Growing, Connecting and Looking Ahead

As many of you will already know, our small CIC has recently been awarded two significant pots of funding—and we are incredibly grateful and excited about what this will make possible.

Our first award is two years of core funding from BBC Children in Need, beginning in September. Core funding is particularly valuable to a small organisation like ours, as it helps strengthen the foundations behind everything we do and gives us greater stability as we plan for the future.

We have also received a further year of National Lottery Awards for All funding. This will enable us to continue our established weekly term-time Forest School sessions, alongside our monthly work with SEND children and their families.

With this additional support in place, I will be spending time over the next month looking carefully at how we can extend our reach a little further. We are already exploring ways to strengthen our existing partnerships and hope to continue collaborating with wonderful local organisations such as Community Wellness Hub and Active Community Enterprise (ACE) CIC. Together, we would like to create more intergenerational opportunities and explore a wider range of ways to support and connect with our SEND community.

We will also be celebrating our third anniversary as a CIC towards the end of September! It feels like an important milestone for our small organisation, and we are looking forward to reflecting on how far we have come. Watch this space for more information about how we will be marking the occasion.

Upcoming community sessions

We also have ongoing funding from Knowsley Council to deliver our women’s wellbeing programme, Seeds of Support. Unfortunately, we have had to rearrange a few sessions because of clashes with venue bookings. We are working hard to confirm replacement dates as soon as possible and really appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding.

Our monthly weekend Forest School sessions will take place this Saturday, 8 August.

We are also making the most of what is often a school staff INSET day by offering a fully funded outdoor session for SEND children and their families at the ACE Place on Tuesday 1 September—just before many children return to school.

Further information and booking details will be shared through our website and social media.

Continuing our school improvement work

Alongside our community delivery, my school improvement work will continue into the next academic year. I will be working with six independent specialist schools located across the country, supporting leaders and staff with their ongoing development and improvement work.

This strand of Journeys, Leaves and Seeds may not always be as visible on our social media, but it remains an important part of what we do. It enables me to continue using my experience in Early Years, SEND and school improvement to support children and educators in a range of settings.

Celebrating with the Millennium Centre

We are also honoured to be part of the Millennium Centre’s 25th-anniversary celebrations. Unfortunately, I am unable to attend this time, but our wonderful assistant, Amy Wenton, will be there representing Journeys, Leaves and Seeds CIC.

It promises to be a fantastic event for the whole community, so please do visit on Saturday 15 August and say hello to Amy!

A very busy summer

It has been an exceptionally busy summer for me in terms of outdoor delivery. I have been working as the Forest School Leader for Growing Sudley CIC’s holiday club, providing Forest School-style sessions for Swanside Community Centre’s holiday club and delivering our own community sessions.

All of this has meant that admin time has been rather limited, and I sometimes feel as though I am chasing my tail! However, rest assured that by the end of August, our upcoming funded Forest School sessions will be advertised and added to the website.

Thank you, as always, to everyone who attends our sessions, shares our work, recommends us to others or supports us behind the scenes. We remain a very small CIC, but—with the support of our funders, partners and community—we are excited to see where this next chapter takes us.