Supergrounds Day

Today was very different to my normal working day as I'd volunteered to help in a 'Supergrounds' project at a local school. This is an initiative devised and supported my employers, RBS, to help improve school playgrounds and their surroundings, and is of course a very worthy cause. My colleagues and I were all keen to do our bit, so early this morning twelve of us met up at a local primary school to complete a variety of manual jobs.

There were four of us in my group, and our task was to paint a mountain scene onto a rather large 'climbing wall' in the main playground. We had our design ready (thanks to Michael for this) - we just now had to replicate it on a 9m by 3m brick wall. Not an easy task, especially in the pouring rain, but thankfully the wall was sheltered a little and the paint stayed relatively dry even if we didn't.

The first task was to chalk an outline of the design on the wall, so Jenny and I made an early start on this before the others in the team and before the children arrived. This didn't take too long, but even so, when we'd finished with the chalk we turned round to find what felt like 200 children staring at us and wondering what on earth we were doing!

We were well looked after by the school with bacon & sausage barms provided in the morning, a school dinner (chicken and chips for me!) and regular brews throughout the day (of course). At each break-time, there were always plenty of children gathered round to inspect what we were doing - one boy in particular, who'd be about 9 or 10 seemed to be talking with some authority, much more than the others, and when he saw the puzzled look on my face said "I am on the school council, you know!"

By the time the children were leaving at the end of the day, we'd managed to finish our work of art and the children and teachers were all delighted with what we'd done. There were other teams from RBS working at the school, who spent the day in the gardens planting trees and wooden planters, building and planting raised beds, returfing and building a nectar garden. Although we were all thoroughly soaked, it was a very enjoyable and rewarding day, even if we were tired by the end. Thanks to all involved in organising the event. For more information about Supergrounds, click: RBS Supergrounds