Seven Goodgymers met with Ranger Tom at Braywick Nature Centre. Our task had changed slightly - we were asked to coppice some trees and transport the branches to an area where they will be used to build some dry hedges. The saying goes, that wood keeps you warm three times - once when you chop it, once when you split it, and again when you burn it. Well in our case it kept us warm at least three times, but for different reasons. Tom found us two stands of hazel to chop down, so we split into 2 groups and set to work. With loppers, pruning saws and bow saws we set about chopping the trunks down. This certainly kept us very warm! We trimmed off the smaller branches and made some nice long stakes. Still kept us warm! And finally we carried them over to the hedge-building area - definitely still warm! Great team work and it was lovely to meet up with everyone again

Adam and Jen walked from The Binoy to meet Sue, Sheila and Sol at the task and were soon reunited with Mandy and Bekah who had walked from home.

After a quick task briefing from Adrienn, Sol and Adam had Art first on their timetable as they got stuck in to painting two cable drums which were being turned into tables. Meanwhile in outdoor play, Jen, Sheila and Bekah set up and lined two new sandpits whilst Sue and Mandy helped with shifting some outdoor furniture around.

Next on the timetable was transferring sand from the horse area into the new sandpits, pushing the wheel barrows was quite deflating, or was that just the tyre?!

Adam and Sol had moved over to paint a new fence panel whilst Jen, Sue, Sheila and Bekah moved a table and chairs from the back to the side of the school.

After Sol squeezed in a quick game of snakes and ladders we collected woodchips from near the forest school to put around the sandpits and wore ourselves out moving tyres into the front garden.

Wow what a task packed evening, with star pupils all round, I can't decide who was top of the class although at least none of us were put into detention.

Tonight's task was Mud-tastic. A last minute change meant the planned indoor uniform sort at Windsor Girls' School was transformed into a mud shifting assignment. GoodGym likes nothing more than getting stuck in so Sheila, Devon, Michelle, Jen, Sol and Amanda didn't clay around and dirt-ifully got on with the new plan.

Jen went to find some cardboard to lay down by the flower beds whilst the rest of the team began digging up the dirt with muddy gloves and dustpan brushes! It was a hilarious task that kept everyone nice and warm on this cold evening. Michelle was a super star channelling mud into buckets before switching things up with Sol who had laboured away lifting and shifting buckets of mud between fields. Sheila never tired and put her muscles to use shifting tonnes of dirt. Devon did so much of the heavy lifting (thank you!) and Jen made sure everything was in order on the delivery end. After an hour's hard work the team headed back to clean up and take some well-earned selfies. We were surprised by how much was moved in the end, despite our lack of appropriate tools - it just goes to show the power of the GoodGym mindset and community! We will be back soon to sort those uniforms (and be treated to the indoor task!). Well done team - you were mud-nificient!

It was a community mission of two halves - Sue joined Carol at the Baby Bank facility to aid with the continuing big clothes-sorting task. Meanwhile Sheila was helping at a Gifting event, where families who are struggling financially could come and choose Christmas gifts for their children. It was an amazing event, a collaboration between the Baby Bank, Abri and Achieving for Children. There were so many lovely new toys to choose from, parents could choose 3 or 4 items per child. The parents were so grateful that they would have something to give their children this Christmas - some got quite emotional. And we also gift-wrapped them if requested, while the parents had a coffee and a snack made by the community chef. A really joyful event that helped 65 families and 150 children.