A WEYMOUTH school and a host of community groups in Dorset are celebrating after scooping grants.

They are among 89 organisations in the South West sharing a handout totalling more than £650,000 from the Lottery’s Awards for All programme.

Holy Trinity Primary School and Nursery in Cross Road received £9,950 to develop a community environmental area on an overgrown patch of land known as the old nursery where mobile classrooms used to be.

The work is being led by parent governors Samantha Lucken, Helen Toft and others, who are continuing to raise funds to complete all the work in the garden.

It is hoped to have a wildlife pond, memory garden, and a vegetable patch, as well as a planting area. Seedbeds have already been planted by each class.

Mrs Toft explained the environmental area would be built around an award-winning edible garden the school was given as a present and which is already in place. A classroom made from willow is also sited there.

Headteacher Mark Cheesely said: “This grant will go a long way towards helping us develop the environmental area.

“The area will be used as part of the curriculum.

“It will also help us in our bid to become an eco-school.

“There’s a lot of work involved, in fact we identified this land quite a while ago, and we hope to have it all completed in a couple of years.”

The community is invited to see plans for the area at an open day on Sunday May 17.

Also celebrating in the latest round of awards is the Chiswell Community Trust, which gets £8,700 to run free sculpture and ceramic workshops from June to August and to commission a short film about the workshops and the environment.

Group treasurer Margaret Somerville said: “We hope the workshops will allow people to understand, develop and appreciate their local wildlife.”

Dorchester Music and Performance Group received £6,630 to provide free arts and music performances to the public.

A community group called Village Voices based in Drimpton, near Beaminster, will research, record and present the life of the village in the nineteenth century after receiving a £6,000 grant.

And a project to run carpet bowls at Strangways Hall, Abbotsbury, gets a £850 boost. People of all ages will be invited to take part in the activity.