BEYOND LATYMER

— YOUNG REPORTER SCHEME P42 — COMMUNITY SENIOR LETTERS P44

The Young Reporter scheme is a schools programme giving students aged 14-18 a fantastic opportunity to write for a real live online newspaper. With a dearth of real life work experience opportunities in 2020, we decided the programme would be a brilliant option for any student who was interested in a career in journalism.

Young Reporter Scheme

Sally Greene Careers Coordinator

The programme started in September with 36 students from Latymer signed up to take part, and ran until April this year. Students submitted different articles each month on a topic of their choosing and these articles were then put forward at the end of the scheme to be judged in five categories: Breaking News, Interview, Sport, Event, Photography.

The competition is typically very high across all categories with a huge amount of entries and we were delighted when the winners were announced to discover that Middle School student Pearl had won in the Breaking News category. Pearl’s article entitled ‘Food Banks cry for help’ was brilliantly researched and written, covering a highly topical issue exacerbated during the pandemic last year. It’s a fabulous achievement for Pearl to win in the school’s first year of participation in this scheme and I hope it will encourage other students to take part in the programme in future years.

This is the actual article that Pearl wrote and that was published in This is Local London

(https://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/)

Food Banks Cry For Help 29th October 2020: ➦ As I’m sure many of us are aware, we are currently living in what people love to describe as an ‘unprecedented time’ in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak. Whilst this platitude has been thrown around very casually these past couple of months, few people can truly comprehend the gravity of the situation and the majority of these people can be found in the same place: food banks.

The Ringcross Community Centre Food Bank (RCFB) is one such organisation in the frontline of the pandemic and is the result of a collaboration between two incredible charities – the Pilion Trust and the Alexandra Wylie Tower Foundation (AWTF). I was fortunate enough to have a conversation with the founder of AWTF, Lindsey Wylie, who is responsible for ensuring the food bank runs like clockwork – a necessity considering the dramatic increase in demand for their service.

When asked how the food bank had been operating prior to lockdown, Wylie described the food bank as having been “very manageable” with them having supplied 6-15 households per day with food and

toiletries. However, from when London was plunged into lockdown back in March until now, RCFB has been inundated with clients. “The increase is just unimaginable,” commented Wylie and in order to accommodate the influx of clients, RCFB even introduced a home delivery service for those in need. The week beginning 12th October, they managed to do over 80 home deliveries and feed over 200 households which, needless to say, is a remarkable feat considering what they were previously accustomed to.

When asked about donations to the food bank, Wylie was full of effusive praise saying, “People have been extraordinary, they have just risen up and helped.” Supermarkets have generously donated surplus food to the food bank as well as the North London Food Bank Aid. The real issue lies in that people are living under the false assumption that the situation has become less dire and are more reluctant to help. “There’s an idea that we are returning to normal but the reality on the ground is that more and more people are joining the food bank queue… because more people are becoming unemployed,” she said. This means that not only are the donations beginning to taper off, there is a scarce number of drivers volunteering to do deliveries which is a crucial aspect of the entire operation. “We have a number of people who are housebound and so totally dependent on the delivery of a food parcel. ” Wylie explained, “Drivers deliver about 4 parcels so we need to find 15-20 drivers each week.”

As our conversation drew to a close, I asked Wylie if there were any last remarks she would like to make and she said, “People have responded to the need very generously and are donating but sadly the need is increasing exponentially and we appeal to the public to support food banks during this time.” Whilst some of us may not have suffered any severe consequences from the COVID-19 outbreak, many are still struggling and it is our responsibility to do what we can to alleviate their distress. As Wylie put it, “We really are in this together and it’s our neighbours and people around us who are suddenly finding themselves in an unimaginable place.” n

AWTF Website: http://www.awtf.org Pilion Trust Website: http://www.piliontrust.info

People have been extraordinary, they have just risen up and helped.

Lindsey Wylie, Founder of AWTF

Community Senior Letters

Nina, Sixth Form

Community Senior Letters is an intergenerational project that matches schools to care homes so that students can send letters and drawings to elderly residents who are isolated from the outside world. I believe that letters have the power to affect empathy and connection between two people from different generations, contexts, and walks of life. It allows new friendships to be formed, safely bringing generations together by sharing the timeless joy of writing and receiving a handwritten letter.

Istarted up this letter writing project in the first lockdown, after it was announced that all exams would be cancelled and learning would be taking place online. With the transition from multiple GCSE subjects to an introductory course on a few A Level subjects, I found myself with a lot of spare time, which was something I wanted to use productively to keep myself busy. After a few days of brainstorming how I could adapt my existing project, Community Senior Music (which was unable to continue due to COVID restrictions), I decided to switch musical entertainment in care homes to letter writing. And so Community Senior Letters was started, first in my local borough, then expanding across London, across the UK and even internationally.

The first few months were extremely busy, with hundreds of emails being sent daily, and multiple phone calls to recruit schools and care homes to sign up to this initiative. A little while later, once several schools were signed up and the recruitment process was running relatively smoothly, I decided to set up an Instagram account, which is now run by my good friend Tara (Sixth Form). Earlier this year, Valeria (Middle School) was also successful in gathering information on more schools and care homes to get involved, giving me a helping hand.

A year later, this project has reached a scale I never thought would be possible. I started this project with the intention of helping a few schools and care homes in my local area, but have now reached overseas including schools in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. In total there are over 250 schools, and over 250 care homes, which results in letters reaching hundreds of thousands of isolated elderly people. This work has received various awards such as the Prime Minister’s Points of Light Award, where I received a hand-signed letter from Boris Johnson, as well as the Children & Young People Now: Children’s Achievement Award. A range of news outlets have also recognised this work, including The Independent’s Happy List Top 50, The Telegraph, HuffPost and CBBC Newsround. I also received a letter from Her Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant, which arrived completely out of the blue one morning.

In the future, I hope to keep Community Senior Letters going, expanding the letter writing community to benefit as many people as possible. I have recently created a new branch of CSL, where students can design their own motivational wall-stickers for care home residents to stick up and admire in their care home. I also hope to include some of these designs in a book for care homes. All of the profits will go to AgeUK. n