Team Building Challenge – Reading Garden for The Cedar Centre
The Cedar Centre School in Hollingdean teaches children from 4-19 with learning and communication difficulties, and associated behavioral problems.
The team from Family Investments were tasked with creating a reading garden for the children that would aim to make reading a more enjoyable experience and aid their education.
The team set out to convert a sloped corner of the school grounds into a garden area that would create a natural, safe and calming environment. Through the goodwill of all who contributed, the team managed to find and raise enough money to buy the materials to create the garden. The aim was to build raised flower beds for the borders and to plant young shrubs that would eventually grow into hedges. The plants were specifically chosen to give a variety of smells (thyme, rosemary and mint), as well as bursts of colour throughout the year (Honeysuckle, Clematis and Iris), designed to awaken all the senses and add to the appeal of the garden.
As well as praising the individual efforts of all those involved in collecting materials for the project, the team from Family Investments would also like to send their thanks to Biotecture for supplying the plants. It was a pleasing and worthwhile project for all those involved and John Reeve, Chief Executive for Family Investments said: "At Family Investments, we recognise that every business has an impact on the local community they work in, so we are keen to ensure we put something back and share a little of our success with the people we live and work with."
In just a day, the volunteers made a huge difference to the Cedar School and Sue Furdas the head teacher said: "The pupils at Cedar Centre have a variety of complex needs but they all have poor literacy skills and this directly affects their ability to access all areas of the curriculum. Consequently, reading is one of our key target areas for improvement. The new garden is a fantastic resource and an ideal place for our pupils to practice their reading or participate in shared and guided reading lessons. The pupils have already shown great interest in the garden and the opportunity Family Investments has given us to take the classroom outside is hugely appreciated."
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