A Huge Thank You to The Wates Foundation!

We are incredibly grateful to The Wates Foundation for their generous funding in 2024, which has been instrumental in helping us engage new schools and groups at The Holly Lodge Centre!

While we’re fortunate to have many schools and groups returning year after year, often filling our capacity with heavily subsidised and free sessions, reaching new audiences can be a challenge for a small charity like ours, nestled away in Richmond Park. This is where the Wates Foundation’s support made all the difference. Their funding allowed us to dedicate staff time to proactively reach out to new schools and SEND (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities) groups, offering them the opportunity to experience our unique programs for free. We focused our efforts on schools in surrounding boroughs with high levels of Pupil Premium grants, an indicator of deprivation, and specialist schools.

Thanks to The Wates Foundation, we are delighted to welcome six new schools to the Centre:

• Acton Gardens Primary School
• Falconbrook Primary School
• Meath Speech and Language Communication School
• Robin Hood Primary School
• Roehampton Church School
• Selbourne Primary School

Children from these schools enjoyed a variety of engaging sessions, including “Frogs, Toads and Newts,” “Living Things in Winter,” “Nocturnal Animals,” “Victorian School,” and “Then & Now.”

A Personal Connection: Laura’s Story

We owe a special thank you to Laura for putting us forward to The Wates Foundation. Laura has a wonderful personal connection to The Holly Lodge Centre:

“As a young girl, I vividly remember attending a citizenship day at Holly Lodge Centre circa ’96,” Laura shared. “My eldest attended a similar citizenship day in ’23, making me curious about what Holly Lodge Centre now offers.”

Laura was deeply impressed by the Centre’s vital work after speaking with our team. “I realised just how vitally important the charity’s work is within the borough – offering a calming pause in people’s day, a visceral sense of connecting to nature and self,” she explained.

Recalling a recent visit to see some of the funded beneficiaries, Laura added, “I chatted to some of your wonderful volunteers who were setting up the garden space. I can see why you attract a great number of volunteers, and I am in awe of what you all offer the users of Holly Lodge Centre. Thank you so much for offering children and families a slice of heaven, curiosity and a spark of wonder. As you can tell by my own experience as a young girl, Holly Lodge Centre stays with you.”

We are incredibly grateful to The Wates Foundation and to Laura for enabling us to share the magic of The Holly Lodge Centre with even more children and families!