Monday 14th September
Report written by Anastasia Hancock (she/her)
Our task last night was a local nursery for under-fives, a fantastic facility that provides outdoor spaces to enhance the children's learning experience. There was plenty to do, and not much time to do it - so after a few stretches and a quiz question featuring the iconic golden arches (which Lorna nailed on her very first group run!) we set off for Balham.
A massive special welcome to Andreas and trivia master Lorna, who joined us for their first GoodGym experience last night, and a welcome back to Harriet. It was absolutely great to have you all with us, and we hope to see you for many more.
We divided and conquered to tackle all the jobs. One team repainted the benches in bright, vibrant colours to cheer up the welcome area, while another transformed the outdoor chalkboard to give the kids a fresh surface for their creations. We also cleared out the mud kitchen, sorted out the flower beds, cut back overgrown trees and bushes to reclaim the pathways, and took down the last of the summer bunting. The latter wasn't quite as straightforward as it first looked, taking the collective detangling skills of Robyn, Pritesh, Lorna and Beth to release the material. If you were watching at just the right moment you may have caught Beth speeding down the slide in a moment of post-bunting glory. And it was great to see Jason debut his brand new 100 tshirt!
Natasha, the head of the nursery, was thrilled with the transformation. She let us know that our evening of hard work saved the nursery loads of time and money, allowing them to focus resources directly on the children.
With the autumn nights drawing in we made a quick dash to Clapham Common for the fitness element of the night. We tackled a fitness blast specifically focusing on three different muscle groups. Everybody showed great form as we worked through arms, core and glutes before heading back to base for some thorough stretches.
Up next:this Wednesday we have a lovely evening mission over in Roehampton, helping to build raised beds for a fantastic local food-sharing initiative. For next Monday, I am just waiting to confirm the final details for our task—keep an eye on the website sign-up page. Great work everybody, see you at the next one!
This nursery school is a state nursery school for under 5s with a large garden to the rear. The top part of the garden is overgrown. The area needs to be cleared so we can then use it to do 'forest school' activities outside with the children. Many of the children don't have the opportunity to do such activities in their homes. We need lots of physical help and it would be great to have this done so the back of the garden can be used this summer. It needs to happen at a week-end when the children are not using the school.
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