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Contact Details:

Gatton Park Education
Reigate
Surrey
RH2 0TD

Tel: 01737 649066
Fax: 01737 649067

Email:
education@
gatton-park.org.uk

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Thank you

to sponsors and supporters of our general programmes and activities:

Throughout the year we run educational projects supported by charitable trusts and businesses providing free educational experiences to our closest schools and children’s organisations. Some of our previous projects are outlined below.

Recent Educational Projects
Discovering Habitats Children from the Furzefield School visited the park to find out more about Gatton's lake habitats. They observed the bird life and discovered which invertebrates lived in the different parts of the lake. Their drawings were incorporated into an interpretation panel about the lake. Supported by Kimberly-Clark and Legal & General Assurance Society.
Gatton Guardians IV Children from three schools in Merstham visited the park on 6 occasions as part of the fourth year of this project. They had the chance to find out about the natural habitats and history of Gatton and observe the changing seasons throughout the year. This project is supported by Merstham Millennium Trust
Water Matters Children from five schools had the opportunity to find out about environmental issues relating to water in this project run in partnership with Sutton and East Surrey Water and The Environment Agency. The pupils visited a reservoir and water treatment works, then visited Gatton Park and had a talk from an ecologist from the EA. This all took place in the winter before the summer drought of 2006. The project was supported by Mark Leonard Trust and JJ charitable trust.
Drawing Inspiration from Gatton This project provided 3 workshops for 3 different groups of vulnerable adults. On each workshop the visitors had a chance to tour the Park to find out about its history, landscape and restoration. They then worked with an artist to interpret different areas of the park and to create large art pieces. The pieces were mounted by the artist, Karen Lucas and were displayed at Gatton Hall at one of the Open Days. Each piece formed a light installation with either artificial or natural light shining through it. The project is supported by The Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty which has a grant scheme that supports social, environmental and economic benefits (AONB) and whose aim is the effective protection of the environment ensuring a prosperous rural economy. Find out more about Drawing Inspiration here

Ready Steady Recycle III
One of our most popular schools projects returned and this time 10 schools were involved in activities all about recycling and waste. The project was supported by Legal & General Assurance Society, and as part of the project the children went to visit the L&G offices to find out about all their recycling and waste minimisation ideas. The pupils also visited the landfill site and Gatton Park and had sessions at their schools including a visit by artist Karen Lucas to create recycled art in the form of stained glass windows (made from carrier bags!).

Postcard from Gatton
Children from Furzefield School's Specialist Centre benefited from seven visits to Gatton Park to link practical experiences with literacy activities. The pupils watched the changing seasons and weather through the year and also had a special workshop with poet Jackie Wills and artist Sonia Percival, who also helped them to create a mosaic, based on the Japanese Garden, for their school. This project was supported by HBOS Community Foundation, CM Keyser Charitable Trust, Hale Trust, Kimberly-Clark and the Peter Harrison Foundation.

Picture Poems
Thirty two children from Merstham were able to join in exciting activities during the summer holidays thanks to a four-day project run in partnership with Families Together in Merstham. This group provides holiday trips and activities for families in need. This year the older children (7-12 years) were able to visit Gatton Park and work with artists and a poet to create wonderful poems, stories and artwork. All of this will be put together on a website to give a tour of Gatton Park. The project was supported by Awards for All.

Find out more here

Ecoclubs
Barclays supported this project that worked with three schools to run after school clubs on environmental topics. The children took part in activities on a variety of topics from wildlife to recycling, healthy food and water. At the end of the project the ideas were put together in a teachers' pack so that other schools can also run a club in the future.

Inspiring views
In the autumn of 2005, pupils from Merstham School had two workshops with Jackie Wills, a local poet, to create poetry about trees in the landscape. One of the class poems created, called "To Paint a View", was so inspiring that it was written out by a calligrapher and a framed copy was given to the school and Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. This project was run with Surrey Hills AONB and National Trust.

Storytelling - Bags of Ideas
Norwegian storyteller, Ragnhild A Mørch worked with 10 classes to encourage them to develop the skills used in traditional storytelling. In the morning the children went on a story walk as she told tales from around the world that linked to the landscape and gardens of the Park. In the afternoon Ragnhild helped the children to develop their own stories and storytelling techniques through a
series of activities.

This project was supported by
The Foyle Foundation

Gatton Environmental Detectives This year we held the final sessions of our monthly environmental club, which has run for 18 months. This project was supported by Ernest Cook Trust and Truemark Trust.

Chernobyl Children to Gatton
Children from Belarus visited the park for one day in the summer holidays, as part of a month-long stay with local families in the area. The children benefit from a holiday, health check-ups and free clothes and other products to take home. As part of their stay they go on trips and visits in the local area and Ben & Jerry's Ice cream kindly paid for their visit to Gatton Park.

Greener Grounds This project involves supporting seven Leatherhead schools with the development and use of their school grounds. This year one of the schools created a poetry booklet to celebrate different areas within their school grounds. This project is run in partnership with Learning through Landscapes.

Limpsfield Air Raid Shelters Interpretation The National Trust asked GPET to assist with the educational aspects of a project to restore the air raid shelters at Limpsfield Common. Two schools had workshops with artists and a poet to interpret how the shelters would have been used.

Abinger Common School - Magic Button Tree Working with artist Karen Lucas, we helped to create a living willow sculpture at Abinger Common School. The children created lots of designs for the tree and planned stories that might take place inside a Magic Button Tree.

St Anne's School Tree Trail St Anne's School in Banstead invited us to create a tree trail around their school grounds for pupils to take their lessons outside.