Welcome! Welcome. This is Reading Students’ Union first publication of ‘Uni into Community’. A new online monthly newsletter aiming to inform community members about the great work students do in our community. We’ve also got some important dates for you to put in your calendars for next month! This month we welcomed 3,000 new students on to our campus. Keen to show students all the wonderful opportunities available, we held a sports and societies fayre, as well as our first volunteering fayre. This was a great success and 200 students signed up to our mailing list to receive all the latest info on the opportunities available to them.
Big Volunteering Weekend On the 12th and 13th October we held the Big Volunteering Weekend consisting of seven one off volunteering opportunities. We thought this would be a good chance for students to try something new without committing to anything long term, while meeting lots of new people.
We had a fantastic turnout with 72 volunteers helping over the weekend. The Agricultural society and the Rugby society helped with the RESCUE clear up at GLOBE and
Waterloo Meadows.
Student’s also made winter packs for Reading’s local homeless charity ‘LaunchPad’, did some gardening in the on campus nursery, and worked with Peer Support to think of ideas to help students feel good.
hosted a ceremony to reveal the results of the Reading in Bloom School Challenge. Eight of the ten winning schools attended the event. The afternoon started with a tour of the recently refurbished Tropical Biodiversity Greenhouse, finishing with a prize presentation of lavender plants and certificates given by The Right Worshipful Mayor of Reading, Marian Livingston. The overall winners received a family apple tree presented by Dr Mark Fellowes, head of the School of Biological Sciences.
Student Projects We have a great range of long term student led projects at Reading, from providing fun activities for children with complex needs, to putting on tea parties for local elderly residents. This term we have a new student project called ‘Helping Hands’ which plans to work in close association with ‘Launchpad’ to put on events for Reading’s homeless community. Starting with a homeless meal at the beginning of December and a big ‘sleep out’ next term, the project is already off to a great start. There have also been some one off events organised solely by individual students. Emma Willis a Part 3 Physical Geography student organised a fayre for ‘Help the Heroes’ raising over £300 and Tasha Godfrey, a 3rd year Nutrition and Food Science student organised a talk on how students can help fight poverty in developing countries.
At the University This month Reading University
What’s Next? At The Union: 28th- 2nd Nov ‘UNI into community’ campaign to encourage students to be active members in the community 4th – 8th Nov RAG week with fundraising activities for their two charities: War Child and Launchpad. Public Events: 18th Nov 7.30pm - Vice Chancellor in conversation with Andrew Adonis, Education Minister under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. Location: Henley Business School, Whiteknights campus. For all event information and the opportunity to book a place, visit: http://www.reading.ac.uk/newsand-events/about-eventlist.aspx