THE governors of Holy Trinity Primary School in Great Cheverell are calling on the community to help them improve their playing

Two years ago the school made an unsuccessful £35,000 application to the Sports and Arts Foundation to fund improvement work and buy play equipment to allow the children to use the 2.5-acre field all year round.

Headteacher John Bridges said: "During the winter the field gets so wet that much of it is too muddy to use. We have the most idyllic grounds of any school I know and it is a shame we cannot use them to their full potential."

The governors want to put in a footpath so children can walk across it, whatever the weather, to reach a quiet area where there will be seats and shrubs.

Close to that will be a conservation zone where there is already an active badger sett. The school wants to make a cloverleaf-shaped pond of differing depths so that different species of pond life can use it.

Part of the conservation zone will be used as a vegetable patch for the school gardening club, whose members will also have a hand in planting shrubs and floral borders.

Beside the existing football pitches it is planned to have a running track.

Closer to the school would be a large activity area which, as well as containing adventure play equipment, would serve for games, dance and drama.

Mr Bridges said: "So far we have raised £3,000 so we might start on one part of the project.

"We hope that members of the local community will come on board, perhaps lending a hand laying the path or helping with planting.

"The school's Parents and Friends Association has been working very hard and through their efforts we may achieve our conservation zone."

The plans have been drawn up by governor Bernard Willington.

He said: "We would very much like to involve the community in the development of this area, perhaps by asking local people to sponsor paving slabs.

"There are lots of ideas for it, many of them from the children themselves. We have incorporated their ideas in our current thinking, and we will continue to do that as the school population changes."

The school is to approach builders and other companies for their help. If anyone can help telephone (01380) 813796.