Sidcot School Year 11 Community Initiatives

Every Wednesday 100 Year 11 students complete community volunteering activities including Gardening (collaboration with Winscombe & Sandford Millennium Green Trust); Dementia Friends (A collaboration with Winscombe Hall Nursing Home) and Senior Citizens social club (A collaboration with Saint Monica’s Trust).

Aims

Encouraging student engagement with volunteering and community awareness.

Helping the local community

Background

The activities Year 11 activities coordinator for Sidcot School made personal contact with members of the local community and visited a number of sites to scope out the possibilities for  volunteering collaboration. Geoff then assessed whether there would provide opportunity for a mutually beneficial collaboration and fell within the remit of school safeguarding and health and safety policies. 

Resources

The school provides transport for the them 

Staffing team of 2 people per activity (10 staff in total)

Timetable provision of 1 hour each Wednesday afternoon

Minimal budget for basic gardening equipment

Impact

The gardening students have done a fantastic job sprucing up a local community area and developing the site. A letter of appreciation was received. Further a group of students went on to fundraiser for a new leaf blower for the organisation, which is in regular use and gratefully received.

Pupils have gained an awareness and increased understanding of older people, communication with people from different walks of life was noted. Additionally, some students, due to this initiative have gone on to volunteer over the summer or help out at local fetes

Pupil Involvement

Year 11

Frequency

Weekly during term time. This takes place every year.