Shared stories

'As the bombing was a bit naughty I was advised to have my baby at Suntrap'. 

Arriving on the school bus we nicknamed Goober (after the cartoon Goober and the Ghost Chasers).

Then out of the blue came Suntrap!

These are some of my happiest childhood memories and inspired me to start The Garden Classroom a charity and social enterprise ..

Activities involving compasses, maps and "talking bushes" (teachers springing out to point wayward kids in the right direction)!

"Wow!" on seeing a Great Diving Beetle to wails of anguish at losing a Wellie stuck in mud.

 “Oh,” she said, “they’re rabbit droppings”. I’d never seen them before and to me they looked rather like currants my Mum used at home for baking! 

‘Imagine the scene…. Me and my Year 5 class strolling back to Suntrap after a busy afternoon in the forest.

Little oasis of Suntrap, seeing a real-life owl and the stunned silence of the class when the bird almost completely rotated its head.

That's me in the glasses: the wary look is probably because that bird gave me quite a peck on the nose once.

Having to find our way around the forest from one point to another -how brave I felt.

The mantra “take only pictures, leave only footprints, kill nothing but time” remains with me to this day. 

The look of joy and concentration on the faces of partially sighted children from Joseph Clarke School as they climbed on and explored the trunk of a huge fallen oak.

This was my very first trip away from home on my own. 

Memories such as moss on colder side of tree trunk means its north facing.

Going to Suntrap as a kid showed me another way of life and I'm grateful for the chance it gave me.

Photo: Ken Hoy and class
 

One time I wasn’t sure where we were in the forest and it looked as if we were heading in the wrong direction. So I asked my class ‘Who wants to lead us back?’