Published
By Ashley Cox
While funded projects and purchases can stand the test of time, particularly impactful events may also make a major difference to learners' education experience, empowering them with new skills and added confidence, while making memories to last a lifetime. As part of our continued commitment to Giving Back, CPC grant funding has supported institutions as they looked to stage a variety of events, including these from our third Giving Back funding round...
Students go for gold, learning new skills
Based in Alton, Hampshire, HSDC Alton (previously Alton College) is one of the UK's first purpose-built Sixth Form colleges and offers a range of A Level, T Level and vocational courses. The 'HSDC' acronym represents Havant & South Downs College, the institution Alton College merged with in 2019. Post-merger, the institution operates three campuses in all and has ranked highly in its area for both its vocational and academic excellence, with the stand-up Russell Howard counted among its alumni.
CPC Giving Back support helped HSDC Alton deliver 'The Road to Paris', a special wellbeing initiative tied to the 2024 Olympic Games. Approximately 100 students benefitted from participating, with activities including tennis, curling and sitting volleyball.
The range of sports offered made this a varied and inclusive event, with Giving Back funds helping to facilitate karate and Wing Chun boxing sessions, plus procure specialist equipment, enabling learners to experience archery, hands-on, as part of the day.
"The students provided positive feedback throughout the day", recounted the HSDC Alton Be Active Coordinator, Sally King.
"Students thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to experience classes that were new to them. One of the students mentioned afterwards that the session inspired him to sign up for a local martial arts class, indicating the direct impact on the learners".
"We are grateful to CPC for the chance to put on such a positive event for the students".
Campus-wide wellbeing day offers support
Known colloquially as Belfast Met, Belfast Metropolitan College is recognised as Northern Ireland's largest further education college. With its campuses spanning Belfast city centre, the Castlereagh district and the Titanic Quarter, Belfast Met provides courses from GCSE to GNVQ level, as well as some undergraduate programmes. With a history stretching back as far as 1906, the institution became CPC members in 2010, with their state-of-the-art Titanic Quarter campus opening the following year.
Belfast Met pitched for our CPC Giving Back backing to bring a special event to life, designed to coincide with the annual UN International Day of Happiness. The idea was to deliver a campus-wide International Day of Happiness at the Titanic Quarter. With approximately 27% of college learners coming from an economically disadvantaged background (defined as Quantile 1), the event was intended to help combat the mental health/wellbeing challenges often faced by this particular group.
Bringing students from different college classes together, the event incorporated a wellbeing component, providing students with useful resources to implement in their educational and personal lives. Some 142 students took advantage of this aspect.
Ultimately, CPC's Giving Back funding helped Belfast Met to facilitate a model of good practice for project-based learning and assessment, aiding wellbeing, while delivering an experience outside of the norm for students of a range of different cohorts.
Sports festival helps Mersey pupils flourish
Found in the Newton area of coastal West Kirby, Merseyside, Calday Grange Grammar is a non-denominational, selective all-boys grammar school, which also provides a mixed Sixth Form. Educating students chiefly from the Wirral, Cheshire and North Wales regions, the institution, which joined CPC in 2015, has ranked amongst the top 1% of UK schools for sporting outcomes and has produced successful athletes including Olympic gold medallist (and Question of Sport/NFL TV personality) Sam Quek.
Looking to continue and expand their commitment to sporting success, Calday Grange Grammar applied for some CPC Giving Back funding to put on their ‘Calday House Festival of Sport’, with this occasion ultimately heralded as a resounding triumph.
Promoting a range of adjacent skills, from leadership and time management to discipline and resilience, the slate of sports on offer helped the students of Calday Grange Grammar to build bonds, breaking down division while enhancing their wellbeing.
“Attending the Festival of Sport had a transformative impact on students”, said the Head of Faculty Outreach, Geoff Bosworth.
“Students who previously showed little interest in sports discovered hidden talents and developed a passion for healthy living. The diverse range of activities and inspiring role models motivated them to push their limits and strive for personal excellence. Beyond the physical benefits, the festival also built confidence and camaraderie among peers”.
“It’s evident the festival not only enhanced athletic skills, but contributed to their overall personal growth and school spirit”.
Special guest speaker inspires and informs
Located in the village of Kidlington, a few miles north of Oxford, West Kidlington Primary School promotes what Ofsted calls a "golden thread" of 'be kind and do your best'. Registered members of CPC since 2018, the institution is part of the White Horse Federation, a Wiltshire-based multi-academy trust, with 30 academies around the south of England falling under its auspices.
With help from CPC and our Giving Back surplus funds, West Kidlington Primary were able to bring in writer, educator and in-demand speaker Mr. Hywel Roberts for a trio of sessions, delivered to different groups (namely, pupils, teachers and parents).
Session 1 saw Hywel address the pupils' aspirations, using illustrative case studies to inspire attendees by showing how other children had achieved wonderful things from difficult starting points. Session 2 conversely looked at engagement, discussing how staff can make students 'bothered'. The final session welcomed some 55 parents from 46 families, relaying key messages.
Headteacher of West Kidlington Primary, Simon Isherwood, recounted Hywel's "invaluable" advocacy of family engagement, as delivered via this final session. "He celebrated a path into learning that goes beyond scripts and planning", Simon added. "This related to our school development plan. He gave teachers ideas about how to enable teaching to be imaginative. He showed that professional warmth, care and imagination are central to great teaching. The grant was well used and much appreciated".
Drama workshops for SEND engagement
A self-described ‘family’ of primary, secondary and special schools, Unity Schools Partnership manages institutions in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex, as well as Romford in London. With its interdependent institutions sharing their ambition for changing lives, the USP’s fundamental belief is that all young lives are special and open to possibility, with an inherent potential for changing our wider world for the better. The Partnership became part of our CPC member community back in 2019.
By way of a Giving Back grant, CPC was pleased to support a number of institutions under the USP umbrella; each benefitting from funded drama projects, in line with the overarching PSHCE (Personal, Social, Health & Citizenship Education) curriculum. Unconsciously in sync with our recent refocus, the projects were specifically focused on helping SEND learners, a demographic identified as disproportionately disadvantaged on an economic level, both nationally and within the Partnership's own schools.
In 2024, it was determined that some 372 youngsters either had or would benefit from the drama projects, including pupils at Ipswich's Bridge School (for children with severe learning difficulties) and nearby Sir Bobby Robson School, who also allocated budget for the purchase of drama resources to continue this aspect of their education experience.
At Churchill School in Haverhill, Suffolk, which educates young people with communication and interaction needs, our Giving Back funding facilitated an all-day workshop from Streetwise defence, focusing upon social cues, boundary setting, situational awareness and more. It is hoped these sessions will have helped to inform, inspire and keep children safe. Meanwhile, Sir Peter Hall School in Bury St. Edmunds, which works with those with social, emotional and mental health needs, played host to a full workshop series, as delivered by the town's Theatre Royal, the only working theatre in the UK now run by the National Trust.
In sharing these details of our Giving Back difference-making, Partnership Director of SEND, Lucie Callow, highlighted how "communication and interaction is key" for some of the children, plus "the building block of self advocacy and being safe".
Read on for more about CPC's Giving Back - and watch this space for reports on our latest purchases, projects and events.