Large Grants (Closed)

PLEASE NOTE:

Our Large Grant Scheme is now Closed.

Woolavington Hub

Funding for the 2019 Family Weekend Event (July 2019), for all residents of Woolavington, Puriton and surrounding Villages. One of the objectives of the weekend was to generate interest and funds for our vision for a ‘Community Hub’ for the residents (from Babies to elderly residents) of Woolavington, Puriton and surrounding Villages.

The event provided an opportunity for all groups, activities and partners to show case their ideas promote their work and consult with the public. It covered many aspects of the Villages together plan such as Tackling loneliness, Support for young people, Communications, Pride in our villages and Sharing information.

Woolavington Youth Theatre

The Theatre is using VT funding to provide a place that allows children to create, perform and enjoy themselves in a safe and creative atmosphere. Three committed teachers coordinate, encourage and direct the perfomances, and act as guides and tutors to help the children take ownership of the group, performances and weekly sessions. This helps them increase their self-confidence, self-esteem and ability to empathise with others in team building activities.

WYT provides opportunities that the children may not experience in their everyday life, and they have begun to value their community and work with other groups or individuals to provide scenery, props and entertainment and have a focus to keep them interested and entertained. Their transition to senior school is made easier as they have familiar faces to greet them and they will set an example to other young people to become involved in the group.

Sunshine Pre-school

The preschool meet in Puriton Village hall every weekday from 9am. They aim to, “provide education and care for young children”, and the funding they have received from Villages Together is intended to support them in this.

Specifically, it will be used in these ways:

Staff Training – for both essential training and for setting enrichment
Development and expansion of forest school provision
Resources to provide children with opportunities to develop STEM¹
Resources to provide opportunities to develop children’s skills in food preparation and cooking
Resources to expand our range of physical education opportunities
To provide children with opportunities to develop their self-care skills and to promote good mental health
To expand the creative opportunities children have available to access
To provide in house and external opportunities for enrichment activities

In their application for funding they explain the provision of well-trained staff will mean that children can experience a rich and fulfilling curriculum that is fun and educational.

Providing the children with a wide range of interesting and stimulating activities both on and off site will allow them to to be well equipped for when they go on to primary school, as well as becoming well rounded and active members of the village community.

Some of the resources the preschool will be able to purchase with VT funding are quite specialist and would be attractive to other settings, we would consider loan agreements to share those resources with other user groups subject to contract – there may well be opportunities for reciprocal agreements too.

They are also looking into a holiday club/activities week for children aged 2-8yrs. These children may or may not be ordinarily enrolled in preschool but would be able to make good use of the venue and resources and parents would be offered a short term childcare option for the long summer break. As a community this is lacking for the younger children, with older ones having access to school sports activities.