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Category: Primary School Enrichment Fund

  1. Harvest Festival at Moulsecoomb Primary: Primary School Enrichment Grant in Action

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    East Brighton Trust launched Enrichment Grants to provide local primary schools with grants to fund some of the extra-curricular activities that they could not afford to fund themselves.

    The name “Enrichment Grants” reflects the nature of the activities the grant will fund - things that will enrich pupils, their educational experience, and consequently their lives. And crucially, once awarded, this money is for the schools to do with as they see fit. 

    Moulsecoomb Primary School decided to spend some of its money on the Harvest Festival event which takes place every September using fruit and vegetables grown at the school. A juicing machine was funded by the grant, as were two cooks, Anna and Karen to support the activity.

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    Working with Stephen from Brighton Permaculture Trust (link), children chopped and pressed apples and pears from the school and the Bevy orchards, transforming them into delicious juice. 

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    Anna and Karen were on hand throughout to help the children cook incredible food from school-grown veggies, including tomato bruschetta, apple crumble cake, roast vegetable frittata, pumpkin bread, and more! 

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    Warren Carter of Moulscoomb Forest Garden Project said: 

    "The Harvest Festival is the culmination of our work with Year 5 who spend the academic year learning how to grow food - starting with broad beans and garlic, to tomatoes and peppers from seed in our greenhouse hot box to potatoes, pumpkins, and sweetcorn.

    The stunning school grounds also have an orchard and chickens. The children learn how to prune, mulch, and care for the chickens. 

    The East Brighton Trust enrichment grant means that the children don't just get to harvest the food they have grown, but get to turn it into delicious food while the apples and pears become juice.

    Finally, they get to serve it up to everyone at the end of the school day."

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    Stephen Gehrels of Brighton Pemaculture Trust commented:

    'With Moulscoomb Prinary's commitment...and the funding streams they have accessed, we have been able to deliver and maintain with them a great orchard as well as many other trees in the school grounds.

    The Harvest Festival has been without doubt one of the charity's favorite yearly events over the years that we have been running it! Thank you to all that make it happen!!!' 

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    We can’t wait to see what else Moulscoomb decided to spend their grant money on this academic year! 

     

  2. Primary School Enrichment Fund 2020 update

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    After 3 years of delivering our Enrichment funding to local primary schools, East Brighton Trust directors agreed unanimously last year to extend the grants for another 3 years.

    This fund was launched in 2017 when government cuts to school budgets meant that the schools had to cut almost all extra-curricular activities. East Brighton Trust stepped in and we now give each school a grant of £10,000 a year to pay for activities that enrich pupils’ educational experiences and their lives. 

    St Mark’s Primary in Manor Hill have used previous years’ funding to improve the outside spaces at the school. They have added an outdoor gym featuring miniature gym equipment and also created a secret garden library. Through the guaranteed EBT funding, the school has repeatedly been able to source match funding from other grant giving organisations, meaning even more can be achieved. The school will use their next instalment to focus on literacy, with plans in place for some wonderful new initiatives to be rolled out across the school in the post Covid-19 world. This will include early reading provision, whole class guided reading and what’s known as a Recovery Curriculum. This is a way for schools to help children get back into school life, acknowledging the experiences they have had during the pandemic. A library of quality texts will enable discussion with pupils and staff about the experiences they have been living through and will help them reflect on the past.

    “As part of our recovery curriculum provision we need to ensure that children, who may not have had the same home learning opportunities as other pupils, are able to rapidly catch up and close the gaps in their learning. We envisage doing this by expanding opportunities for children to access online personalised learning programmes which we have trialled when school was closed.” Headteacher Jane Fendley

    St Marks enrichment Dec 2020

    At Moulsecoomb Primary School the enrichment funding for previous years has gone towards school trips and after school activities. Each class was assigned a portion of the grant which went towards residential visits as well as dozens of day trips including Herstmonceux Observatory, Brighton Synagogue, Seven Sisters Country Park, Hastings, The Natural History Museum, the i360, Brighton seafront and Brighton police cells.

    In light of Covid-19 restrictions affecting visits and trips for the foreseeable future, the school decided to direct this year’s funds towards literacy, improving their outdoor spaces, developing home learning resources and also on a Recovery Curriculum focussed on wellbeing.

    These activities will include the purchase of resources to re-engage children immediately with the reading curriculum. Shelters will be built in the school grounds, including a covered area in the Fairy-tale Forest and comprehensive home learning packs will provide children with an uninterrupted curriculum in the event of further disruption or lockdown.

    “Thank you all once again for supporting the school, I hope you are able to see the impact that the funding has on our children; it really does make a significant difference to what we can do.” Headteacher Adam Sutton

    enrichment fund Dec 2020