Community Service

COMMUNITY AND OUTREACH

Community Service

This has been a challenging year for the school’s volunteers wanting to engage in Community Service, with many of the usual avenues closed off to them. This being said, it has been thrilling to see how resilient the student body has been, and how they have turned the situation to their advantage.

The ‘Fill the Foodbank’ club has managed to perform strongly across the year, dedicating themselves to encouraging the whole student body to donate produce to those in desperate need, and delivering it to the local foodbank, all in a Covidfriendly manner. During lockdown, a number of students took it upon themselves to create a letter thanking local NHS businesses for their dedication throughout the past year, sending handwritten copies out postcode by postcode. It was truly heart-warming to see NHS practices writing back to the school to show their appreciation for these selfless gestures of gratitude. The environment remains at the forefront of our volunteers’ minds, with the Turn Catford Green group quickly making the most of being back in school by raising money through a cake and biscuit sale to put trees onto the streets of Catford and Lewisham, while Year 9’s Community Action Project took to the school fields to clear litter on a weekly basis, making the grounds even more welcoming than usual. Finally, with Year 7’s volunteering group contributing excellent ideas which have been taken up by this year’s Festival, the relaxing of restrictions will give our volunteers the opportunity to see out the school year in a genuinely impactful way, with fundraising and community action at the heart of these events, and with the hope of wider opportunities in the year to come.

Mr R Grocock

Coordinator of Youth Volunteering