Twerton Infant School’s local community are rallying together to help make a number of improvements to the school during the upcoming half-term holidays.
One of the projects, to decorate a classroom, has already received several offers of support from Bath University’s V-Team, NatWest Bank and some local apprentices. Davis of Bath are providing the school with the paint needed and a local decorator, Nathan Long, whose child attends the school, has offered to give up a day of his own holiday to finish the job off.
Mr Samios, the school’s Headteacher said, “We are very pleased with all the kind offers we have received. Freshening up the classroom and moving to a neutral colour scheme will help children to focus even more on their learning tasks. It will give the classroom a real lift”.
Twerton Infant School pupils point out the new acoustic tiles
The second project, to fix acoustic tiles to the hall ceiling, is being supported by Alide Tool Hire who are kindly providing a scaffolding tower. Mr Samios explained, “By improving the acoustics in the hall the children will be able to hold conversations whilst eating but without the sound levels escalating. The school was designed in the late 50s and built in the early 60s. Since then, school design has moved on and more consideration is now given to acoustics, particularly in large spaces.”
The new office space at Twerton Infant School
Teachers are especially excited about a project to create a new meeting room and workspace in the corner of the school’s library. This will provide teachers with a quite space to work and a private room to meet with parents and other professionals. This new room requires a section of studwork walling to be built and a couple of ceiling lights to be repositioned. A number of enthusiastic parents have offered their time and energy but the school is still looking for a carpenter to give advice and possibly oversee this project.
The last project for half-term is repairing a stone wall at the lower entrance to the school (as shown in the main photo). A parent of a child in the school, who is a local builder, has very kindly offered to take a day off work to make the repairs.
Mr Samios added, “The community of Twerton is very strong on looking out for and taking care of one another. The school has been very touched by all the offers of support and people’s generosity. Equally, the University of Bath have been a brilliant support to the school over the last 12 months and this is the third offer of support from its V-Team to our school. As funding for schools becomes tighter and tighter we will become more reliant on the voluntary sector and our own fundraising activities.”