St George’s School – Grant Story

St George’s School – Grant Story

St George’s School in Hyde received a grant of £500 from The Running Bee Foundation

Below are some words from St George’s on what they plan to do with their grant

The grant will be invaluable in providing opportunities for families to access trips and visits in the future – we would be unable to do this without the generous grant that we received, however it is currently ringfenced within our budget as we are unable to offer these opportunities under current lockdown restrictions, and the restrictions that Tameside have been under since the pandemic began really.  We are looking forward to it, and had shared information with parents who were keen to be involved prior to lockdown. Trips and transport had been organised for May 2020.  Hopefully Summer 2021 now.

At St George’s we are working hard with the children to teach the Five Ways to Wellbeing – Give, Connect, Notice, Be Active and New Learning.  Even during lockdown we are promoting each of these areas within their weekly learning.  Our aim now is spread this message further to support our families in the community to promote positive mental health and wellbeing by educating them in the Five Ways to Wellbeing.  We are looking forward to spending the grant money on coach hire and trips within the local area to encourage families to spend time outdoors with each other – to Connect, Notice and Be Active when it is safe to do so with the aim that they will use these trips to plan future outdoor activities of their own.  In the meantime, we are using Google Classrooms and our website, alongside door step visits to our children and their families to encourage them to take photos on their daily exercise to share with us, to bake together, to try new learning and to take advantage of the technology we have and are providing to face time and zoom school staff and family members and join in with our daily virtual PE sessions.

The photo above is from one of the activities that we started with parents pre COVID.  They were around Connect, Notice and Be Active.  A lot of our families have difficulties with mental health and wellbeing and these activities were planned and organised to support families (parents of our children in particular) to become more aware of their mental wellbeing and things they could do to promote more positive mental health and well being.  It was before social distancing was the norm!  We are planning to continue these weekly groups when we are able, and to organise the larger activities with the grant money when it is safe to do so.