SCHOOL LIFE

Education centre celebrates its fifth anniversary

Back row (l-r): Ester, Louise Banahene, Geraldine Musajjakawa, Rachel Carr, Julia. Front row l-r): Naomi, Delina, Ayaan, Sem, Nayel. Photo: Victor de Jesus

Alearning centre set up to help young people living in one of the UK’s most deprived neighbourhoods access further education, training and employment is celebrating its fifth anniversary.

IntoUniversity Leeds South, a partnership between the University of Leeds and national charity IntoUniversity, works with children, teenagers and young adults in Beeston and Holbeck, where poor educational outcomes mean that only 12% of young people go on to university.

IntoUniversity centres offer a welcoming home-from-home for young people: a safe space to learn, explore and succeed. Each local centre offers an innovative programme that supports young people aged seven and up to realise their ambitions, achieve their academic potential, develop vital skills and gain experience of the world of work.

With the support of The Asda Foundation and University of Leeds alumni, IntoUniversity Leeds South opened in 2015, with the aim of providing thousands more young people in Leeds with access to new opportunities and vital long-term support at an early age. Since it was opened, the centre has had a noticeable impact on young people in the area: over 3,900 young people aged seven to 18 have been supported there.

It was the second collaboration between the University of Leeds and IntoUniversity, after the success of IntoUniversity Leeds East, which opened in Harehills in 2014.

And in 2018, IntoUniversity Leeds Extension opened, which added capacity to both centres in Leeds, effectively creating the provision of a third IntoUniversity centre in the city.

As part of the partnership with the University of Leeds, over 5,000 IntoUniversity students have been on trips to the University to find out more about university life and learning. Over 300 mentoring pairs have met through the partnership, with University of Leeds students providing over 3,000 hours of support to IntoUniversity students.

A former IntoUniversity Leeds South student said:

“Without the opportunities IntoUniversity offered me, I wouldn’t have been able to get into medical school. The support that IntoUniversity gave me with applications and personal statements was incredible. I was able to get one-to-one help and I don’t know how I would have done it all by myself. IntoUniversity introduced me to so many different contacts and volunteers and I can honestly say that I’m no longer worried about applying to anything any more. It might be called IntoUniversity but it is not just about getting you to university; IntoUniversity has helped me develop skills that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.”

An event to celebrate the belated five-year anniversary, delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, was held this month with students and families, community supporters and supporters from the University.

Louise Banahene, Director of Educational Engagement at the University of Leeds, said:

“Our partnership with IntoUniversity is integral to our institutional strategic commitments to widening access and contributing to our local communities.

“It is a privilege to support our IntoUniversity centres including volunteering from our staff and students and to learn with the young people and families in Harehills and Beeston.”

Dr Rachel Carr, Chief Executive and Co-Founder of IntoUniversity, said:

“IntoUniversity is delighted to be celebrating the belated fiveyear anniversary of IntoUniversity Leeds South. From our local learning centres based at the heart of the communities we serve, we have worked with thousands of talented young people across the city of Leeds, supporting them to realise their ambitions and achieve their educational potential. We look forward to continuing our successful partnership with the University of Leeds in the years to come.”

Manchester Collective x

by Aminah Yasmin

Last month the incredibly talented Manchester Collective and Abel Selaocoe came to Slung Low at The Holbeck to perform a concert featuring classical futuristic and African music.

The doors opened at 1pm with activities, including making lanterns, and food for the guests, with every flavour of Fanta!

Manchester Collective were invited by the Imaginative Intelligence Warriors (IIW), the children who organised the event. The IIW are a group of creative pupils from Ingram Road Primary School in Holbeck who for the past year have used their imaginations to work with Slung Low to create family events.

As the chair of the IIW, I lead the monthly meetings which are held in the library at school. Slung Low makes the agenda based on agreed targets from past events/meetings and I go through the points with the rest of the group. One of our favourite jobs is handing out badges for creativity to adults and pupils who we feel are deserving of them.

At the concert I helped Slung Low set up the decorations and we got to meet the orchestra who were really nice and worked well together as a team to create different atmospheres within the room.

During the show the audience joined in with some of the songs and towards the end people stood up and danced to the music, joined by some of the musicians. We gave badges to the whole orchestra for their creativity, specifically for the freestyling during their first song.

Families in the audience said, “We really loved it. I want them to come back again.”

“It was so cool … I didn’t think we’d hear something like that in Holbeck.”

“I thought it was amazing. I think everyone did amazingly. And I can’t think of any other adjective than amazing.”

I greatly look forward to the future IIW events planned for both the school and the community which include a kindness festival and something special for the Year Six leavers in the summer. We are excited for welcoming people to our events and hope you enjoy them as much as we enjoy making them.

Middleton Primary’s busy Easter

Middleton Primary School had an excellent two week Easter school with over 150 pupils attending.

Children took part in a variety of activities – a zoom meeting from an animal sanctuary, active maths, active literacy, gardening, cooking, orienteering, lots of sports and plenty of other fun activities.

They also had an MAD day (military active day) which the pupils really loved - they all thought they were in the army!

Pupils also visited Middleton Park Baptist church - where they recently contributed to their art exhibition - visiting the church to take part in Easter activities! The Manchester Collective performing

Leeds Fa birthday

by Hannah Langdan

Leeds has been a Fairtrade City 18 years this year, and child across the city have been celebrat by designing birthday cards to give Councillors and MPs.

Leeds Fairtrade group, w organised the birthday c competition, were impressed by quality of entries from Ireland Wo Primary School, 3rd Rothw Rainbows and Brownies, Kirkstal Stephens, Coop Academy Oakwo Beechwood Primary and Greenmo Primary School.

Five entries were given Hig Commended status and Ima Hussain’s entry (Year 4 pupil Greenmount Primary) was chosen the Winning design, for it’s colou and engaging style.

Being a Fairtrade City means t Leeds City Council passes a resolut to support Fairtrade and scho shops and businesses educate ab Fairtrade and stock Fairtra products.

Over 600 communities across UK have achieved Fairtrade sta since Garstang became the f

Imaginative Intelligence Warriors

g at The Holbeck. Photos: Gaelle Beri

airtrade y buzz

Fairtrade Town in the world in 2001.

Mrs Metcalfe, Year 4 teacher at Greenmount Primary said:

“It's important for children to learn where their food comes from, to understand the challenges that producers in developing countries face and how Fairtrade helps them to lead better lives.”

Winner Imaan Hussain said “When I found out I'd won I was shocked and excited. You should definitely buy more Fairtrade products to help farmers around the world.”

When you see the Fairtrade mark on any product, you can be sure that the farmers who produced it are guaranteed a fair price for their crop which covers production costs. They also receive a premium that they can invest in projects to benefit their communities, such as education and health care. The farmers earn enough to look after their families properly and plan for the future. The Fairtrade mark can now be found on over 3000 products from more than 200 companies.

To find out more about the work of Fairtrade Leeds and get involved go to www.fairtradeleeds.org.uk On 30 March, there was a first for South Leeds.

Students from the new Cockburn Laurence Calvert Academy in Middleton came to Cockburn School Theatre to perform their variety performance featuring song, dance and drama scenes from Matilda.

Victoria Smith, Head of School said “Our students have worked incredibly hard to prepare for this performance and they were excellent. It was a wonderful evening for everyone involved –especially the audience. The future of performing arts is in very good hands and we cannot wait to start work on the next show!”.

Extra-curricular provision at Cockburn Laurence Calvert Academy continues to grow from strength to strength with an exciting chess tournament, cooking club, eco club and many more. As well as school run football teams, boys and girls rugby is run by professional coaches to get students match ready for fixtures.

Exciting after school life at Laurence Calvert

A magical performance at CJCA

The audience in attendance at Cockburn John Charles Academy were left spellbound and enchanted by a performance of ‘Puffs, or Seven Increasingly Eventful Years at a Certain School of Magic’ that had its premiere on 28 April.

The cast included students from Y7 to Y9 and continues the high quality programme of performances this academic year that has included ‘In The Heights’ and ‘CJCA Shakespeare Festival’.

Mrs Roberts, Head of School, said: “Our students have once again surpassed expectations in delivering a performance that ran the full range of emotions from suspense, comedy and more sensitive and expressive characterisation. We have wealth of talent and creativity at the academy and I am proud to share with our supportive community the outcomes of the high quality extra-curricular provision that is available to all students, in all year groups.”