Billy White, 8, and Sam Lazenby, 10 A SWINDON school has a new outdoor classroom after a lot of hard work by parents and friends.

Frogs and newts have already been attracted to three new natural spring ponds at Abbey Meads School, which have been created on what was previously a marshy area.

Roxanna Cox, community education development worker at the school, said: "It's a new outdoor classroom and a real educational resource for the school."

Using a new grant of £1,000 from Oxford, Swindon and Gloucester Co-op, a weekend working party from the Friends of Abbey Meads School have transformed the school grounds.

Ms Cox said: "We had ten families on Saturday and another on Sunday, who all worked hard and they were aching afterwards.

"We built a pond-dipping platform and a bridge.

"Lots of children were there, and we did catering for everyone."

The group is meeting for another 'pond day' on Saturday May 21.