On Guy Fawkes Night, Goodgym spun their own legend......

Once upon a time, there was a school whose drop-off and pick-up zone had become a battleground of hangry children and weary parents. The hedges loomed and the bushes bulged into the path, and every morning felt like a game of dodge-the-human.

But one parent had had enough. She rallied her merry band of GoodGymmers to tame the wild greenery and restore peace to the school run. The school gave a nod, and on a mild November Wednesday with fireworks booming all around, 13 heroes answered the call to loppers.

Among them, two new champions emerged: [Lucy] and [Julie], who dove straight in. In just thirty minutes, the path was cleared, the choppings packed away, and the gate area widened to welcome all with ease.

Of course, the obligatory photo op was had, and then, like folklore figures fading into the mist, the GoodGymmers slipped back into the night, knowing the school run was once again a smooth and noble quest.

(PS thank you Lucy for the report title!)

Anna, Amy and Jess headed to All Saints School to help out at their summer Fete.

Anna was queen of the inflatables and although they had some issues with holes she kept the queue flowing and the kids were having a great time!

Amy was on the face painting stool, she was crafting everything from flowers and butterflies to Pokemon and Owls!!

Jess was on her second marshaling stint of the day, from runners at Parkrun to cars at the Fete! Everyone was shown to their space and she even got to show the Fire Engine it's spot!

We all enjoyed the sunshine and it looked like everyone was enjoying themselves!!

GoodGym crew Amy, Angela, Lisa and Tessa met up with PTA Chair Nick to make a start on clearing All Saints Junior School’s nature garden. It’s a large area and could be amazing, but it has been a bit neglected, and rumours abound about what may be buried there. Treasure? A fridge? Glue sticks? We set to work clearing one corner and soon had a huge pile of brambles and branches. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending how you look at it!) we didn’t dig up anything exciting - heavy machinery will need to be brought in for that! It was a very satisfying start and we look forward to helping out more as the project progresses.

9 Goodgymers and 1 head of the PTA made their way to all saints school for a round of hole digging for the planting of trees by the children, bin emptying followed by the collection of nearly 2 hippo bags full of leaves!

It didn’t go unnoticed that it was the first task Louise has lead where it didn’t rain! which has clearly now jinxed the coming tasks

A play on the scooters found in the bike storage ensured that we were entertained and warmed up nicely before we all made our way home to warm up frozen toes and noses!

Lifting and shifting did you say All Saints Junior School? Absolutely, we twelve GoodGymmers say back!

We arrived on foot (run and walk variety) and cycles to tackle the lockers that needed moving out of the corridors. And in no time all lockers were neatly tucked away into various classrooms.

With time on hand, we went at the small courtyard overrun with weeds. How many GoodGymmers does it take to trim a hedge? Let's see who can find the answer in the photos!

Weeding and trimming done, compost bins filled, we said hearty goodbyes and went off into the rainbow (while the sun went missing).

Tonight's task was a takeover by me, Jenni! 👋 I've been doing my GoodGym fitness leader training, and Amy kindly let me lead tonight's task for my assessment - thank you!

A group of us met at the Community Centre, and I delivered the briefing - where we were going, how we'd get there and most importantly to make sure we were doing it safely!

The walking duo of Diya and Kanika set off, while the runners did a self-led warm up, including Adam's choice of squats and Samrita feeding the chickens! Once our muscles were ready, we set off up the hill and off to the task...

...where the rest of the team met us!

After a chat with our taskowner for the night, Carl, it was clear it wouldnt take us very long, so Amy sprang into action to find us some more bits to do!

The answer to how many GoodGymers it takes to fill a raised bed?

Not very many at all!!

With an efficient team filling wheelbarrows with soil on one side of the building, others navigating round to the beds and a team of levellers, we were done filling the bed in record time! While team soil were working away, teams bike shed and weeders got to work.

Diya and Sophie were having loads of fun scaring everyone cleaning up inside the bike shed with their water throwing and Roberta and Gillian made easy work of the weeds around the building!

With our task, and some bonus bits complete, Amy and Sophie devised a fitness session, making use of the school's play equipment. With standing push ups, tricep dips, balancing and running across the playground, everyone had a good workout!

All that was left to do was to say goodbye to Carl, check who was coming back to base to do our stretches, so we set off into the sunset!

Thanks everyone for a fab evening for me to do my fitness leader assessment! Great road crossings and no spade mishaps 😂 I hope to lead a session for you again soon... and everyone will be welcome when Reading GoodGym is up and running!