Thanet community news: Nursery wedding party, community fair and church funding and road safety

Dressed up for the Meadow Nursery wedding fun

Prince and Princesses of Millmead, celebrate The Royal Wedding

Little ones at Meadow Nursery in the Millmead Children’s Centre, Dane Valley Road, Margate, dressed in style on Friday, May 18 to celebrate the Royal Wedding.

Children at the nursery put on their smartest suits, donned their beautiful dresses and applied their make up to mark the wonderful occasion of the wedding of Harry and Meghan.

Meadow Nursery was rated ‘Outstanding in all areas’ in their recent Ofsted inspection, which is an amazing achievement for the setting. The nursery caters for children from 18 months to primary school age as well as an afterschool and holiday club for children ages between 5 to 14 years.

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Jamie-Leigh Jones, who is a nursery practitioner at Meadow Nursery, said “The children and staff love to join in with all celebrations and being the royal wedding makes it even more special. The children have really enjoyed the day and we all looked forward to watching the ceremony on the television”.

The Meadow Nursery children and staff members hung union mark flags, displayed photos of the happy couple and even made several cards and pictures that have been sent to Buckingham Palace to wish the royal couple the very best.

Article and photos by Jason Brookman

Community Church Ramsgate

South Thanet MP Craig Mackinlay MP, has attended a monthly community lunch at The Corner to congratulate Community Church Ramsgate on securing £29,683 of funding from People’s Health Trust.

The Corner project, on the junction of Whitehall Road and Newington Road in Ramsgate, is a church-supported outreach centre covering a wide spectrum of issues, including personal debt management, housing and benefits advice, as well as family support. The £2.5m centre was built with a grant from the Kirby Laing Foundation on the site of the disused Whitehall Road Church.

This two year project is being used to provide a monthly community lunch club and a weekly friendship group to provide social activities for local resident in Ramsgate. It also provides a weekly supportive playgroup for children with autism along with their parents or carers. These activities are not provided elsewhere in the area and were proposed in response to volunteer and local resident suggestions.

Established in 2011, Community Church Ramsgate meet every Sunday at The Corner between 10.30am and 12.30pm.

Mr Mackinlay MP said: “It was a pleasure to meet with Community Church Ramsgate and talk about the great things they have been doing through Connections at The Corner.

“I am delighted that they have successfully secured over £29,000 for the Connections at The Corner project so that the CCR can work to strengthen friendships in the community.

“The Corner is a very important hub for many local residents and one we should all cherish and value – this substantial funding recognises that reality too.”

Stronger Kent Community fair

Wednesday, June 6, 11am-1pm at JD Weatherspoon Ramsgate.
Come along, everyone welcome, free entry, free tea/coffee. Talk to more than 50 community groups and local charities about what they do, get information nd advice, find new leisure and volunteering opportunities.
Stallholder activities include: tombola, quizzes, memory box decorating, guessing games, juggling, sponsored static cycle, 2 minute beach clean, hoopla, hook a duck, human knot, darts, free veg plant seedlings and more!

Plus Ukulele, Priory Infants School musical choir, Thanet bay Sensory art gazebo, Your Time marquee.
Organisations covering everything from criminal justice, youth, victim support, gardening, history, youth, heath, art, hospitals and more.

Age UK Thanet Ltd Ageless Thanet AiR Arts in Ramsgate British Red Cross Carers’ Support – Canterbury, Dover & Thanet Demelza Hospice Care For Children Disability Drop in Centre (Ddic) East Kent MencapHolding On Letting Go Incredible Edible Thanet Thanet LibrariesMacmillan Crossroads Care Kent & Medway Volunteer Service Margate Museum Monkton Nature Reserve Our Kitchen on the Isle of ThanetKent & Medway Time Credits Thanet Children’s Centres Thanet Coast: NE Kent Marine Protected Area The Dreamland Trust Young Lives Foundation – YLF

Find out more here

KCC Speak Up campaign

Kent County Council’s Kent Road Safety team won two awards at the annual FirstCar Young Driver Road Safety Awards, with judges describing the ‘Speak Out’ campaign as a “brilliant scheme” and “truly exceptional”.

Now in its fourth year, The FirstCar Young Driver Road Safety Awards is an annual event which looks to recognise the efforts of road safety professionals to reduce casualties among young drivers. The ‘Speak Out’ initiative was put in front of a panel of nine judges with broad and extensive road safety experience. They were looking for schemes with clear and measurable aims and objectives.

The Kent Road Safety team won both the “Best New Scheme of the Year” and “Best Young Driver Media Campaign of the Year” for ‘Speak Out’ which was developed alongside Zest The Agency, beating tough competition. The judges commented on that “Best New Scheme of the Year” prize saying that it “was an outstanding programme […] with the right mix of research, behavioural change techniques and a clear focus on their target market” before going on to say that the campaign was “truly exceptional”.

On the “Best Young Driver Media Campaign of the Year” category, the ‘Speak Out’ was described as the “stand-out entry [which was] really well thought out and tested campaign with a clear and concise focus in its targets market.” Judges went on to say that it was “a brilliant scheme” that received a “unanimous thumbs up” from the panel.

Philippa Janaway, Road Safety Officer at Kent County Council said: “Our research shows many 16 to 24-year-old passengers would rather keep quiet than tell a driver they are concerned about their behaviour. This reluctance is more marked in passengers who are non-drivers, who seem more reticent to challenge than passengers who hold a full licence.”

The objective of the campaign was to achieve a 33% reduction in those killed or seriously injured (KSIs) on Kent’s roads as well as a 40% reduction in child KSIs. The team looked to achieve this through a series of engaging videos, featuring young people discussing trust, friendship and experiences of driving and passenger scenarios. These videos were run across social media channels, which included a targeted Facebook campaign, and looked to grab the attention of young people, offering them a coping mechanism as well as encouraging them to ‘speak up’ if they felt uncomfortable.

The results spoke for themselves:

500K impressions on VOD and Spotify

293K online video views

1.2 opportunities for videos to be “viewed”

74% of respondents said they felt empowered to speak up

75% of respondents say they would speak up if they felt the driver of the vehicle they were travelling in was fatigued

73% of respondents would speak up if they felt the driver was distracted