Help build an outdoor classroom at Westwood Farm

We are fundraising for an outdoor classroom for the Wild Woods shared by Westwood Farm and Brookfields SEN school in Tilehurst, Reading.

We want to get a large shed or summerhouse with sides we can open to let the air and light in so that our all of our groups including wheelchair users, mothers with small babies, those who have been shielding until recently and the youngest children can have shelter in the woods even in heavy rain or for shade on the hottest days every day of the year whilst remaining open to the air. We would love to be able to store books and posters out of the elements and share more resources such as a board or seating.

The wild woods are used for outdoor learning and work experience placements by the adjoining schools week to week. They also used for Forest School groups and local community groups. We think this new building would open it more widely to the community, all year around and really maximize its potential.

We have had a very generous initial donation from the EY Foundation of £500 to get us started. In addition we hope that our Little Robins Playgroup can fund match this. We hope to build on this to reach our big target of £4000 which would allow us not only to build and secure a summerhouse, but to make it fully accessible for all our site users.

The woods have some wonderful diverse habitats, with newts and frogs, slow worms, hedgehogs, muntjac deer and the lesser spotted 'exploring kid' to name but a few inhabitants. We are really proud of the home we have made as a community for nature there over the past 5 years, and we would love to be able to share it as widely as possible. Will you invest in natures future here at Westwood Farm?

This is a Wild City Collective CIC initiative. We are a collective of local people, passionate about connecting people with nature.

To find out more about what we do, visit wildcitycollective.org or follow our story at instagram/wildcityforestschool