developed areas or in our mindfulness garden. Happy children = happy learners”
“We are exceptionally grateful to The Accountancy Practice for helping us to bring our vision to life.”