We arrived at John Betts and discovered a small alleyway that time had forgot, covered in overgrown vines and with several concrete slabs and wooden posts to be disposed of.

We hoisted the concrete into the large school bins and split up the wooden posts with saws and foot stamps. Cutting back the vines led to an interesting incident where I had to convince neighbours to the school that I was not in fact a robber doing some gardening on my way to rob them.

Several others of us also gathered up the fallen leaves across the school yard. Though this likely was effective for all of a night before more replaced them, it would help in ensuring the surfaces of the school were slightly safer for the kids to play on.

Thanks to all for coming, including a fleeting visit (and volunteer) from Eloise!

The gang at GoodGym went back to school, to finish off this task, Of painting classrooms, we had started last week, to get a second coat on was the ask.

Eloise had sorted all of the gear, with her old colleague Caretaker Matt, He’d provided buckets and brushes and rollers and paint, plus floor liner if we spilt any of that.

Arba and Jess got on with the job, tidying up the bits down low, Then Lucy and Ben joined in a touch late, as they were running and Lucy was slow.

So coat number two of dulux best white went up and around classroom walls, Rolling and brushing with Michelle cutting in, next up we moved on to the halls.

Eloise was on a roll with her painting roller, up and down with real flair, Matt was on high bits which was kind of ironic, as to reach he had to stand on a chair!

Three rooms done, three fresh new coats on the classroom walls were complete, High bits, low bits and in between, and we had actually managed to be kind of neat.

Caretaker Matt was happy enough with the work that we had done, group photo, a quick tidy and then we were off to enjoy the evening sun.

It was back to school for 11 Goodgym members, We put aside our plans to paint the town red and settled for a night painting whilst wearing red instead! John Betts was in need of some TLC and there were walls a plenty needing a fresh coat, Our resident friendly giant Luis was on hand to get the hard to reach spots, he is really learning to accept his role in society. I don’t think this will be the last we see of this school. Special mention to Roisin on her first group task the first of many we hope

24 GoodGymers booked a trip to the library at John Betts Primary and made shhhh happen!

That old c word is very much the talk of GoodGym and the World, but it didn't stop 23 GoodGymers from joining me tonight to help out with a range of jobs at Eloise's school, John Betts Primary.

Tonight we welcomed along, Erica, Dan and Katherine to their first H&F group run, hope you enjoyed it! It was also lovely to have David join us and GoodGym tourist, Leticia, from our neighbours GoodGym Hounslow. Thank you all for joining us and lending some extra hands tonight! 🙌

The 'authoritive' red whistle made a return and helped us kick off the night where akin to obedient school children, everyone fell silent and headed outside as instructed. Once settled in our 'glamorous' cordoned off car park spot, we began the intros and news round-up...

Shoutouts 📣

• A big well done to Matt and Eloise for completing the Cambridge Half, with a few bonus miles thrown in at the beginning!
• Thank you to Cookie for backmarking and to Lucy for the additional photos and insta boomerangs!

The book end...a recap of this week's news

1. Coronavirus (COVID-19) - Please read GoodGym's current guidelines here 🦠📝. At the moment, all GoodGym activities are carrying on as normal but will be updated as the situation progresses. REMEMBER...Catch it. Bin it. Kill it! 🗑️

2. Upcoming H&F Community Mission - Last Saturday of the month...help out the Fulham Palace Volunteers, all the details are here.

3. Race volunteers needed 🏁 - Volunteer at adidas City Runs: 1 hour - Sunday 5th April and Hackney Half Aid Station Volunteering - Sunday 17th May.

We began with a pulse raising warm-up which involved some high knees, spotty dogs and inner foot taps, which seemed to more resemble Morris dancing for some...Lucy! With everyone warmed-up and stretched we set off to John Betts Primary School, with Cookie kindly backmarking to ensure no one was lost en route.

Having successfully navigated our way through the busy central streets of Hammersmith, Matt spotted the perfect spot for our weekly wall sit and thus began the most beloved 30 seconds of the session....

Wall sit complete, we sped off towards the front gates of John Betts Primary and tracked down Matt who was inside awaiting our arrival. Katie and Tom were both left in amazement and disappointment when they learnt that the 2 people in the picture they recreated on our last visit to John Betts were in the school last Monday! Both were completely gutted that they'd narrowly missed out on meeting royality!

Another toot of the 'authoritive' red whistle silenced the group and they gathered round in a circle. Matt and his daughter, Emily greeted the team and explained the jobs that they'd be tackling tonight:

*Sticking new labels on the library books 📚 *Moving 2 storage units from one side of the school to the other 🗄 *Helping to sort the school uniform back into the storage units👕

With Eloise being Head of English at the school it was only right she led most of the team to the library to begin the relabelling library book process. On the way into the library, we spotted the wonderful 'Welcome back GoodGym' PowerPoint slide that Matt had made earlier in the day...lovely!

Three weeks ago, the team had helped the PTA with categorising all the library books by genre. But now the fun really began...

Book us up

Each label represented a genre and all the correct coloured labels needed to be stuck on each of the library books, what could go wrong?! Green 📗 = Nature, Blue 📘 = Science and Technology, and 📙 = History, amongst many others!

Booking on gas!

The team spread themselves around the room onto the different tables that had been allocated with a genre and coloured label.

Book in the day!

With everyday being a school day the team learnt some interesting facts and stories, including one about the water cycle! Tom even discovered that many of the books preceded his birth!

Book in business

With a whole heap of books to get labelled, yes there really was A LOT of books in the library, who'd have thought it(?!) the team efficiently got a labelling production line going. GoodGymers labelled the books,then passed them to the PTAs who added the freshly labelled books to the shelves in the library.

While the others tackled the labelling, Cookie, Andrew, Biscuits and Matt headed upstairs to the storage cupboard where they were faced with a tiny room. In the room were two storage units that needed emptying and then moving across to the other side of the school.

Piles of uniforms, boxes and shelving were moved out of the storage room and from inside the cupboard into the adjacent room.

Treat yo' shelf!

With the storage units now empty, Team muscle, who had some extra muscle added with the arrival of Annabel, began to shift and wiggle the units out the room and up the stairs. Matt practiced his escapism and slid between the narrow gap between the doorway and unit.

When push comes to shove

Wth the storage units successful shifted, pushed and shoved (amongst other methods!) across to the other room the first job was to slide the shelves back in to the units.

Biscuits couldn't contain his excitement as he joined Matt, Cookie and Andrew in ferrying across the final few boxes from the storage room.

Some shelf indulgence

With the units shelved and ready, it was time to sort the uniform into ages and place them neatly on the shelf. Bags and organisation, this was definitely a job made for Sarah! Both Sarah and Erica helped one of the PTA members sort through the mountains of bags and uniform until they were all nicely sorted and organised.

With all the jobs completed the team reconvened in the hall with their eye on the climbing frame. Eloise was first to climb to the top, closely followed by Cookie whilst the rest of the team gathered round for a top team photo

Matt had kindly given out some glow in the dark wristbands leftover from a cycling proficiency course which also provided another excellent group team photo op.

We said our thank yous and goodbyes to Matt and Emily and headed outside for a quick fitness blitz. Upon hearing the word “fitness”, Team Nash waved and exited stage right as quick as a flash!

In front of the school, the team smashed out some frog jumps, pistol squats, snowboard jumps, supermans and partner squats before beginning the short run back to base. En route we had a brief pause that enabled Sarah to complete one of her physio exercises, some side squats - two birds, one stone!

Back at base we book ended the evening with a good stretch off and class was dismissed!

Next week, we'll be flyering for Open Age H&F around White City, please sign up here. Absolutely awesome work tonight team!💪 🙌 Have a lovely rest of your week and weekend 😊.

17 GoodGymers ran 3km back to school to help out John Betts Primary

It was another chilly night but this didn't stop 16 hardy GoodGymers from joining me tonight to help out again in Eloise's school, John Betts Primary. Much to everyone's delight, all the jobs tonight would be indoors in the warm!

After coming along to our starter session last month, it was lovely to welcome along Shauna to her first Tuesday H&F group run.

Que Ciara, Ciara

As we headed outside, there was no sign of Ciara, and Dennis was running later than Katie 'I'll meet you at the task'! 😉 - jokes aside, if you’re planning a Saturday run I’d recommend you get it in early doors to avoid the storm!

News, news, news

1. The 'Big Six' Races - They've been announced for 2020! Check out the list here.

2. January Challenge 2020: 'Extraordinary Task' Award - read more about the award here. Submissions are open until midnight on Wednesday 12th February.

3. Race volunteers needed: Volunteer at The Big Half - Sunday 1st Mar and Hackney Half Aid Station Volunteering - Sunday 17th May.

4. Last Saturday of the month Community Mission with Fulham Palace Trust Volunteers. For all the details of the session on Saturday 29th February, click here.

5. Vitality Running World Cup - Represent your Country! First round begins on Thursday 5th March. Read all about it and sign up here.

School runnings

Following a pulse raising warm-up which involved some high knees, spotty dogs and ‘dancing feet’ (out out in in) we set off to John Betts Primary School, with Lucy kindly backmarking to ensure no one was lost en route.

Having successfully navigated our way around all the pedestrains, we paused briefly to allow everyone to regroup and much to everyone's delight Alice’s exercise of choice was squats, rather than burpees or press ups!

The naughty children, Matt, Jonathan and Katie had sped ahead and whilst waiting for us at the entrance, decided to do a self-imposed wall sit - a wise decision to prevent further punishment!

The great divide

We entered via the large front door and were greeted in the main school hall by the school caretaker, Matt and his daughter, Emily. Following a quick brief with Eloise around the numbers and how to divide the group, Matt explained the tasks for tonight:

• Help sort the library books with the PTAs 📚
• Help sort the maths equipment 🧮
• Clean the staircase and skirting boards 🧽

The chill in the air makes us numb, but maths makes us number

'Team Maths' headed upstairs with Eloise to one of the classrooms and were faced with lots of different coloured trays all filled with very unorganised maths equipment - a sign of children having far too much fun learning maths?! With an attentive GoodGym class, Mrs Nash explained all the sorting that needed to be done. Coins, cubes, rulers, clocks and scales were among those that needed sorting. The final aim and the pièce de résistance was each classroom having the same coloured trays rather than a mix of colours. Oh the satisfaction!

Biscuits had far too much time on his hands as Lucy addressed the scale of the problem.

Andrew was in the money, Alice was the new kid on the block, while Helen proved she ruled at winding up all the measuring tapes.

Not all maths puns are terrible, just sum!

Mo arrived just in time to see Speedy's cone above his wonderful sorted shapes as he got stuck into the tray sorting, while Eloise and Lucy ensured there was some child's play amongst all the hard work...

Sorting complete, the team headed downstairs and armed themselves with cleaning cloths and products. Venny, Biscuits and Sarah gave the stairs a good clean up while Shauna, Andrew and Matt got down on their hands and knees to give the skirting boards a deep clean - and they were sparkling once they were finished!

Ready, steady, book!

'Team Library Books' - Tom, Bev, Cookie and Katie went with Matt across to the Library where the PTAs had made a start on sorting all the library books according to their sticker colour. Each sticker colour was linked to a specific genre, these included Green 📗 = Nature, Blue 📘 = Science and Technology, and 📙 = History.

All the library books were once upon a time grouped by genre in the library but over the past few years had become very jumbled up. It was decided that a complete sort of all the books was required.

The small but mighty team grabbed handful after handful of books, sorting them into their correct genre piles - some of which became slightly precariously balanced as the evening went on.

We'll do this job by the book!

As the team sorted through the books they couldn't help but have a quick read through some, Tom brushed up on his history, Cookie picked out the classics such as Thomas The Tank, Bev learnt more about trees, while Katie sought some top in-line skating tips!

With all the jobs completed, Lucy choreographed a throwback 'school' team photo on the benches complete with a trophy. Fun and games over we said our goodbyes and thank yous to Matt and Emily, and headed outside. Sadly, there was no time for a fitness session tonight, but we did manage to get in a few more jumping jacks and spotty dogs to warm-up before we began our run back to base. Once back at base we had a good stretch off back before heading home or to the pub. Class dismissed!

You stay classy GG H&F!

Wonderful work tonight team! 😊

Shoutouts 📣

• Thank you to Katie and Lucy for their extra snaps, and to Lucy for both backmarking and for posting on 'gram live from the task!
• Well done to Sarah, Biscuits, Eloise and Matt for completing an undulating Richmond 10k.

Next week

We've got another indoor task! We'll be painting at Gibbs Green Tenants Hall, sign up for the session here. Have a great rest of your week!

23 GoodGymers did some school running as they went back to school to lend a hand at John Betts Primary

It was a deceptively chilly night but this didn't stop 22 warm and hardy souls from joining me tonight to help out with a whole heap of jobs in Eloise's school, John Betts Primary.

Tonight we welcomed along, Mary, Venny, Sophie and Dan to their first H&F group run, thank you all for coming along and lending some extra hands tonight, hope you enjoyed it! 🙌

With everyone layered up and eager to get started we headed outside to our lovely and 'glamorous' cordoned off car park spot for the intros and news round-up...

Ain't it school news

1. January Challenge 2020 - we're into the last few days! We've completed 157 good deeds and run/walked 1,725kms, which smashes our 2019 totals of 107 good deeds and 1,627 kms. Check out the GoodGym leagues here.

2. Upcoming races - there's some great upcoming events that other H&F GoodGym'ers are getting involved with: Sunday 2nd February at 9.30am - Wimbledon Common 'Dash for the Splash' 10km and Saturday 8th February at 10am - Richmond Park 5km & 10km.

3. Cheer everyone! - there's a new '📢 Cheer all' button that enables you to cheer everyone who attended the session...although in a slight 'faux pas' tech error, it appears that you'll also give yourself a cheer too 😳.

4. 'Humans of H&F Exhibition' - a wonderful exhibition presented by United in Hammersmith & Fulham, on at the Lyric Theatre until 22nd February. Our very own H&F GoodGymer, Katie (K-A-T-H-R-Y-N 😉) Hodges is one of those 'humans' featured, see if you can spot her!

And....a big WELL DONE to Eloise who achieved TWO PBs at the weekend, one at parkrun and one at the Farnborough Half! 🥳🙌🏅

As a school of thumb

Following a pulse raising warm-up which involved some high knees, lunges, fast feet and a favourite of mine at the moment, the 'number exercise' challenge (great for warming-up both the body and brain!), we set off to John Betts Primary School with Cookie kindly backmarking, to ensure no one was lost en route.

Having successfully navigated our way around pedestrians and the streets of Hammersmith, we paused briefly to allow everyone to regroup, and much to everyone's delight had enough time to fit in a quick wall sit. Despite being a real 'quad burner' 🦵🔥, this exercise is great for runners as it not only builds isometric strength and endurance in the quadriceps muscle group, glutes, and calves, but also prevents runner's knee. I promise I don't torture you every week without good reason 😄!

Wall sit completed we continued on our run. It wasn't long before we all arrived at the front gates of the school and entered through the large main...well all aside from Cookie, who I may have forgotten to inform which door it was we had all disappeared through 🙈. The team were greeted in the main school hall by the school caretaker, Matt and his daughter, Emily. Matt explained that like many schools, due to constant funding cuts, any money available to schools goes directly into education rather than into general school maintenance and upkeep, so was very appreciative for all the helping hands tonight.

"Thank you, you lovely mad crazy people" - Matt

School's paradise

Matt and Eloise had drawn up a long list of jobs for the team to get stuck into, these included:

• Moving 10kgs of bagged wood chips to the climbing area 💪
• Sorting and labelling of school uniform for the PTA 📋🏷️
• Moving books from one room to another 📚 - with the bonus of stairs workout in-between!
• Moving two filing cabinets 🗄️🗄️ - again, with the bonus of stairs!
• Sorting the top-floor storage room 🗃

There was lots to keep the team busy tonight!

The team split into three groups to tackle the list of jobs. One group headed back outside to the climbing area with Matt, the second group headed up the stairs with Eloise and the third group stayed in the main hall. Within minutes, their were red and black GoodGym shirt both inside and out, and a real hive of activity.

Friends with benechips

Bev, Alice, Speedy, Andrew, Dan, Sophie R, Matt, Annabel, Milla and Cookie all got stuck in to the upper-body workout of wood chip shifting and mulching. Matt gave the first large bags of wood chips a helping hand over to make it easier and quicker for the group to scoop and distribute the wood chips to the 'danger' areas of the climbing area - the areas that needed more wood chips in order to be as 'fall-proof' as possible.

"We're all barking mad" - Bev

Despite the challenge of the cold and darkness, the team worked incredibly hard and efficiently to move the entire 10 kilos of wood chips! Some scooped, some carried and distributed containers full of wood chips, and others spread the piles of wood chips. Boom! One job done!

How much wood could a GoodGymer chip, if a GoodGymer could chip wood?

Book at them go!

Eloise headed up to the library with Marissa, Annabelle, Analiese, Tatty and Sophie C. The group had been tasked with the physical workout of the relocation of many books, where stairs had to be negotiated first up and then down while carrying a finely balanced pile of books. The team completed this with ease and emptied the shelves in super-quick time!

Time to run a file?

Next up was the job of moving two filing cabinets down the stairs. One proved a great deal heavier, thanks to some rather age-old paperwork that was removed then carefully placed back in once the cabinet had been relocated.

Off the cuff

The small but mighty team of Sarah, Lucy, Mary, Venny and Zanoubia set to work sorting crates of school uniform clothing: skirts, shirts, jackets, blouses all into the same age sizes and folded into nicely labelled bags. I jested that by chance, Sarah happened to be involved in the job that had not one but two of her favourites...bags and organising!

Once the wood chip group had completed their job they headed inside to the warmth of the main hall and gave a hand to those sorting and labelling the bags of uniform.

"What do you reckon, do I fit into this jacket?" - Speedy

Check out Alice, Sophie R, Zanoubia and Mary and Venny in the background, focused on sorting and folding!

"I feel like I've had the full GoodGym experience" - Sophie R

The sort end of the stick

Biscuits and Milla were given the challenge of the top-floor storage room which to begin with, which shall we say was a little unorganised. Trays and all kinds of items were everywhere! Milla even discovered a wonderfully crafted internal organ diagram. With some help from Emily, the storage room was now a place you could easily walk into, or in Biscuits' case, take 'Henry' the hoover for a quick spin around.

Check out the transformation!...

After forty minutes of lifting and shifting, organising and moving we called it a night once the final bag of school uniform was bagged up and labelled. There was just one last thing to do...have a team photo in Mrs. Nash's classroom! Much to the delight of many their were some fun coloured building blocks that were made into a lovely 'GG' prop.

With all the jobs completed and a team photo taken we said our goodbyes and thank yous to Matt and Emily, and headed back to base. Sadly, there was no time for a fitness session tonight, but we did manage to get in a few more 'squats' or 'spotty dogs' or as I conjured up 'squatty dogs' (now there's an idea!) on the run back. Once back at base we had a good stretch off back before heading home for warmth and food.

Top work tonight team! 😊

"You've all saved me many hours, if not days of walking back and forth, moving and sorting books which has been on my to do list since September 🙈" - Eloise

Next week we've got a new task up in White City for The Church of St Michael and St George. For all the details and to sign up, click here. Have a great rest of your week and weekend. Hopefully see you next week!