2024 Aberdeenshire Grant Awards

We're thrilled to announce that the following projects were approved to receive a grant from the Jo Walters Trust in June 2024, to bring about education in the outdoors:

• Keig Primary School Parent Council, £1,000: to upgrade the rural village playground with a TrimTrak which can be used by the pupils and the wider community.

• Turriff Academy, £2,000: this will buy tents, cooking equipment and other outdoor kit to allow senior school pupils in S1 to S3 to get the benefit of outdoor expeditions. 

• Midmill School Nursery, £500: to buy waterproofs, hats, wellies etc for Midmill nursery allowing the young children to benefit from time in the outdoors without being frozen and soaked

• Oakley ASN Ltd SC053128, £370: a donation to buy a disabled picnic table for 'Growing Futures' in Stonehaven, a project designed to give teenagers with additional support needs a nature-inspired journey of gardening and food cultivation.

• Braemar Primary School Parent Council, £500: this will allow the school to give teh children from Braemar primary a chance to try skiing at Glenshee over the 2024/25 winter

• Banff Academy: £1,973: to buy equipment to allow the school to expand Mountain biking / Cycling, Climbing and Duke of Edinburgh provision

• Elrick Nursery School, £140: this will allow the nursery to buy equipment needed to continue offering forest school for their youngest pupilis. 

2024 Maths Grants 

• Holly Lodge Girls' College, £1,000: these funds will pay to start two maths / problem solving clubs in a girls' school in a deprived area

• Bannockburn High School Learning Community, £500: to buy physical resources to use in place of digital one for students up to GCSE equivalent age

• Hillview Nursery, £750: to make up numeracy and maths bags using stories and rhymes allowing children and families to develop a love for maths and have fun learning together.

• Aberbargoed Primary, £792: this will help the school teach carers how to engage in mathematical activities on a day to day basis, while trying to also improve the adult understanding and knowledge of mathematical concepts. Using 'maths packs' which they offer to parents facilitates them to play/teach alongside their children at home.

• Four Lanes Junior School, £400: to create ‘maths game sacks’, akin to story sacks, giving families a bag of maths games, toys and resources to take home.

• Ysgol Penalltau, £500: to equip a maths shed with games and equipment, allowing the children to take their maths learning outdoors. 

2024 Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust Award

In July 2024, the Jo Walters Trust paid for a crew of young people to sail from Largs with the Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust with a donation of £4,026. This wonderful charity helps inspire young people to believe in a brighter future living through and beyond cancer through the magic of the Trust’s sailing and outdoor adventures.

As the EMCT says, 'When a young person gets the ‘all clear’, there is an expectation of happiness and returning to ‘normal’. But what is their ‘normal’ now? Their whole world has changed. The future can feel daunting and overwhelming. Cancer can have a big impact on a young person’s mental wellbeing beyond treatment which is why when treatment ends, their work begins.

“After my trip, I feel like I can do anything. I got through cancer so now I can just do anything. On my trips, I feel like I can explain how I feel and not feel judged. The friends I’ve made here know me a bit more because friends at home don’t know what I’ve been through so its hard to talk to them about it.” Seren, 10.

Our donation funded spaces for young people from Scotland aged 8-17 to take part in a five day return sailing trip from their base in Largs in July 2024.

 We are so grateful to Dame Ellen MacArthur for so kindly recording a message of thanks to all the supporters of the Jo Walters Trust who helped achieve this grant, you can watch it here