Community Spotlight - April 2024

SPOTLIGHT

APRIL 2024

We have an active community and partnership programme that involves pupils, staff, parents and the wider community. We are delighted to share some of the highlights of our activities.

ART SUPPLIES SHAFTESBURY PARK PRIMARY One of our wonderful partner schools, Shaftesbury Park Primary, participates in many of our programmes including Primary Ambitions, our Year 4 football tournaments, literary quizzes, maths competitions and more. They have also featured, with their wonderful choir, at our music extravaganzas at Clapham Grand held in the summer term. When the EPA was looking for entertainment for the Kris Tingle event before Christmas, Shaftesbury Park was an obvious choice. They performed beautifully and relished the showcase opportunity.

As a thank you, the EPA donated some much-needed art supplies including water colours, paint brushes and more, to the school. This was incredibly generous and super for the children.

CAREERS IN FINANCE NETWORKING EVENT SHARING OUR OPPORTUNITIES WITH PARTNER SCHOOLS On Wednesday, 6 March, 24 partner school students from Ernest Bevin and The Elms Academies joined our Year 11 and Sixth Form for our Finance networking event. The event was highly informative including three presentations covering different aspects of finance followed by networking with over 30 finance professionals representing different facets of the industry. Our partner school

pupils were brilliant – actively engaging in discussions.

This is one of many opportunities we share with our secondary partner schools.

Others include our annual Careers and Higher Education Convention, Oxbridge and medical school interview practice and our popular GCSE booster programme that ran over the Easter holidays.

SPOTLIGHT

EMANUEL IN THE COMMUNITY

ABI ELPHINSTONE ‘WE ARE CAPABLE OF EXTRAORDINARY THINGS’ Noted by The Times as ‘ A worthy successor to C.S. Lewis’, Abi is the bestselling and multi-award shortlisted author of Saving Neverland, The Unmapped Chronicles (Everdark, Rumblestar, Jungledrop, The Crackledawn Dragon), Sky Song, and The Dreamsnatcher triology. Her stories are adventure books filled with magic.

We were thrilled Abi ran a workshop for our Year 6 and partner schools’ Goldfinch and Falconbrook pupils to celebrate World Book Day. She was fabulous – sharing her writing strategies such as how she gathers ideas including leafing through picture books, browsing photography books, sketching maps and traveling

YEAR 6 ENRICHMENT TRIP WESTMINSTER ABBEY AND THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT We had two incredible days with partner schools Christ Church and John Burns primaries touring the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey as part of our Year 6 enrichment programme. We explored both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, noting the clerk’s table and despatch box, Speakers Chair, red versus green benches, the

to new places to have adventures. She also shared that she is always on the look out for the unusual - inspecting treasures in antiques shops, such as grandfather clocks, glittering gemstones, leather-bound books and unusual keys. And, how she creates character names from everyday things, like shower gel (cue the surname ‘Pecksniff’ of the heroine in The Dreamsnatcher) and street signs (cue ‘Erkenwald’ – the name of the magical kingdom in Sky Song, which came from a road in London).

We can’t wait to welcome her back again in the Autumn when she publishes her new book, Amber Spark.

Government and Opposition and much more. In Westminster Abbey, we explored the Cloisters, the Cosmati Pavement, Poets’ Corner and the Coronation Chair.

In both venues, we participated in workshops including a boisterous and well-argued debate about banishing homework and electric and diesel cars at the House of Commons. Our Speakers were certainly kept on their toes.

Children worked in cross-school groups in the workshops and interactive tourbased activities.These off-site sessions are a great way to enhance communication, dismantle misconceptions and make new friends.

EMANUEL IN THE COMMUNITY

SPOTLIGHT

CAPTIVATING BEAUTY AND THE BEAST SHOWCASE Pupils from three of our partner primary schools – Christ Church, Griffin and Langford - attended a special ‘Beauty and the Beast’ showcase that was put together by our wonderful cast and Drama department. The children were enthralled by the series of scenes presented. They met Belle and the Beast and a slew of other characters. They experienced solos and choreographed dance scenes. And, they loved it! Cast members joined our primary school visitors for a Q and A session after the programme. Our visitors asked great questions – and a lot of them! – which were thoughtfully answered by our Emanuel students.

Few of our partner school pupils have the opportunity to see live theatre and many do not have the opportunity to have drama or singing at school. It is wonderful to be able to share such experiences with them – our students benefited from performing to an audience prior to their opening night and our partner schools were able to see a spectacular production.

HMP WANDSWORTH BOOK DRIVE We are keen to continue supporting the reading community at HMP Wandsworth.

Katie Nutley, the Head of Reducing Reoffending, responsible for education and rehabilitation in the prison, is keen to reiterate how important it is to the men to have free access to books on the prison

CRICKET DRIVE EXTRAVAGANZA PHASE 2 Thanks to your wonderful generosity we were able to provide Norwood School Cricket club – a club founded to support children in the refugee community - some much needed cricket equipment that we collected during our EPA second hand uniform sale.The club – hugely appreciative – still needs more.They are after everything including practice windballs, hardballs, bats stumps, pads and helmets. Whites would be great too. So, now that cricket season is upon us and it is time to replace kit that children have outgrown, please think of us and bring it along to the security gate on Monday, 22 April through to Wednesday, 24 April.

wings aside from their designated library visiting days.

INAUGURAL TALK & TEA

We are collecting teen/young adult fiction – particularly thrillers, page turners an general non-fiction books. If you are having a Spring clean, please bring in your books from Monday, 22 April through to 24 April and leave them in the bins provided at the security gate.

We were delighted to host so many of you at our inaugural Community Partnership & Outreach Chat and Tea that coincided, not accidently, with our buzzing Friday afternoon Primary Ambitions programme.

If you are available to help us unpack, sort and repack cricket equipment and books ready for delivery from 9.30 am to 11.30 am on 24 April, that would be amazing. If you are interested, please let us know.

We heard from the wonderful Ms Orchin, KS2 Lead from St George’s CE Primary about the difference Primary Ambitions makes to her pupils (84.6% from minority ethnic backgrounds; 51.4% English as a additional language; 62% receiving free school meals) and then scattered across the school to see the programme in action.

We followed the tour with a chat about our broader activities including Ascent and EmpowHER and opportunities to get involved. Please see some of these here.

SPOTLIGHT

EMANUEL IN THE COMMUNITY

GETTING INVOLVED - HELP NEEDED! INSPIRATIONAL SPEAKERS NEEDED

VOLUNTEER READING MINIBUS DRIVING PROGRAMME

As part of EmpowHER, the girls’ football programme we run in partnership with Fulham Football Club Foundation, participants attend workshops, have 1-2-1 mentors and have access to inspirational speakers in addition to football sessions.

That is where you come in! If you would be happy to share your experiences, with the aim of inspiring and motivating these girls to stay in education and fulfil their potential, we would love to hear from you. Talks can be short pitch side chats on Thursday evenings at our Blagdons sports ground or 30 minutes-plus during school holidays. We are extremely flexible!

As part of EmpowHER, the girls’ football programme we run in partnership with Fulham Football Club Foundation, participants attend workshops, have 1-2-1 mentors and have access to inspirational speakers in addition to football sessions.

That is where you come in! If you would be happy to share your experiences, with the aim of inspiring and motivating these girls to stay in education and fulfil their potential, we would love to hear from you. Talks can be short pitch side chats on Thursday evenings at our Blagdons sports ground or 30 minutes-plus during school holidays. We are extremely flexible!

BOOK AND CRICKET ASCENT – SUMMER DRIVE SORTING TERM PUPIL AND PARENT Join us to unpack and sort cricket equipment and books for our community VOLUNTEERING partners, Norwood School and HMP Wandsworth. It is a great opportunity to get involved in our community work and meet other parents.

We will be sorting from 9.30 to 11.30 am in M8, a Dacre courtyard classroom. If you are able to help sort and repack, please get in touch.

Ascent, our summer school booster programme for Year 5 partner primary school children who need a bit of a boost or who would benefit from some stretch and challenge will run again every Saturday morning in the summer term. The final two sessions of the programme are full days.We have planned a trip to the Science Museum on 8 July.

For more information on our community partnership and outreach activities, and to volunteer for any of the initiatives, please contact Mrs Irwin, Head of Community Partnerships and Outreach: Lisa.irwin@emanuel.org.uk

As you know, we run numerous community partner activities here on site and further afield. Many of our partner schools struggle to participate without our support. When possible, we provide our Emanuel School minibuses and we are always on the lookout for drivers. If you have a clean driving licence, have been driving for two plus years and are interested in volunteering, we would love to hear from you. You do not need a special licence to drive a minibus – the category B licence we all require to drive our cars is sufficient. You will need a DBS check and then an induction – both managed by the school.

We are still recruiting pupil volunteers from Years 9, 10 and 12. The programme is a great way for pupils to fulfil their DofE volunteering requirements. It is also fabulous for Lower Sixth pupils in preparation for their personal statements.

If interested, can you have your child complete the form found here? https:// forms.office.com/e/43VLedACdf We are always on the look out for parent volunteers too – if you are available to support the Science Museum trip on the 8 July, we would LOVE to hear from you.