Portland pre-school thrilled with garden transformation

Allsorts Brackenbury pre-school has thanked the Portland Masonic lodge for its support in helping to clear its overgrown garden and is now looking forward to the next stage of redeveloping the outside space.

The lodge has helped by donating its time through volunteers helping to clear the garden and have made the space more inviting and accessible for the children.

So far, the work that has been carried out is to clear a large steep area around the garden. This was covered in bushes and weeds and is now cleared ready to lay astro turf which the pre-school will fundraise for, again with the help of the lodge.

The garden had become overgrown with buses and was hard to keep on top of (Image: Allsorts Brackenbury pre-school)

It also plans to put up a picket fence against the steep slope to stop the children climbing up and potentially injuring themselves.

Some of the plans for fundraising include a bingo night and a sponsored event involving the pre-school children.

Kim Moore, manager of Allsorts Brackenbury said: “We are extremely grateful for the help that the Portland Masonic Lodge have given us to help start our garden improvements.

"The garden at our setting is really important to the children as some of them do not have access to outdoor space at home.

“Being outside has a huge positive impact on children’s mental health, wellbeing and growth and we try and use our outside space as much as possible, in all weathers.

The garden has been cleared and fundraising for astro turf will being shortly (Image: Allsorts Brackenbury Pre-school)

“The improvements to our garden allows us to have a safer and more inviting environment for the children to play in.

“There are plans to continue the transformation of our garden and we have further exciting projects starting soon.”

The garden had become overgrown and hard to keep on top of in recent years and it took a massive team effort from staff and volunteers from the lodge to clear the space ready to start again.

The work was carried out over a weekend at the end of last summer and the pre-school has had to leave the area over the winter whilst the weed killer worked to clear the roots of bushes.

The extremely wet weather also meant that there have been delays in getting started with any more work.

To thank the lodge for its continued support, the pre-school welcomed members of the lodge with tea and cakes as they presented them with a plaque as a token of their appreciation.