Hello everyone and welcome to summer, although June in Devon has arrived with cool and showery weather leaving behind a remarkably hot and sunny May! April and May have been quiet months for THF, but we are delighted to bring you news of a brilliant new play, Sherwood the Musical written by gifted teacher Flo Witcombe from Orchard Manor School, Dawlish. Trustees Annie and Roger Kirk were privileged to see this play performed by students at this highly-rated special school wi

School arts workshops are happening this month and we will bring you news of them in the July newsletter.

Win a £1,000 Airbnb Getaway in June's Super Draw! From Cornwall beach breaks and cosy Lake District cottages to exciting West End weekends, your perfect early-summer escape could be waiting. Already got your getaway booked? Don't forget, there’s a £1,000 cash alternative! Enter before Saturday 27th June for your chance to win. Every ticket supports a great cause. Click HERE

We still have some spaces on the THF/EPF 20th Anniversary offer of up to £600 per school to mount a musical/dramatic performance by the end of 2026 - but you need to act fast! Applications need to reach us by June 5th. We look forward to hearing from you! You may already have plans for a production in 2026, and this fund can help support that. Access to the fund requires completing a simple application form, and the fund will close when all the money is spent, on a first-com

Youngsters worked  with experienced  Daisi artist Anna Boland to explore and uncover the sculptural possibilities that air-drying clay has to offer. The school wrote: “A massive thank you to The Helen Foundation for their generous funding of a brilliant clay-sculpting workshop with professional artist, Anna Boland. The children created their own Greek mythical creatures in 3D, confidently applying their skills in shaping, forming, scoring and joining. They carefully added i

In this session, each pupil used a Dartmoor Tor photo (provided by Simon) as the source from which they created a collagraph print of the Tor with the name of the Tor included. The pupils worked up to A4 and included other Dartmoor elements in the image. They printed several copies to create a banner on very strong wallpaper lining paper. Simon worked on this after the workshop, varnished the banner and returned it to the school shortly after the workshop took place. The sch

The workshop plan was to celebrate all of the amazing things that happen at school - in illustrative form. The idea was to make lovely drawings - involving pen & watercolour - to create some great illustrations for a display inspired by the work of Quentin Blake The work led to the creation of a brilliant Quentin Blake themed tree in the centre of the school’s display board! CHILDREN'S FEEDBACK “Annabel, I really enjoyed your amazing workshop and the fantastic things we did

Over an amazing weekend of lovely weather in late March, forty shanty singing groups got together to present a rich and very entertaining weekend of singing in a wide variety of venues in Cockwood and nearby Cofton and Starcross. It’s a festival characterised by lusty singing, great good humour, and terrific entertainment for the audiences comprising everyone from babes in arms to pensioners like Annie and Roger from The Helen Foundation! We wish to thank everyone involved i

We wish to extend a sincere apology to The Veronica Awdry Trust for misspelling their name in the text of our article last month about the very generous support they have given to The Helen Foundation. The wording was correct in the article heading but, in the text, Awdry was wrongly spelt “Audrey”.