Millstead school staff in Liverpool double £1.5K walk target to buy much-needed play equipment for pupils

Staff at Millstead School in Everton and Netherley have raised more than £3,000 to buy specialist play equipment for pupils – doubling their target of £1.5K.

Around 30 members of staff from Millstead School, along with parents and friends, took part in a sponsored walk at the end of last year, trekking from their north site in Illiad Street, Everton, to their new south site in Naylorsfield Drive, Netherley.

Megan McMahon, a higher level teaching assistant at the school who organised the walk, said: “We started off with a target of £500 and didn’t even think we’d get that.

“But when we reached that in the first hour of setting up a GoFundMe page, we raised it to £1,500 – and then doubled that!”

She added: “Staff and parents gave up a Saturday morning to do the seven-mile walk and it was as much a team-building exercise as anything, but it was great that everyone got on board to raise money to buy specialist play equipment and improve the outdoor facilities for the children.”

Millstead Primary is a special needs school based across two sites in Liverpool, Everton which now has 160 children, and the newer Netherley base which has 105.

There is limited outdoor play provision at the Netherley site and at the Everton site, some of the play equipment is no longer safe for use.

The fundraiser was part of a plan to raise around £60,000 and £50,000 for the north and south sites respectively but, in spite of support from local business including the Livergirls International at Hotel Tia – two members of which did a sponsored cross-country walk – St James’s Place and Barclaycard, there’s still a long way to go.

Lisa Jankowski, Millstead’s deputy headteacher, said: “Our children all have complex learning needs, and in addition some have profound physical needs and accessing the local community and play areas can be really difficult for them.

“The play equipment is really important in terms of giving them opportunities, but we also use it as an educational tool to help meet our children’s sensory needs. We noticed a massive change in our children’s regulation when they couldn’t access play equipment, as well as their engagement in learning, their ability to regulate their emotions, levels of communication, and their general wellbeing.

“It’s these changes that drove Megan and the rest of the staff. The impact of not having that play equipment was so significant on the children they wanted to do something.”

The school is forced to fundraise in stages because the specialist equipment is so expensive. The first phase at Illiad street has been completed: “And once we saw the positive impact at just having some of the equipment, that gave us even more motivation.”

The school is now school working hard to start phase 2.

The equipment currently includes climbing equipment, swings and a roundabout, but the school wants to repair and replace other equipment around the school, like sunken trampolines which the children love and are a ‘massive tool to help the children regulate’ but which are currently unusable because they are unsafe.

Millstead also needs adapted equipment for children in wheelchairs so all the children can access the outdoor areas.

“Much of the equipment is what you’ll find in your local park so we can teach our children to be able to access it safely in school and transfer these skills into their wider community,” said Megan. “School budgets are tight which is why we’re taking it into our own hands, because we just want to help give our wonderful children the learning environment they deserve.”

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