From the time we finally got the keys to The Children’s Allotment site in March 2018, we achieved so much! In our first year we held:

• 18 workdays to clear and renovate the site, which were each attended by volunteers from the local community with 210 attendances over the year, with a total contribution of 520 volunteer hours.
• 3 corporate volunteer workdays, through which we hosted 27 volunteers from HSBC, Brookes University and Pearsons to donate 91 volunteer hours on the site.
• 11 discussion group events where attendees were able to discuss alternative educational and childcare pedagogies and approaches. They were attended by around 10 adults on average for each event. 
• 4 film showings to watch documentaries about alternative education pedagogies, which attracted interested parents and educators, with 36 attendances in total.
• 4 workshops hosted by an expert facilitators covering a specific aspect of alternative education such as Steiner or democratic pedagogies, which attracted interested parents and educators, with 102 attendances in total. 
• 7 Forest School / Outdoor play drop in sessions attended by local families with 77 attendances from adults and 76 from children. 
• 2 open information events and 1 social event attended by around 24 adults in total.

A huge thank you to all the volunteers and attendees for an amazing year!

On our very first workday on The Children’s Allotment site on 25th March 2018, we had over 30 people lend a hand with loppers and forks.

We started to cut our way through the bramble jungle that had grown over the site, which had previously been abandoned for around 10 years.

We were also covered in an article in the Oxford Mail (read it here).

You can watch our progress below!