A GROUP of Chagford residents has set up a new campaign to raise money to continue to fund the popular woodland school at Chagford Primary School.

Organisers set up the fundraising campaign last week and, as the Times went to press, had already raised £1,000. But, they are hoping to raise at least £3,000 which will allow children from reception to Year 6 the chance to enjoy three sessions each half-term.

Katherine Grimshaw, one of the organisers of the campaign, said: ‘There’s a guy who who does it locally, and he was running it. He was running a private version for kids, mostly who were actually homeschooled, and then the PTFA thought “we need that in our school” and did some fundraising and paid for sessions for each class to go out and that was really successful.

‘Now it’s just a new way of keeping it going really because it does cost and sadly it can’t come out of the school’s budget or the PTFA budget.’

The school has proved already proved to be a major success with the children who have enjoyed learning about the environment, different plants and animals, lighting fires and even making their own waterproof woodland shelters

Ms Grimshaw added: ‘They build shelters, and they have to try and make them watertight so they use leaves and sticks and mud to really try and fill in all the gaps and they work together in teams. At the end they pour water over the top to check if they’re watertight.

‘When my son came out of school after that day I never heard him as animated about anything.’

To donate visit https://www.gofundme.com/f/chagford-primary-woodland-school.