Students, staff, and the whole Bridgerule CofE Primary School community have come together as part of Dartmoor Multi-Academy Trust’s inspiring AWE (Awe, Wonder & Engagement) project to create a space for outdoor learning.

Thanks to some hard work in the sunshine, the team created a new sensory path to lead to the new outdoor reading and learning area, new seating, erected a shed, painted fencing and planted flowers in pots decorated by the children.

The entire AWE-inspired day was well supported by families, full of laughter and chatter from start to finish, and featured hard work from the very youngest to oldest.

The Trust’s AWE (Awe, Wonder & Engagement) Projects rejuvenate school facilities, with the help of willing teams of staff, governors, older students, local businesses and the wider community.

It was initially designed as a continuation of the strong community spirit which had been evidenced during lockdown and has seen numerous local businesses pledge their support.

Now the Trust’s AWE programme is going from strength to strength and benefits from making connections with businesses who release their workforce to provide volunteer hours to work on community projects.

Melissa Trudgill, Trust engagement manager for Dartmoor Multi-Academy Trust, said: “The hard work and warmth of the local community was so encouraging and energising — this is the AWE initiative working at its best where parents, children, businesses, and the community come together to work on a transformation project, meet each other and make bonds into the bargain.”

Anne Bunning, Principal, added: “We want to extend a huge thanks to: RGB for supporting our plans; to our families and staff who planted, painted and shovelled; to our community who even supported us with machinery to lift bags of stone; to Ian Warne and Pete Maingot who worked so hard to put up the amazing shed, to Tamar Trading for their paint donations, and to the school’s children, whose reaction on Monday morning was priceless.”