We spent a very lovely day in the Autumnal soft sunshine planting and tending to previously planted baby hedge trees. a massive thank you to everyone who participated, Frome Rotary Club and volunteers both 'new' and 'old'. see you on the 21st of November for more....we still have a lot of trees to get in the ground before the end of March next year
Nestled in the valleys of Chesterblade Hills is the Green Heart Space.
It’s a quiet field, partway between Frome and Glastonbury, where the Shared Earth Learning co-op gathered (covid safely) for a day away from our usual site, to reflect on an interesting year, get to know each other better, and start making plans for next year.
First off; thanks to Chesterblade Hills! They put a competition on social media, inviting local community groups to enter for the chance to win a day’s use of the Green Heart Space and our proposed ‘away day’ for our Forest School co-op won. (and nice one for entering us Jenny: Ed.)
The Shared Earth Learning workers co-operative includes qualified and trainee Forest School leaders, and part time volunteers with other jobs and responsibilities, so it took months to find a date that worked for us all, but finally we made it to the Green Heart Space on a sunny Saturday in October for our ‘corporate style’ forest school away day.
The space (and weather) was ideal for an outdoor meeting; it’s where SELco loves to be and we were able to freely discuss some of the difficulties and highlights we’ve faced this year, as well as make decisions, chat through our plans and share worries as we whittled wands, sharpened knives, played games and ate lovely food.
Our co-op has grown quite quickly over the past two years, and we are offering more hours and sessions of forest school, (soon-to-be play rangers) and outdoor wellbeing groups than ever before. Our priority is working together to help nurture a love of nature in our community.
We’d like to thank: Children’s World charity, The Somerset Community Foundation, the Rotary Club of Frome and The Rune Tree Press for funding support this year.
And we could not have achieved the many hours of outdoor learning and well-being sessions that Shared Earth Learning has delivered without support from Vallis Veg, Purple Elephant, Somerset Community activity and Inclusion Team, The Frome Learning Partnership and anyone who has attended any of our volunteer work days. (forgive us if we haven’t mentioned you and you’ve supported us).
And we’d like to thank Chesterblade for the free use of the Green Heart Space. We can thoroughly recommend it for when a team needs to take time out in nature, to rest and reflect.
Find out more about Shared Earth Learning on our blog and Facebook page.
Volunteer day: Saturday 3rd October, 11am until 4pm.
Please come and help us get our site ready for winter. (but please bring your own refreshments ).
Tree Planting: Saturdays 7th & 21st of November 10am until 3pm
(or some part).
A
All you need is some clothes that don't matter, sturdy footwear, gloves if
you can, a mug for hot drinks and some food if you are staying for lunch.
SELco will provide the tools, trees and hot water for drinks.
Please let us know if you are interested in coming to anyone of the above days
A LITTLE SELco NEWSLETTER
Autumn is here - those sweaty hot days already just a memory; things change, and fast, not just in nature, but on our site and in our collective…
So first, let’s celebrate 5 weeks of wonderful sessions of holiday Forest school which have involved almost 60 children this summer holiday and countless adults. Thank you: to all participants who have made our summer at such a pleasure, to Vallis Veg for the ongoing support and use of their site, to those who have sanded, painted, weeded, constructed our new compost loo, who have volunteered and generally helped us all out, to Somerset Cooperative Services, and to Children’s world charity, SCCV and the Rotary club for financial support.
Our site is ever evolving and this year saw us leaving our ‘home’ at the A-frame and moving permanently to our ‘top’ site by the woods next to our polytunnel, this was to separate ourselves from the popular Vallis Veg campsite which has been operating at full capacity this year.
Our new loo, needs a paint job and there is always work to be done on the land (weeding, digging, woodchipping paths etc..) not to mention planting and caring for the baby trees along the footpath to the site so come and join us. We’ll be holding lots of irregular ‘volunteer days’ as we need the help. The next one is this coming Monday the 31st August. 11 am until 4pm.
Please email us if you intend to join so we know how many biscuits to get in.
News on our collective: We sadly bid farewell to Helen Moore, with many thanks for all her hard work and creative input since the early days of SELco, and we're very happy to welcome Hannah Doe who has recently joined and a big hoorah to Sam and Ginny who will be holding future Monday SELGrow sessions for adults.
We are always keen to welcome people (volunteers, level 3 leaders, trainees, fundraisers?) who share our aims and have a proactive attitude.
Photos on Facebook: See snapshots from August, including images of the new compost loo here: https://www.facebook.com/Share
We are constantly working on the structure of our co-op to make it the best ever co-op with which to work.
If this sounds like something you would like to be more involved in, get in touch.
Find out more about how we work on our blog.
https://sharedearthlearning.
With warmest regards for now,
Alex Hart on behalf of SELco
The Nature Premium Campaign | A national campaign catalysed by the FSA
Calling for a Nature Premium to fund regular nature experiences for every child. #NaturePremium
We believe that the Nature Premium will address children's mental health, physical well-being and behaviour decline problems in education resulting from COVID-19.
To find out more look here> and sign our petition here
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TREE PLANTING ALONG THE EAST MENDIP WAY, 14th MARCH, 2020
