It was Back 2 Skool for five cheery GoodGymers on Saturday morning, as we met at Hampton Hill Junior School to respond to the headmaster’s call for help painting the picnic benches in the playground, which we’re looking a little worn out and for which there was no budget for replacements.

It was a bright morning as we met with Annie, the staff member on site, who showed us to our task. The benches were on the far side of the playground under a canopy, with paint and brushes ready to go.

We soon realised that there were far too many benches (twelve!) for us to paint them fully, so we decided to concentrate on the tops and seats which were most worn and where the impact of our work would be most seen.

Like good parliamentarians we started on the front benches and worked our way to the back, even if some of us felt more attention should be paid to the back benches nowadays ;-) The paint was a little on the thin side but there wasn’t enough time to do a second coat, so we informed Annie we would be very happy to come back for a follow up session.

Before we went we did have time to give a little TLC to a planter with seats, which was looking very tatty before we gave it a splash of paint. It was left looking fittingly grand in its spot by the art block.

We gathered in the sunshine for a group photo before Sam and JP left the benches for the pitch (heading up to north London to see the Arsenal Women dispatch their local rivals Spurs and salute some of our Euro-winning Lionesses) while the rest of the gang headed off to various Saturday pursuits which don’t lend themselves as easily to more bench-related puns.