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Serge Korole, a builder with AKS Homes, meets architect Hugo Braddick |
School play space gets off the ground
Children issue appeal to businesses as they attempt to turn car park back into playground
PLANS to create a state-of-the-art school playground and sensory garden on the site of an old Clerkenwell car park have moved a step closer to reality.
Parents, teachers and children at Christopher Hatton School in Laystall Street appealed for donations from neighbouring businesses and community groups at a fundraising day on Friday.
The school needs £130,000 to expand its current playground, which is just one-third of the recommended size for its 220 pupils.
Speaking at the event, Holborn and St Pancras MP Frank Dobson stressed the importance of playground space in children’s development.
“This was a playground a hundred years ago and it’s now being rescued from being a car park,” he said. “These children, who have very few gardens or outside facilities at home, deserve the best.”
The playground space became a car park when Christopher Hatton was closed in the 1960s.
And it was Mr Dobson led the campaign to have it reopened 12 years ago.
Headteacher Gwen Lee said the reclaiming of the playground lease had been a further “eight-year battle” that was finally at an end.
Funds of £15,000 have already been raised through various initiatives, including cake baking, sales of children’s art work, tea towels and collection boxes.
The school’s key funding strategy is “The Wanderwall”, where parents and businesses are asked to pay to name the bricks in the future playground.
Companies have already invested in messages of “love” and the alphabet. Pupils from Year 5 will choose their favourite words if companies are stumped for a message – turnips is currently in the running.
Schoolchildren have visited Meadowcroft Griffin architects to help work on the plans and construction on the new playground is expected to start in June.
In a speech on Friday afternoon, members of the school council put their cause in simple terms: “If Victorian children needed this much space, so do we. We need space to play running and chasing games.”
For more information on donating to Christopher Hatton, call the school on 020 7278 4500. |
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