School Grant For Healthy Living, Mental Wellbeing and Physical Activity

We were recently approached by a school in Lincolnshire who informed us of a new capital grant which has become available for a minimum of ten thousand pounds and which has to promote key areas including healthy living, mental health/wellbeing and physical activity.

They approached us because they were thinking of having some sort of outdoor shelter or classroom for their forest school activities but on further reflection and thought, we have taken this a lot further to help this school meet the above criteria and put them in a good position to receive this grant funding.

We suggested one of our fire pit and cooking shelters  – this unit has a central fire pit and cooking unit which has a flue that goes all the way up to the roof so that it is entirely safe for a school environment. Children can therefore use this facility to cook their food on (and light fires which is all part of the forest schools programme) and thereby promoting healthy living. Also there is some quite considerable research which shows that cooking is very good for mental health issues and is used to relieve anxiety and stress.

The shelter itself is also a good place where children can have some “time out” and “break-out nurture” space on their own and with their teachers in a tranquil setting that is away from the main hub-bub of everyday school life.

And then we needed to address the physical activity issue and here we have a cunning plan! We can supply some special electricity producing bikes which the children have to pedal in order to create power (so physical activity box ticked!) but we have a smoothie making package too. The bikes are connected up to a smoothie blender machine so the faster they pedal, the quicker the smoothie gets made. And if their smoothies have fruit and lots of good things in there, we are also encouraging healthy living and eating.

If you would like to know how we can work alongside your school and think a little out of the box, then please contact the Hideout House Company on 01865 858982 or email: info@hideouthouse.com