A SCHOOL has unveiled a new building to provide a quiet space for children in need of extra support, thanks to help from a parent with a talent for design.
The ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support Assistant) room at Bromley Heath Infant School is a multi-purpose facility which will be used to provide specialist help away from the busy main school building.
It will be available for uses ranging from speech therapy to “sand tray conversations”, where children are encouraged to talk about issues that are affecting them while playing with a tray and toys.
Building and garden designer Luke Millard, who has a child at the school, worked with staff from his company over the summer holidays to make the building ready for the new term.
Luke, who appears on TV show George Clarke’s Kitchen vs Garden, also called in favours from the industry to create an upgraded building, complete with soundproofing and a garden, which the school would not have been able to afford alone.
Head teacher Abigail Perry-Hodge said the school had wanted to create a new space for about two years.
She said: “We need to provide somewhere for children who need emotional support for a variety of reasons, such as family separation, traumatic events or anxiety over changes in life.
“We had been using the library for sessions but really we need that space for reading, and sand tray conversations were happening in the staff room.
“I was looking for somewhere inside the school and there just wasn’t anywhere we could do it.
“For children struggling with speech we want a quiet space, especially when dealing with sensitive emotional issues.”
Mrs Perry-Hodge started taking quotes for a new outdoor building when Luke offered to take on the job.
The school’s friends group raised £10,000 towards the project, with some of the cost coming from school funds and Luke’s company BGR Designs providing almost all of the labour free.
Mrs Perry-Hodge said: “We’re just delighted.
We thought we’d never be able to afford something like this. We’ve ended up with something we’d never have been able to get without their support.
“We had to make it clear to parents that the room wouldn’t be for all of the children but they were happy to raise money.
“The ELSA room will also help us in the future to meet needs we don’t know about yet.”
Luke said the whole project took five and a half weeks, with seven people working on the building through the school summer holidays.
He persuaded builders merchants Jewsons to donate the timber free of charge.
Luke’s daughters Willow, six, who is a pupil at the school, and ten-year-old Mya helped to plant the flowers outside the entrance to the room.
He said: “I live here and my kids go to school here but it’s not just for these children, it’s for the next generation – it’s going to be there for a long time.
“The children needed something like that – to see it in the playground every day, see it being used and knowing we built it is brilliant.
“The school got an absolute bargain!”
Last month the Voice reported that Luke had taken on a starring role in a new new Channel 4 TV series, George Clarke’s Kitchen vs Garden, working alongside architect George Clarke to design “dream schemes” for householders.
A second series is already being filmed and Luke, who has previously appeared as part of the building crew on BBC show DIY SOS, working with presenters Nick Knowles and Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen, will have an expanded role.