Education

Rotary reaches out to school pupils

Shaftesbury Rotary Club has launched its first RotaKids Club at a special assembly at Abbey Primary School.

Head teacher Michael Salisbury was presented with the school’s RotaKids Charter from Rotary Great Britain and Ireland, and the 12 members of the new club were presented with membership certificates, pledge cards and lapel badges before taking the RotaKids Pledge.

The club is made up of representatives from several year groups in the school and at its first meeting after the assembly, the officers were elected and possible community projects for the next year discussed. The youngsters came up with lots of excellent suggestions.

Shaftesbury Rotary Club will support the club financially and by attending meetings and giving advice to the young people involved. Rotary District Council has also pledged financial support for the project.

RotaKids is a way for children aged seven-12 to make friends and get involved with important activities in the community, while having a great time in the process.

RotaKids clubs are based in schools, youth groups and community centres and with the help and support of teachers, youth leaders and local Rotary Clubs, young people can gain experience in helping others and learning interesting new things.

Anyone who would like to know more or to get involved

Members of the RotaKids Club at Abbey Primary School, Shaftesbury

with Rotary should contact hello@shaftesburyrotaryclub. org

School’s water project

A rural community in a drought-prone area of southern India now has access to a reliable and sustainable supply of clean water for the first time thanks to the support of Bryanston School in Dorset.

The introduction of a deep borewell, water pump and 2,000-litre storage tank in a Tamil Nadu village was completed as part of the Life Water programme in association with school catering supplier Chartwells and its partner charity drop4drop

The community initiative has transformed the lives of 2,200 people in Padhirivedu St village who previously only had very limited access to clean water.

Lesson in the role of young carers

Pupils at Hanford School, Child Okeford, have been visited by the fabulous team from MYTIME Young Carers, a Dorset-based charity which provides much-needed support and advice for young carers across the county.

Hanford teacher Stephanie McMillan said: “We organised these sessions with MYTIME Young Carers to give the girls some knowledge about what other children may be dealing with in their day-to-day lives and how we can support them.

“The workshops went extremely well, the girls were full of questions and ideas about how they could assist Young Carers in our communities and discussed how they could support the charity in future.”

The MYTIME charity staff led a series of workshops for each of the school’s year groups, each one tailored to the girls’ age. Pupils learned about what a young carer is, how having caring responsibilities at a young age can impact on a young person’s life and how everyone can offer support to those in such a situation. The girls fully engaged with the sessions and had insightful discussions around support, empathy and fundraising ideas.