COLLABORATION Charity and Volunteering Partnerships and Outreach

Max Windle Memorial Run

This academic year has seen many new initiatives as well as old favourites. In the Michaelmas Term, the Race Across the World with our International Schools saw students travelling as far as they could over one weekend, using innovative non-motorised methods of transport. Our Christmas Fair proved to be as popular as ever with the tombolas alone raising over £1000 thanks to the incredible generosity of the parents. In the Lent Term, we held many sporting events in memory of Max Windle, and to raise funds for his Memorial Trust. Over a hundred students were involved in the swim, X-C run and football. Thirty-five Second Formers slept out overnight in cardboard shelters to raise awareness of homelessness and funds for Transform Housing. Fortunately, all boys and staff volunteers were still intact and smiling in the morning and over £5000 had been raised.

The Trinity Term saw our annual Bake Off with a Jubilee theme, expertly overseen by Mrs Sweet. Mrs Wilson and Mrs Rathmell ran a popular MFL Charity disco and Mr Owens coordinated a collection for the North Guildford Food Bank. Overall, this academic year, we have raised £25,000 for our nominated charities; Max Windle Memorial Trust, Alzheimer’s UK and Compassion as well as Transform Housing and the DEC.

Race Across the World Homelessness and Transform Housing sleep out

Blackwater Valley Pond Digging

All our volunteering initiatives have proved popular and successful. Two trips to Pilgrims Wood have taken place to entertain their residents and three working parties with the Blackwater Valley Countryside Trust to plant saplings and dig a pond. Overall, an excellent year and my gratitude to all boys, staff and parents for their commitment to our charity and volunteering initiatives.

Mrs RJ Rathmell - Charity Committee

MFL Charity Disco

Pilgrims Wood: Carol Singing Entertainment Event

Partnerships and Outreach typically involves our students and staff getting out into our local community or welcoming others to our school; therefore, unsurprisingly, the past couple of years have made this very difficult. I’m pleased to say that in the 2021-22 year although we started with some restrictions, by the end of the year we were back to full operation and had even added a few new links.

On four Saturdays in Michaelmas, we were delighted to host the RGS Masterclasses for over 100 Y6 students from a wide range of schools. The boys and girls attended classes in one of either Creative Arts, Humanities, Modern Languages, Mathematics, Science or Technology. Our team, led by Mrs Timberlake, of over 20 staff and 50 Sixth Form students were inspirational and the students and parents were effusive in their praise: “Florence came out of her humanities class buzzing with energy and excitement - what a fun and creative way of teaching.”

Masterclasses

During General Studies time throughout the year, Sixth Form students from RGS & GHS engaged with a variety of community option choices including, chess clubs at Sandfield and Holy Trinity Primary Schools, oral histories at Abbot’s Hospital, gardening club at Loseley Fields Primary School and visits to Pilgrim’s Wood care home.

During Period 8 activities Fifth and U6th RGS students were also able to volunteer to help others and pass on their enthusiasm. The P8 Kings Maths group welcomed a minibus of Y9 Kings College pupils to RGS each week to deliver stretching problem solving Maths; The P8 Holy Trinity Maths Group travelled to deliver support and stretching Maths clubs with Y5-6 pupils; and the P8 Sports Leadership Group travelled to Holy Trinity Primary to deliver a weekly KS2 hockey club.

There were two new successful ventures this year as well. Eight Fifth Form students volunteered to help mentor Y5 and Y6 pupils at Sandfield Primary School. This programme was developed in partnership with the Sandfield Headteacher who wished to support certain boys with their learning by providing inspirational male role models. The RGS students attended training in mentoring and safeguarding and then independently walked to Sandfield during their lunch break. The scheme was reported in the Sandfield newsletter. Separately, Northmead Junior School asked us if we could help in a similar way with reading support with Y5-6 boys. Three Third Form students attended Northmead before school to deliver their support sessions and still make it back to RGS for lessons. Both of these schemes had a significant impact on the primary pupils and demonstrate the positive effect regular volunteering can make.

Also worthy of note was the success of the Guildford 11-19 Partnership Interested Motivated & Able (IMAG) programme. The RGS administer and organise this scheme as part of our contribution to the G11-19 Partnership. Member institutions host events and open them up to the whole Guildford school pupil community publicised on the www.imag.co.uk website. Last year IMAG hosted twelve events at seven different locations with a total of over 200 students attending from nine different schools.

During the Summer holidays we were also delighted to be able to share our facilities with two local charities. On Tuesdays throughout the summer holidays, the Sixth Form Centre and quad hosted the GUkraine organisation for a drop in Ukrainian Hub. Each session saw about 100 people - mainly women and children – for a variety of activities from art/craft to chess to nail/ beauty to table tennis and, of course, shared food, drinks and chat. The final Tuesday had a party atmosphere with live music, balloons and cake; The Mayor and Mayoress (Denis and Mary Booth) attended as guests of honour. Debra of GUkraine commented: “We cannot thank you and RGS enough for the amazing support you have given to GUkraine and the Ukrainian community in Guildford and surrounding villages. Without you this would not have been possible. The final party was amazing, but so too were each of the Tuesdays in their own way.”

We also hosted the Big Leaf charity to run an informal evening of football. Big Leaf work with 16-25 year-old displaced people from any country. Local accountancy firm Aristar Accounting sponsored the event and their staff and some RGS students participated.

RGS String Scheme

In addition to these short vignettes: we also ran a few Primary Tudor visit days; The RGS String Scheme continued to teach over 200 Year 4 to Year 6 pupils violin & cello and took part in the Samson Opera (See Music section); We relaunched International charitable expeditions in partnership with Tormead; about 20 staff acted as Governors at others schools; pupils from local partner schools were invited to events such as the careers fair and seminars, university preparation interviews and author visits; Mrs Shepherd designed and painted a mural at Stamford Green Primary School; Mr Holland taught A-Level Physics at Fullbrook School, Mr Marchiafava taught French at Sandfield Primary, Mr Unsworth taught Physics at Kings College, Dr Patel ran STEM sessions at several Primary schools, Mr Hanak-Hammerl ran Maths sessions at Busbridge Primary; The Enquiring Teachers Programme in partnership with the Learning Partners Multiacademy Trust facilitated teachers taking part in action research in schools and we hosted the end of programme celebration; and we have also joined discussions to join a West Surrey Partnership to find more ways to connect our pupils to each other.

As we emerge from the pandemic, we have never been busier and our desire to be a part of our community embedded in the heart of Guildford has never been stronger.

Mrs Shepherd and mural at Stamford Green Primary School

Gabriel Meadowcroft L6-9 “The truth is, everyone is going to die at some point, and I think what matters is

benefit from. ”