Children at Poynton’s Vernon Primary School celebrated on 3rd July as The Mayor of Poynton, Councillor Tony Hall, together with his daughter Samantha (a Year 6 pupil at Vernon), opened their new outdoor classroom. Joining the pupils were teachers, parents, governors and fundraisers who had all played an important role installing the outdoor classroom. The pupils and staff are all looking forward to taking their learning outside.
The outdoor classroom comes as part of the £6 million Supergrounds programme which has already transformed over 500 school grounds across the country. ‘RBS Supergrounds’ is led by The Royal Bank of Scotland Group and is managed by the national school grounds charity Learning through Landscapes with local support from environmental charity Groundwork.
RBS Supergrounds was developed to strengthen the ties between company staff and their communities by staff being responsible for nominating schools they are involved with. Out of the Supergrounds schools that have already been transformed, 77% claim their new school grounds have had a huge impact on pupils, with a large majority seeing a surge in activity and an improvement in attitudes towards learning. Vernon Primary School became involved with the scheme through Philippa Smith from the Royal Bank of Scotland, who is a parent at the school.
Mrs Smith said: “As a parent I know how important it is for children to learn from our natural environment and I’m really proud that the Bank, through RBS Supergrounds, has helped Vernon Primary School install this outdoor classroom for the pupils.”
Mrs Joanne Glimmerveen, Head teacher, said: “We are thrilled with our new outdoor classroom. As a school we have worked together to develop a fantastic learning environment for their pupils. It is so important to take the children outside to learn, as we know it increases their motivation and achievement.”
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| The Official Opening! |
