Five brave GoodGymmers butted the gloomy forecast aside and trotted over to Wessex Primary School, where Caretaker Andrew welcomed us and explained our rather udderly unusual task.

Tonight, we’d be standing in for the school’s former goats by clearing a small paddock of acorns. Andrew told us the oak tree only drops a mega‑crop every four years — and this was one of those bumper seasons. With the goats no longer around to gobble up the goodies, it was time for us to bleat them to it.

There was no kidding around once we got started. Armed with plant pots, rakes, and even a leaf blower, we set about herding acorns into black sacks at an impressive pace. By the end, we’d filled around 25 bags — a truly goat‑worthy haul — which Andrew whisked away to the bins.

The paddock is now looking far less a‑corny and ready for the PE department to unleash some fun and games.

6 Goodgymmers met in the rain at Wessex Primary School.

We have previously visited and helped remove old planters, but today's task was shifting the rubber woodchip from the car park to the playarea.

In true Goodgym style we rose to the task and with only one wheelbarrow employed the use of a wheelie bin and a smaller bin!! Verdict....great alternatives!!

We smashed out the task in 45mins which left time for a photo op and a play on the adventure trail!

Caretaker Andrew is looking for more tasks so we can return to help out again!!

7 lovely goodgym members made their way back to Wessex primary school to finish off the task we started before Christmas

We made quick work of the remaining beds and Jess expertly erected a pear tree in its new location

The rain was just a slight drizzle, but it didn’t deter the hardy Goodgym members

With the soil moved, pear tree erected and the area swept we made our way home!

Another successful task ticked off

Six GoodGymers (including Frosty the Snowman aka Amy) gathered at Wessex School to continue with the task of digging out and dismantling some raised beds Barrowloads of soil were deposited either in the skip or on some spare ground . We celebrated every time we extracted a shrub root. Each one was hard earned! We managed to clear 2 beds, but there is plenty more to do next year!

7 Goodgymers went back to school tonight to help demolish and clear 4 large planters outside the classrooms

It truly was a team effort, with some shovelling soil into wheel barrows and the others taking a run up to the skip to deposit it in, being careful not to fall in with the soil!

An hour quickly flew by and the bell soon rang for the end of class where we gathered up all classmates, admired our handiwork and made our way home

gold stars all round!

What an amazing turnout for this evening's session to help at Wessex Primary School, particularly considering we didn't meet in our usual start location. Just when I thought I knew how many we were, more would arrive! Maybe we could call ourselves the Countless of Wessex?

A very warm welcome to Helen, Rachel, Jennie and Alison, who joined us from the school community. It was also great to meet Sion and Sam, who Jenni invited from Reading to find out all about this weird and wonderful thing called GoodGym. We hope you can launch in your area soon - we'll definitely come and visit when you do!

A great big cheer for Taskforce member Louise, who organised our task for this evening and recruited many of our newbies from the school community. Top marks and a gold star for you!

Many thanks also to Mr Beaven and Mrs Pope, who welcomed us to the school, treated us to some jelly babies and stuck around until the end. We talked about a return visit later in the year to help with pond area...can't wait!

During the first part of the session lots of us went for a run or walk around Cox Green. The walkers did a scenic 2km (we passed not one but two Co-ops!) loop, and the lucky runners did similar but with a few extra back and forths to give the walkers time to catch up. This helped us to arrive at the task all warmed up and ready for action.

Lou did a great job of rapidly dishing out tasks to eager GoodGymers, and soon enough everyone was busy. Jennie, Alison, Georgeta, Rachel, Gillian and Helen bravely tackled brambles in a nature area, Adam, Clara, Jenni and Chris bravely tackled brambles next to a fence and Angela and Sara made speedy work of sawing down an overgrown shrub.

Everyone else focused on an area in the middle, where jobs included emptying a raised bed of plants (behaving like locusts), sanding a fence and bench, and painting the fence. An intriguing mix of small toys was also uncovered in the process.

Many hands made the to do list disappear fast. Lou has already received a big thank you from Mrs Corbett, who teaches in the area where we were working. She plans to take the children out first thing to admire our work.

So why the reference to smarty pants? Are we calling Lou a smarty pants because she organised such a bumper evening? Or is Jenni a smarty pants for bringing her Reading homies? Maybe we're all smarty pants for going back to school? Or should that be smarty 'paints' because of the awesome job the painters did blitzing the fence?

Well all of these would be excellent guesses, and quite true, but no. The title pun celebrates the GoodGymer who got paint on her trousers and didn't want to get it on the seats in my car, so had the bright idea to remove her trousers. I couldn't park right outside her house, so (looking quite a lot like an Olympic track star) she did a sprint finish down the road in her pants. What a memorable evening!