Pupils at a Merseyside school were “devastated” after recent storms ripped through a therapeutic garden that took years to build.
Staff and volunteers at Crosby High School in Sefton spent the past couple of years fund-raising to build the garden at weekends and after school by hand and with the help of the pupils, who have special education needs, attending the school.
Forest school lead and teacher Mike Hannaway said the garden provides a space for pupils who often don’t get much opportunity to spend time outdoors to learn about gardening, as well as giving them the chance to look after chickens and rabbits and grow food at the site.
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Volunteers were also recently in the process of creating a pond area for the students to go pond dipping and learn about aquatic life and had been starting to make regular use of the space after a difficult two years, where many pupils had been hit hard by the isolation brought about by the pandemic.
However, when they returned to school this week after the half term break, Mike said the students were left in “absolute shock” at the “carnage” created by a series of storms which had battered their much loved garden.
Mike said: “The storm flattened everything.
“The first thing the kids were worried about and devastated about was the rabbit run being ruined, they thought the rabbits had been killed.
“Thankfully a teaching assistant had taken them home over half term and the chickens had been out of the way round the corner and stayed safe.
“Everything else has been wrecked and all our tools and equipment have been blown about everywhere.”
Mike said he spent yesterday working with some of his students, many of whom have conditions including autism and Downs Syndrome, to start to rebuild what had been destroyed.
He said: “We had to demolish a lot of bits that weren’t safe. We were out yesterday and the children got involved in starting to build it all back up.
“We had the drills out, and although the drilling isn’t something they can do, they were all getting involved in pushing the trigger and singing ‘Bob the Builder’.
“They’ve been devastated, the garden has had a huge impact on a lot of our children here. For many, they don’t get much outdoor time and they are determined to put it all back together.
“Many of our kids get picked up by bus straight into school, sit in school all day and get a bus home, and often because of the different challenges the children face they don’t get the same opportunities to play out.
“With the two years everyone’s had, many of our children were really hard hit by the pandemic and have been dealing with mental health issues and other challenges as well.
“The rabbits in particular have been a huge therapy for them, an opportunity for care and responsibility and the garden has been vital.
“We can’t get this much needed resource back to them until we rebuild.”
Mike has set up a GofundMe in the hopes of raising up to £5,000 to rebuild the therapy garden and develop the aquatic area.
He said: “It’s going to be all hands to the deck now to get this place back up and running, it’s just devastating how much damage a storm can do.
“It goes beyond buildings and structures, this garden means so much to our children.”
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