It's good to be Gul-able

Following on from a successful application to Wiltshire Community Foundation, and with the support of the #iWill campaign established by HRH The Prince of Wales, students in Parks Class embarked on a journey to learn about their community, and help change it for the better.

Working with local outdoor therapy charity Gul, the students began a project to learn about social action, what it means to be in a community, what issues are most important to them, and most importantly what they can do to make a change.

Over the course of a full term, Parks Class students in Years 5 and 6 will be taking part in sessions and activities aimed at making a real difference to their community. The group has designed a project and voted as a class for their most important issues, they have solved challenges as a team and begun to be inspired about the practical ways they can make a difference.

Headteacher Emily Mullord says:

"The project kicked off with a fantastic session in the outdoors, where the entire Parks Class took part in challenges they had to work through as a team. They built towers, crossed shark-infested custard, and cooked sausages over an open fire.

"We then headed inside, designed our team emblem, and voted on it in a fantastic display of proportional representation.

"Next up was learning about social action and what issues motivated us, before the project shifted to deciding what we can practically do. Parks Class decided to choose littering as their major issue.

"Over the coming weeks, Parks Class will be writing to local politicians, creating an awareness campaign and setting up a fundraiser based around the issue of littering in Shrewton Village before launching their campaign in the New Year.

"The class has been amazing, with insightful remarks such as “the most important thing is friends coming together” and “community is ALL local people, not just the ones you see.”

"And incredible ideas for campaigning such as recording videos of purposeful littering to show how wrong it is and making picking up littering fun!

"I for one cannot wait to see the result of their hard work."