Last year the Friends of Archbishop Wake Primary School launched a campaign to raise funds for an all-weather playing field; a multi-use games area or ‘MUGA’. The school is fortunate to have a large grass playing field, but it is mostly unusable for much of the year when the ground is too wet. A MUGA gives the school an all-weather sports surface which is suitable for multiple activities, so that they can use their outdoor space all year round both for fresh air playtimes and for outdoor PE and sports clubs.
The Friends of Archbishop Wake were aware it was an ambitious project, but launched the appeal and worked to raise as much as they could. In May the digital BV featured eight year old pupil Patrick Doyle’s own fundraising efforts, starting with a sponsored walk on Milldown; Patrick eventually raised over £800 for the MUGA fund.
The Friends managed in total to raise over £7000 via a JustGiving page, with the whole school taking part in a sponsored walk event. The Friends also donated an extra £10,000 towards the building of the MUGA – meaning work was able to commence just as the school broke up for the summer.
Work is now completed, and on Friday 5th November the entire school gathered on the school field for the official opening ceremony. After a rousing Good Morning from headteacher Mr Carter, the microphone was passed to the School Council representatives.
School Council Chair Rosie Pitcher and her vice-chair Annabel Amey together thanked the long list of both organisations and people who had made the MUGA possible. They then announced that after a long half term debating (and as voted for by the children) the new MUGA would be called (drumroll please) …
THE WAKE ZONE!
The school cheered its approval of the new name as the heads of houses moved to cut the ribbon. These four house captains are all in year 6, and they had to apply for the position and go through an interview process to get the job. They are viewed as amazing role models for the other children to look up to.
Archbishop Wake recently re-named their houses, which have traditonally been named after local beaches. The children voted to re-name them after people who inspired them, and the four houses are now: Attenborough, Thunberg, Rashford and Seacole.
Mr Carter, headteacher said “The MUGA has changed our PE lessons and playtimes forever. Physical education has always been necessary but it is even more important for all children since lockdown and really does have a massive impact on both physical and mental health.”
The ceremony was watched by members of the AFC Bournemouth Women’s team who had attended to support the installation of the Wake Zone, and were to spend the entire day at the school providing coaching and sports activities for various year groups.
