Education, Wimborne | Posted on July 24th, 2026 | return to news

Wimborne gardening club saved by charity grant

A £2,000 grant from Dorset Community Foundation to West Moors charity DEED will protect Wimborne First School’s gardening club.

A grant from Dorset Community Foundation’s Wessex Water Environment Fund has saved a gardening club at a Wimborne school and helped eight other environmental projects.

The fund supports projects that improve local biodiversity or have a positive impact on the environment in Dorset communities. It has awarded more than £16,000 to fund a range of initiatives including rainwater harvesting and composting systems.

Among the recipients is West Moors global learning and education charity DEED, which will use a £2,000 grant to continue a weekly after-school gardening club at Wimborne First School. The club helps more than 20 Year 3 and 4 pupils and their families prepare the ground and sow seeds to grow food and plants for pollinators to increase biodiversity.

Sustainability Lead Sarah Wise said the club had run out of funding at the end of term. “I’m so delighted because what was going to be really difficult was to actually not carry any of this on,” she said.

“Now I can go back to the school and say we are able to carry on. I know the kids want it, I know that two staff members are happy to support it, so I’m really excited about that.”

Wise added that the club has strengthened the pupils’ connection with the natural world and the food chain. She said: “One of the pupils wrote me a little note and said ‘Thank you so much, this has been the best club ever and I’ve learned some new skills’, and another told me ‘I’ve really enjoyed this, I’ve learnt so much and tried new foods’. Some of the children had never eaten carrots or didn’t even know what a mangetout looked like.

“One of the nicest things has been watching the children exploring a part of the school grounds they’d never been to and seeing them connect with it.”

Another £2,000 grant will help the Sail Training Trust on Portland run a sustainability and marine ecology programme, delivered by its instructors in partnership with the Andrew Simpson Foundation and Surfers Against Sewage.

Fundraising officer Jacqui Greenhaf said: “The programme will give 20 young people the chance to take part in water testing, biodiversity surveys, marine pollution investigations and coastal conservation education.

“The young people will gain practical understanding of local environmental issues affecting waterways and marine ecosystems within Portland.”

The Wessex Water Environment Fund is part of the YTL UK Foundation, which has provided at least £500,000 of funding every year since 2021 to support communities, environmental projects and charities helping those who are suffering the consequences of poverty through low income or unemployment.

Find out more about the work of Dorset Community Foundation at dorsetcommunityfoundation.org.