This is a text-only version of an article first published on Monday, 14 December 2015. Information shown on this page may no longer be current.
CHILDREN at Bradfield CE School in Berkshire are delighted to be having lessons in a classroom that has been newly refurbished thanks to volunteers from the nearby church.
Bradfield's new classroom Headteacher, Jenny Slade, said she had earmarked the 'particularly tired' room for refurbishment.
"But when I did the sums I realised I had enough money to buy the resources and IT needed but not enough to actually do the decorating. "It was the beginning of the summer holidays and Jenny realised that if the room was to be redecorated, it would have to be done by volunteers or staff.
"The one of my teachers asked I'd tried the church and I realised that was a really good point. "So members of St Peter's Church dropped their Bank Holiday plans and trooped to the school during the last weekend of August re-furbished the classroom. Jenny said: "The furniture has just been delivered and we have a lovely new class room. "One of the team leaders from the church was Natasha Howlett, who also works at the school.
She said: "It is so good when we can come together in such a practical way to support the work of the school. John Bishop, also from the church, explained "It was at the service on Sunday morning that we heard the need for the work to be done.
So we had a window of 36 hours to complete the task.
That afternoon the room was emptied, all fixings removed along with years of blutack, walls washed down and paint purchased. With the spirit of DIY SOS the helpers came, encouraged by the consumption of Danish pastries destined for Tuesday's teachers inset day.
Two and three coats later the old purple was covered with regulation magnolia and doors all freshly painted white. By 10pm the blinds were back up, the carpet cleaned and the room ready for children.
The miracle was that I caught that pot of gloss paint as it fell to the carpet. " ;