Julie and Kirsty supported today’s community mission, continuing Woking GoodGym’s ongoing work with Vikki and Mark from KLS PTA.

The session focused on creating a dedicated wildflower bed, helping to enhance the biodiversity and visual appeal of the garden space behind the newly errected and painted wigwams Alongside this, the team worked with Vikki and Mark to determine the optimal position for the new garden entrance arch, an important feature for the overall design. Mark impressively built the arch on site today, marking a visible step forward in the project.

Additional progress was made on the bug hotel, by Alex, one of the KLS parents with further improvements to support local wildlife habitats.

Julie also discussed future scheduling with Vikki, suggesting a Wednesday evening session. With the project now close to completion, a midweek GoodGym push could help bring everything over the line. A weekday session may also improve turnout, and the 6km distance from WWF to the school offers an ideal opportunity for a sociable canal-side run.

Woking GoodGym has been supporting this PTA-led project most Saturdays since September 2025, and today’s efforts were really appreciated by the PTA. Two hours well spent this morning!

Stephanie, Ellie and Katie made their way to today's Goodgym task at Knaphill Lower School. The team met Vicki and Mark and helped with planting some flowers and plants into the flower bed in the garden area.

Goodgym members have been volunteering with the garden for several weeks and it was great to see how it's coming along.

It was great to welcome Ellie to her first task and we hope to see her again soon!

Saturday’s task at Knaphill Lower School came with a welcome change — sunshine! With blue skies overhead, it was a perfect morning to get stuck into some outdoor volunteering.

The job for the session was helping prepare materials for the school’s bug hotel. A pile of branches needed cutting down into smaller lengths so they could be packed neatly into the structure and create plenty of cosy hiding spots for insects and other mini-beasts.

With cutters in hand, I set about cutting the branches into suitable lengths to be stacked and packed, gradually turning the pile into bug-friendly building materials ready to be added to the hotel. It was a slow but satisfying task, and one that will help create a great habitat for wildlife around the school grounds.

A productive morning and a great step towards making the bug hotel even more welcoming for its tiny future residents!

Work continues at Knaphill Lower School Garden. This week only Julie was there to support Vikki and Mark as they get closer to completing the restoration. The beds are taking shape and Julie dug and weeded the front beds so that they are ready for some more topsoil and then the fun bit - planting will be happening soon so do sign up for the next session!

*Knaphill Lower School Restoration Project*

Another Saturday morning and another opportunity to help out at Knaphill Lower School Restoration Project.

Wayne, Julie, and Stephanie met Vicki and her husband at the school to see what Goodgym could help with.

The garden has changed alot since goodgymers have been coming, really starting to come together.

The first task was for Wayne and Julie to move some logs from one of the out buildings over to the new secret garden luckily we had two wheelbarrows that made light work of the this particular task 😀

Stephanie then arrived and was tasked with cutting some big branches into smaller sections for the new bug hotel 🐞

Once Wayne and Julie had finished putting the logs in place they joined Stephanie and together managed to cut various sizes of branches that were neatly put into the hotel, 🐜

the ground was damp but at least it was not raining and we even had a little bit of sunshine ☀️

Stephanie and Kirsty were back at Knaphill Lower School this week, cheerfully soggy but undeterred, helping the PTA continue the transformation of the outdoor space into something special for pupils to play and learn in. Our mission: support J, a Duke of Edinburgh participant, in planting 50 hawthorn wicks (that’s roots, for those of us who still think gardening involves guesswork and hope) to form a new hawthorn-lined hedge alongside the living hedge created by GG on previous tasks. we didnt quite manage to get all 50 into the ground, but honestly it was hard to count!

As ever, the project is being powered by the seemingly limitless commitment of Vikki and Mark, with son O firmly in the mix. Proof that community energy, much like hawthorn, thrives in all weather. Rain-soaked, muddy, and oddly satisfying: another GoodGym task well planted. 🌧 Well done Stephanie and Kirsty