On a blustery Saturday morning 6 GoodGym volunteers went to Three Ways School in Odd Down to help them maintain their grounds. The school is for young children with special educational needs and their outdoors area always needs care and attention. It was a fantastic team effort and we got loads done in the time we were there.

We helped in three main ways:

#1 - Leafing the rest behind: clearing away dead leaves

Since the trees started shedding their leaves in autumn piles of slippery leaves have been building up around the walkways, in the car park and on the flower beds. By clearing away the leaves onto the compost heap we have made the space cleaner and safer. Also, by exposing the flower bed, and then turning over the soil, we made space for the children to plant some spring bulbs later in the year.

#2 - Scraping moss like a boss: clearing weeds from the paths

We got down on our hands and knees and scraped away the moss and other green weeds that have been growing under the damp autumn leaf blanket. This was making the pathway really slippery and quite unsightly. We scraped and brushed and left it in a much cleaner state.

#3 - Pick of the litter: clearing and bagging litter from the grounds

Finally, we filled two bin bags with litter that has blown into the car park and the outdoor space. It looked so much cleaner when we left! Some of the stranger things we found included some clear plastic balls and Christmas decorations!

Some comments from our newer runners:

"It was great everybody was there on time and we got stuck in and we all worked as team and we accomplished our mission."

Thanks to everyone who came and made the morning a success and thanks to Roz and the team at Three Ways School for hosting us and giving up their Saturday morning to facilitate us. Hopefully we will return to help again in some capacity soon!