On a cold evening, three goodgymers met to put up the Christmas tree and decorations at a local school. This is the fourth time that we have been on tree patrol at Herbert Thompson School, with the first Christmas mission back in 2018 and a total of 7 missions to date.

This year, we had new decorations for the tree in a classic white and silver. And some free standing, light up decorations for the corridors.

So, to WORK

We got straight in to filling the gaps in the tree by rearranging the branches, before getting the new lights ready to twinkle around the tree. As the baubles were new there was a bit of extra work to do, removing tags so we got to work on that before 'blinging' the tree.

In just under an hour we were all done.

Until NEXT Year

As the evening's get darker, there is nothing better than a mission to decorate a Christmas tree. 5 eager volunteers from goodgym, made their ways to 'Herbert Thompson Primary School' to put up the tree and get it decorated ready for the morning.

What had been a regular task that we had to lose during the lockdowns, was today a treat to bring back. There will be more themed tasks coming up so keep an eye on the list online.

With the music playing some lovely festive tunes, we got to work decorating the tree. It was a great chance to catch up, talk about the social next week at Winter Wonderland (ice-skating optional).

In just over an hour we were done and ready to head home for our dinners.

"... Goodgym sent to meeee"

9 goodgym runners

8 metres of lighting

7 silver baubles

6 folded stages

5 SPARKLY STARS

4 staff tables

3 bobble hats

2 rooms transformed

And a great surprise for HT primareee

Following Fiona's 100th and Lucy's 50th Parkrun- congrats guys- 7 Cardiff Goodgym runners went back to school.

Lucy, Fiona, Aimee, Charlotte, Adam, Emily and Emma attended Herbert Thompson Primary School in Cardiff to help set up their new allotment. Luckily the beautiful Welsh weather was on their side and it was all hands to the pump following an introduction to the school by headteacher Sheena.

Adam set straight to cutting back the greener to clear the space and create new plants. Whilst Aimee, Lucy and Emily painted the new shed, doing an amazing job and really brightening it up. Emma and Charlotte took to painting the tyres which were soon to be vegetable planters created by Fiona. The tyres will bring a splash of colour to the allotment.

The group nearly had a new member in the form of Robin (luckily he had his red t shirt on ready to go). However the friendly Robin was unable to assist with the painting and instead supervised Adam clearing the ground around the rockery.

All done, the group cleared the area and prior to setting off, everyone assembled in the head teacher's office, not to be told off but to boost their energy for the return journey with some flapjacks (made by Fiona-thank you) and squash.

The group set off ready for more missions over the bank holiday.

Report written by Emma

Precisely five in fact! Snow more, snow less. Yes, five of us: Martin, Fiona, Nic, Nathan and me, sled on over to Herbert Thompson primary school (where Fiona is a teacher) to help get things ready for CHRISTMAS!!!

But first, a very apropos pun that yule laugh out loud to: What was Santa’s favourite subject in school? Chemistree of course!

“But what about the task?”, I hear you ask. First, Nathan and Martin G set up the stage sections in the auditorium for the school's Christmas performance. They both got stuck in very quickly, and didn't make a scene.

Out in the school foyer, Fiona, Nic and Ellen started to put up the school's Christmas tree. There were so many lights and baubles to trim the tree with, that soon both Nathan’s and Martin’ presents were required.

In less than one hour the five nimble GoodGym elves finished trimming the tree in a very tasteful white and purple/mauve colour scheme. But were the Christmas tree lights working? On and off

But wait, there’s myrrh!: What did the English teacher call Santa’s helpers? Subordinate clauses!

On a hot and sticky Thursday afternoon, three keen Goodgym runners met at Herbert Thompson Primary school for a spot of flat pack furniture fun.

They were met by Goodgym Cardiff's very own Miss Fiona Guy, a teacher at the school and quickly taken to her classroom to begin work. She explained that there were three bookcases to assemble as well as a sofa and that the furniture going into her room would be part of her new blended learning area which allows the pupils to learn in different ways.

Lucy and Darren sprang into action getting stuck into the assembly of the first bookcase. The box was opened, the components sorted into piles and the instruction manual located. Lucy got the first two pieces and the screws to hold them and put them together only to be told by Darren one piece was the wrong way up! It was unscrewed and put back together the other way only for us later to discover that it didn't matter which way up it was after all. After the false start things sped up. Dowels were hammered in and pieces pushed together - we were the furniture assembly dream team.

One bookcase down we moved onto the second identical one. Having already made one you would think we would fly through the assembly of this one. But alas, one of the holes hadn't been drilled out properly so a bit of unscrewing had to happen to allow Darren to use the screw to make the hole bigger so the bookcase could be completed. Ta-dah!

Feeling pleased with our efforts we took a short break for some water and a biscuit (and to stop giggling at all the innuendos that building flat pack furniture had thrown up! Good job the children had gone home).

With the arrival of Nathan, there was hope of order being restored and it was time for the sofa construction. Things went well with Darren and Nathan attaching the arms and the upper part to the base and Lucy took on the role of screwing the two together laying across the floor. The sofa cover was added and after a search under the sofa for the securing loops (see the attached photo where none of us have a head) it was complete. We carried it into position and then tested it out all sitting on the sofa together for a photo. Fiona was thrilled with the new sofa and said the children will love it tomorrow and that she couldn't wait to see their reaction.

Our final bookcase of the day was a smaller one than we had already made but this one was for the headteacher Mrs Marsh's office. It was a race against time to get it finished before we needed to leave but we all worked together and got the job done. Mrs Marsh was really pleased with her new piece of furniture and thanked us for our hard work.

Avoiding a detention, despite Darren having a play with the school crossing patrol lollipop stick, we were ready to leave. We said goodbye to Fiona and she thanked us for our help.

This was a fantastic community mission that will make a difference to the learning environment of the pupils at the school and one of the most enjoyable tasks I have done with Goodgym … what a fab team we made!