Opening strappad and school garden
Our children's little school has had quite a transformation in the recent months. In the midst of a pandemic they had to prepare for full scale school renovations (as in 6 out of 10 classes will be destroyed and rebuilt). At the same time they had a dream about boosting their large school garden even better.
1) The Maggie shelter tents.
In the coming months and next year the majority of the school will be torn down. That's a good thing as the buildings are part of a historic convent nearby the Park Abbey to which they've added on little structures etc. Some of the classes were little and dark.
Just before Kabouter started school one new large building in the back had been built so 4 classes are light and spacious in high contrast of the rest. But plans to rebuilt the entire front part of the school are now ready to get started. The plans look exciting, light and spacious.
In the coming months and next year the majority of the school will be torn down. That's a good thing as the buildings are part of a historic convent nearby the Park Abbey to which they've added on little structures etc. Some of the classes were little and dark.
Just before Kabouter started school one new large building in the back had been built so 4 classes are light and spacious in high contrast of the rest. But plans to rebuilt the entire front part of the school are now ready to get started. The plans look exciting, light and spacious.
So this summer during 14 days big groups of volunteers have built "maggie shelter tents" on the former soccer area of the school. These Maggie tents are highly insulated (always with local free materials such as sand, clay,..) double walled reusable durable tents. They should have proper climate control and claim to be well ventilated (important feature these days...not sure how they achieve it technically). The school "rents" them for 2 years after which they are paid off and can be taken down and rebuilt in a 3rd world country for shelter or school or ... and should be usable for another 15 years. They are quite light insight and more spacious than container classes. The children seem to enjoy them very much.
So except for 4 existing modern classes, the rest of the school (including both my boys) live with 6 classes and some offices in 4 tents (all divided into 2 with one entrance on each side).
2) The renewed school garden with a strappad and new play area's.
So except for 4 existing modern classes, the rest of the school (including both my boys) live with 6 classes and some offices in 4 tents (all divided into 2 with one entrance on each side).
2) The renewed school garden with a strappad and new play area's.
The large long school garden is one of the aspects I love most about this school. There is so much outdoor green space (as opposed to inside: there is no polyvalent hall, no school restaurant, no gym) with vegetable corners, a gnome corner, an outside class, birds, a soccor grass field, etc etc.
The dream was to construct a "strappad" across the garden, winding through different sections on which children could learn and practise to step or bike or ... in a safe way. As there are a lot of children living in the city with not too much outdoor space, this is a good spot for them to have fun. On top of that, the school will, at the request of the city, also open up the garden in the future during vacations and weekends for the neighbourhood children to access and play.
All year round there were activities to collect money for the "strappad" but the financial goal was very high and the counter didn't seem to go up very quickly. With the pandemic, I assumed that this would not happen in the short run but hey...they found enough subsidies in several government projects (boosting green spaces in the city or getting school improvement funds etc, ...) and after the lockdown the pathway across the garden was realized anyhow. Additionally, the city funds realized in the backyard additional playground area's as well.
My employer VELUX is a family owned company with a vision to be a "model company". The holding structure is managed by multiple foundations and all benefits get poured into those VELUX foundations. The vast majority of money gets poured into scientific research, mostly environmentally research. The Danish society also gets a lot of funding through philanthropic projects of the foundations. The latter seems a bit frustrating since we are a global firm but our profits seem to flow for a good portion into the Danish society. Fortunately we also benefit from an VKR employee foundation that helps the employees with a lot of personal funding but also philanthropic projects in the proximity of the office. Hence I reached out to the foundation to help fund the school garden project a little at my children's school, and we got the funding for building a step/bike storage.
Thanks to that funding I was invited for the official opening ceremony of the new garden and path on Friday 18th which was the end of the traffic themed week in Belgium. All children were dressed up in a newly received fluo jacket and city officials opened the path and the play garden officially.
My employer VELUX is a family owned company with a vision to be a "model company". The holding structure is managed by multiple foundations and all benefits get poured into those VELUX foundations. The vast majority of money gets poured into scientific research, mostly environmentally research. The Danish society also gets a lot of funding through philanthropic projects of the foundations. The latter seems a bit frustrating since we are a global firm but our profits seem to flow for a good portion into the Danish society. Fortunately we also benefit from an VKR employee foundation that helps the employees with a lot of personal funding but also philanthropic projects in the proximity of the office. Hence I reached out to the foundation to help fund the school garden project a little at my children's school, and we got the funding for building a step/bike storage.
Thanks to that funding I was invited for the official opening ceremony of the new garden and path on Friday 18th which was the end of the traffic themed week in Belgium. All children were dressed up in a newly received fluo jacket and city officials opened the path and the play garden officially.
It was fun to be one of the few adults allowed on school during the ceremony, during times that we have less access to the school because of the pandemic. I had a chance to observe my little ones a bit with their class. Naturally they started to goof around when they noticed me.
Anyway, it was fun to be present and to see the cool way the school is transforming into an even better place, and I am grateful for everyday that my children return home full of dirt marks by all the outdoor playing they do. I'm happy with our little neighbourhood school in the city center.
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