At this month's session at Holy Trinity Lamorbey Primary School, the fading daylight meant recent outdoor tasks gave way to a new indoor project - painting a well-used communal area.

With only 50 minutes in hand, our team focused on a single wall. Protective floor coverings were carefully laid to save the carpet from splashes - none of us are decorating professionals after all! Kam even took off his black his trainers to avoid paint-splatter. Wise move!

Then some of us set to work with brushes to define edges around skirtings, noticeboards, ceiling and corners. Others got a great arm workout with rollers - gliding fresh paint over the tired surfaces.

The change from cream to... cream... was subtle but it was nice to see the wall looking brighter.

Often the worst part of painting is cleaning the rollers and brushes afterwards, but luckily for us the school's site manager said he would do that. Happy days!

The work continues next month. Come along and join us to help make a difference in this lovely school.

This morning we gave the big conifer outside Danson House a proper makeover. First we battled through lots of very spiky plants, then spread a fresh circle of mulch all around the tree. It now looks brilliant – like it’s ready for a photo shoot!

We also collected a huge 29 bags of wilted grass, weeds and rubbish. The area looks so much tidier, and the tree is definitely the star of the show.

Well done team – spades, mulch and teamwork made the magic happen!

This was my 1st time volunteering at Parkrun, I thought I'd be stuck but everyone was super supportive and helpful and I got a hang of the way the app and scanning works quickly thanks to the help of other volunteers. My favourite aspect was the sense of community.