Last night the Bishop Road School Story Garden was formally unveiled, revealing a magical storytelling space for children.

The new Story Garden has taken many months of designing and implementing, transforming a previously unused ugly patch of land in the school grounds.

It had been decided that the patch of unused land should be a story garden, in keeping with Bishop Road School’s value on stories and books.

The project has been co-managed by Rhiannon Benson, Mr Kieboom and John St Leger, and was designed by the brilliant Different by Design.

All of the hard work and planning has paid off and the transformation of the space was described by Rhiannon as “going from being a grotty back yard to a golden space.”

Head Teacher of Bishop Road School, Mrs Powe, was at the launch of the Story Garden and she talked about how the new story garden will benefit Bishop Road pupils:

“I am very excited about the Story Garden. Here at Bishop Road School we love story and in the new story garden children will find fulfillment through reading, books and stories.”

The Bishop Road Story Garden lies behind big green doors and is sheltered by trees, just like a secret garden.

It includes lots of exciting features and surprises for children to discover.

This includes a wooden tee-pee – complete with purple bean-bags – a windy footpath, an astro turfed area, a beautiful water fountain, plus a sheltered area for use in rainy days.

The creativity of the design of the Story Garden is sure to inspire children’s imaginations and spark ideas.

In the sheltered area sit two large ornately carved wooden chairs, reminiscent of the chairs that Mr Tumnus and Lucy sit in the book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

The Bishop Road School Story Garden is now open and ready to be used by pupils for many hours of magical storytelling fun.