Melbourne Primary School is a community which values the outdoors. They are extremely lucky to have a vast outdoor space and would like to develop the area further to provide the community with a ‘Forest School’ experience. The Forest school will consist of a specially designed classroom at the bottom of the school playing field. With space for seating, equipment and outdoor clothing so that it can be used throughout the year.

Friends of Melbourne School, a registered not for profit charity, are supporting the school and this project by raising funds. This charity was set up and is run by volunteers from the school community, namely parents and teachers. We raise funds throughout the school year by organising events for the school community. All monies raised go back into the school community to benefit each and every child within the school.

The aims of the Forest School project are all child-centred. Forest school activities provide opportunities for visual, auditory and kinaesthetic learning. Forest school activities are flexible, enabling all children to achieve with a degree of challenge, building confidence and self esteem whilst encouraging perseverance that will help to build resilience. The aim is also to teach the children about the environment and more specifically their local environment. A driver for pushing forward the development of the Forest School is to support children’s mental health and well-being – an issue of high importance within the current climate.

Despite the challenges faced during this past year our Forest School fundraising efforts have been really successful. We tried to think of new COVID safe ways to raise funds. We have a monthly “Prize Draw”, we encourage recycling through “Bags 4 School”, for Christmas we sold personalised Baubles and we held an Advent raffle.

Through these fundraising efforts we have almost raised the amount budgeted to complete the wooden structure and seating. However we need a final push of fundraising to complete the project. We now need funds to cover a concrete base for a new storage shed; wood stain for the structure as well as all of the smaller "Kit" items to enhance the children's learning and fun whilst enjoying the forest school; some examples of the items we now require are as follows:

All in one Waterproofs for the children to use, an Equipment Cart to move the equipment the children will use , Children's Rigger gloves, Talking Tube Phones, Bug Viewers & pots which are an essential to see all the mini beasts in our environment, Pocket Binoculars , Hammocks, First Aid Kits, Fire Safety Kit, etc. All of this requires funding we do not yet have however the build is about to commence and will be underway during the Easter holidays. Therefore we are setting up this page to raise the shortfall so that when the structure is ready the children can begin using it straight way.

Justgiving is waiving its platform fees for community and charity crowdfunding projects during the coronavirus crisis, making this the perfect time to push ahead and raise as much money as we can for the Forest School. Please share this page far and wide with family, friends and businesses.

Many Thanks for your support,

Miss Agnetha Dobson (Treasurer of Friends of Melbourne School)

Friends of Melbourne School is a registered Charity (No: 1180247) and all funds raised through this page will be paid directly into The Friends of Melbourne School bank account and will go towards completing the Forest School project.