Gainsborough school officially opens its new outdoor area for pupils

St. George's Church of England Community Primary School has officially opened its new ‘BaseCamp’.

The area has three zones within it, the fitness zone which includes an assault course, table tennis tables and an outdoor gym, the second zone includes a large stage for outdoor plays and performances and even some outdoor band equipment and the third area includes a wooden classroom, a story-telling zone and several bird tables.

Katie Barry, headteacher, said: “This initiative has come at an ideal time for the school as latest government advice dictates that as much learning as possible should be done outside.

"We already had two woodland areas for our youngest children but key stage two needed their own area; hence the creation of BaseCamp.

“We were delighted to welcome our guests from Gainsborough Trinity FC as our VIPs at the opening ceremony and Richard Kane kindly cut the red ribbon for us.

“One of our curriculum drivers at school is “Healthy Body, Healthy Mind”, so our children are certainly getting to experience that.

“The feedback from parents has been very positive, too, and they seem delighted at this new addition when they came to our open days.”

The schoolis having two new mobile classrooms delivered next week to help reduce class sizes and implement social distancing.

Mrs Barry said: “The reason for this is so that we can significantly reduce the number of children in each class bubble – they will now have approximately only 20 children in them instead of 30, some of the smallest class sizes in the whole country.

“This will help in our fight against Covid-19 and is also a significant learning opportunity."

Lessons started back at the school in Lindsey Close, Gainsborough, on September 7.