If you haven’t done so already, we hope that you will visit the Village Field and try out some of the new things that we have been able to provide as a result of the Lottery grant. These are:

• A Multi Use Games Areawhich has lines and nets/goals for:
  • 5-a-side football
  • Tennis
  • Netball
  • Basketball practice
• A petanque pitch (‘terrain’) for playing boule.
• A tarred path from Main Street to the Games Area.
• A willow tunnel
• Timber benches
• A Grass Amphitheatre: an area at the back of the school that can be used for outdoor lessons, for rolling down and others things we haven’t thought of yet.
• A ‘sensory garden’: a small area of smelly, noisy, tasty, soft or spikey plants.
• Trees – mostly ones that fruit.
• Bird and bat boxes. One of the bird boxes has a camera in it which we hope to link to the internet for next spring (see below).
• A meadow area– which is looking a bit sorry for itself at the moment but is being worked on!

The rules relating to the games area are available here. Please read them and take them seriously. The surface is designed to be free-draining so it is not as hard as normal tarmac, especially in hot weather and during the first year. For this reason it is important that no wheels are used on the surface as they may make grooves that are impossible to repair (so no bikes, roller blades, heelies, etc). Please try to keep mud off it too as this will block the drainage over time (shoe brushes should be installed this summer).

The games area is free to use, but a booking system for reservations will be introduced soon, for which there will be a charge (to contribute towards maintenance and refurbishment). There will be a noticeboard in the alleyway up from Main Street where bookings and other information will be displayed.

We hope to keep it open and unlocked at all times but this depends on people being responsible and considerate to others in their use of the court.

The Tennis Net

When the games area is being used for full-court football or basketball the tennis net must be taken down and placed carefully on the path outside the fence by the gate (until we have a more permanent storage box). We ask that this is done by adults or older children as it would be easy to damage the net, posts or more critically, the surface itself, if this is not done properly. Mike, Frank or Jo would be happy to show people how to do this. It is not difficult but requires a bit of strength and patience.

It is intended that for the summer the net is mainly left up so that children can come and play tennis without having to seek out an adult to put the net up for them. In the winter it is thought that the net will mainly be down.