Sainsbury’s Westwood Cross
The Sainsbury’s store at Westwood Cross has made two Christmas donations. The first was to QEQM Rainbow ward, giving selection boxes and party food for the children ho will be in hospital over the festive period. The second was to Woodchurch ward a where decorations and sweets were donated.
Bradstow School
Bradstow School has been successful in achieving the Rights Respecting Schools Gold Award: Rights Respecting, the highest stage of the Award granted by Unicef UK.
Schools involved in the Rights Respecting Schools Award work towards the recognition that they have embedded children and young people’s rights in their school’s practice and ethos; putting the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child into practice within the school and beyond.
Unicef works with schools in the UK to create safe and inspiring places to learn, where children are respected, their talents are nurtured and they are able to thrive. The Rights Respecting Schools Award embeds these values in daily school life and gives children the best chance to lead happy, healthy lives and to be responsible, active citizens.
The assessor made the following comments as part of their report:
“The assessor would like to thank the children and young people, the leadership team, staff and parent governor for their warm welcome to the school, for the opportunity to speak with adults and pupils during the assessment, and for the detailed evidence provided to support the process. Prior to the assessment visit, the school provided a comprehensive ‘gold evaluation’ form.
Following the assessment Bradstow School will continue with the initiatives in place to teach about rights, through rights and for rights. This includes celebrating an article of the term, linking rights to teaching and achievements, teaching rights in lessons, having class meetings and community council meetings, publishing the Bradstow Voice school newsletter and also taking part in the yearly OUTRIGHT action week where children and young people campaign for change related to one of the rights.
This year Bradstow School are campaigning for every child to have the best possible health and in particular healthy air. Children this term have been learning about air pollution and its causes and writing postcards to the secretary of state for the environment as well as having their work on display around the school.
Articles from the convention are being linked to the School Improvement Plan to align RRSA with the schools strategy and gentle teaching and the vision statement.
Lois Gunn, RSSA Co-ordinator said: “We aim to connect our outreach and community activities to the articles to continue to spread the message about children’s rights to as many other communities as possible.”
Head teacher Sarah Dunn described how the Convention “fitted so beautifully into the culture of [the] school” which is centred around ‘Gentle Teaching’ which is a ‘unique relational approach centred on building safe, loving and engaged relationships’.
St Laurence Church Christmas services
Sunday 16th December:
10:00am Carol Service, St Mary, Cliffsend
6:30pm 9 Lessons and Carols, St Catherine, Manston
6:30pm Carol Service, St Mark, Northwood
Sunday 23rd December:
6:30pm 9 Lessons and Carols, St Laurence Ramsgate
Christmas Eve:
4:00pm Crib and Christingle, St Catherine, Manston
4:00pm Christingle, St Laurence, Ramsgate
4:00pm Christingle, St Mary, Cliffsend
4:00pm Christingle, St Mark, Northwood
5:30pm Christingle, St Mary, Cliffsend
11:30pm Midnight Communion, St Laurence Ramsgate
11:30pm Midnight Communion, St Mary, Cliffsend
11:30pm Midnight Communion, St Mark, Northwood
Christmas Day:
10:00am Family Communion, St Catherine, Manston
10:00am Family Communion, St Laurence, Ramsgate
10:00am Family Communion, St Mary, Cliffsend
10:00am Christmas Morning Service, St Mark, Northwood
National Grid donations
Three Kent charities have received donations from National Grid, as part of its UK-wide Community Grant Programme. A total of £55,000 was donated to The Martha Trust, Louie’s Helping Hands and The Sandwich Bay Bird Observatory Trust.
The donations have been made as part of National Grid’s commitment to leave a positive legacy in the areas where it needs to carry out work. National Grid is constructing the Richborough Connection – a new 400kV overhead line between Richborough and Canterbury, which will connect Nemo Link® (an electricity link between Herdersbrug near Bruges in Belgium and Richborough, near Sandwich in the UK) to National Grid’s high voltage electricity network. It will ensure that the UK has a safe, reliable and secure electricity supply.
The Martha Trust, a local charity which provides inclusive, lifelong care for people with profound physical and learning disabilities in Kent and East Sussex, has benefitted from an £18,000 grant from National Grid’s community fund. As well as the donation, a dedicated team of National Grid volunteers also recently volunteered with the charity and assisted with painting and decorating.
Louie’s Helping Hands aims to improve the lives of children with multi-sensory impairment and physical disabilities in Kent, has received a donation of £20,000. The money is set to go towards building a new therapy and education centre, which will enable the charity to provide social, education, play and respite activities all year-round.
Tania Horn, Director and Trustee for Louie’s Helping Hands, said: “We are delighted to have received a donation from National Grid’s Community Grant programme. The money donated will go towards the building of a therapy and education centre for children with special needs. This will be built on the Quex Park estate, which has been donated to the charity, and we are very much looking forward to beginning the building work on the project”.