Teens help create sensory garden at primary school

NCS students, Jessica Smith, left and Jess Gibbard keep Martha Hill, 5, and her 3 year old sister Edith, amused in the sand pit during their visit to the revamped allotment site.

The project was all part of the National Citizens Service (NCS) programme which is a four week project run by a series of charities, college consortia and Voluntary, Community, Social Enterprise (VCSE) and private sector partnerships across England. for young people between 15 and 17-years-old.

Jess Gibbard said: “Parish Church Primary School were our hosts and were nice enough to allow us to use the school as a base for planning and facilities.

“So to repay the school we had been asked to create a sensory garden and tidy their allotment to provide a creative area for learning.

“Most of our fundraising took place in the first week where we harvested the vegetables and sold them in Marshall’s Yard and delivered them to elderly care homes and horse stables where they kindly donated to our cause.

“We were able to raise around £50 from this.

“We then also took advantage of the chance to bag pack at Morrisons where we were lucky enough to raise just more than £300 and Morrisons were also extremely kind to offer us £25 worth of donations.

“In the second week was where the actual construction of our sensory garden began and each pair was given a specific task to complete and then all round finishing work to achieve what I would say was a successful project.”

There are six starting dates for the NCS programme throughout the summer which consists of a week of adventure based activities.

Jess added: “For our group this was at PGL Caythorpe and then a week of student life at the university of Nottingham.

“The final two weeks are in our local area either fundraising for a charity or in our case creating or renovating and area for a host provider.”