Guernsey Press

Amherst pupils put some welly into charity

PUPILS at Amherst School have been giving some welly to a fundraising project to help islanders who may in the past have been denied the chance to learn a useful skill.

Published
As well as wearing them all day, Amherst pupils spent time decorating Wellington boots to raise money for Grow Ltd. Left to right: Jessica de Heaume, 9, Connor Toms, 8, and Alba Cheetham, 7. (Picture by Adrian Miller, 25958526)

The students took part in a ‘wear your wellies day’, and, as well as plodding around and jumping in a few puddles, they also got arty and decorated their wellies and stuck a plant inside.

It was in aid of Grow Ltd, the Guernsey Rural Occupation Workshop, which changes lives through gardening, by giving horticultural work opportunities to people with learning disabilities.

Grow has launched an appeal to raise £3m. to improve the buildings and greenhouses, and create a cafe.

The pupils got the most out of their wellies by decorating them in different themes, including wildlife and the environment, and superheroes.

Teacher Karen Adams said the pupils put a lot of thought and imagination into their designs.

‘We do outdoor club here at school and one of the students’ favourite things about it is they get to wear their wellies, so when the poster came from Grow we immediately knew the children were going to love it, so we allowed them to wear their wellies for the day, and the other really good thing about it was that it inspired all this lovely creativity.

‘We’ve identified a piece of not very pretty ground in between the infants and junior school, and the outdoor club are going to clear that and we’re going to put the wellies which can be left outdoors in a welly area. We have to find a way of putting holes in the bottom of them so they drain.’

Alba Cheetham, 7, had given her class’s wellington boot an autumnal theme.

‘We each got to cut out one leaf and stick it on, but the next day a lot of the leaves fell off and one of the teacher’s helpers stuck them back on.’

Jessica de Heaume, 9, had added a big splash of colour to her creation.

‘Our teacher gave us a butterfly each and we coloured it in and then the teacher stuck it on the welly boot and it looks beautiful and it was to help a charity called Grow.’

Connor Toms, 8, had created a tribute to one of his favourite animals.

‘We made hedgehogs out of coloured card and we cut out the spikes and put googly eyes on them. We did it for Grow, which helps people with disabilities and the teacher said it is a very good charity.’