While the work party beavered away at repointing the Trebanos Lower Lock Chamber and building the foundations to the new wall, steps and jetty at the bottom of the Lock, John Donovan, our Education Officer, took a timeout to meet the CRT Funding Officer, Jackie Harries. She was making a site audit visit in advance of the CRT bid to the BIG LOTTERY for funding to expand the Heritage, History and Environment education programme in Wales. The audit consisted of the following questions:-
What is the realistic schools catchment for each site – including special schools and schools suffering from above average deprivation?
What can CRT offer at each site (now and future potential)?
Current number of CRT Explorers volunteers at each site (if any)
What is the access and parking like? (Can schools walk if parking not available)?
Are there toilet and refreshment facilities?
Is there all weather cover?
Who are the key CRT/Explorers partners at each site? (e.g. at Brecon we work with the library, museum and Forestry Commission to deliver Explorers)
Which schools do CRT currently work with at each site?
Which schools are close to the site that we have not yet made contact with (and any reasons why)
Site difficulties (e.g. there is a loo but we’re not allowed to use it at the moment, are there safety issues, busy roads to cross, etc)
Any costs of using the site (e.g. paying for use of cover, loos, other partners’ resources)
What is the current use of the site for schools (e.g. number of days per annum, number of pupils, outline of what we offer on the day).
Population statistics for each area (useful as some of the sites clearly link to summer shows and town fetes.

John was happy to deal with all these points. We scored extra Brownie points by having Canoe instruction as an add-on extra. John took Jackie to the canoe store to see what we had to offer.

We hope CRT are successful in their bid because the money will provide extra resources for John when our canal hosts pupils from the primary schools near the canal. We thank Jackie for visiting us.