Vane Road Primary is a Rights Respecting School, where the local community is at the heart of our school ethos. We have recently been awarded our level one award for the work we do on Rights Respecting.
As part of our PSHCE in Year 4, we decided to have a ‘Community Week’ for both Year 4 classes. The children enjoy helping others and been part of their community. We tried to organise activities that involve their school community and the wider community. From Tuesday 19th December the children will have their parents coming in to school to participate in a family activity, they are going to visit Rose Lodge and sing Christmas Carols with the elderly residents, the children are having a curriculum day where they choose their learning and to complete the week the children are going to have a friendship day and appreciate why having special people in our life is important.
Vane Road Primary has helped many charities i.e. Water Aid, Dogs Trust, and Macmillan Cancer. The children in Year 4 wanted to do something to help others so decided to support Mark Solan’s Charity. As a Spennymoor resident, he is an inspiration in the community so it was arranged for the children to be inspired to help others and meet Mark. We decided to decorate biscuits and sell them every morning at break time in December with money raised donated to the Solan Fawcett Charity.
Mark came to school to talk to children in Key Stage Two and hosted a special assembly talking about why he set his charity up and how it makes a difference. I have never seen the children so absorbed and interested in a person. They listened intently and asked many questions.
The children were inspired to continue helping others and now feel that they can talk about Cancer openly as many know someone who has suffered this awful disease.
Here are a few quotes from the children:
“It was fantastic and nice to have him come in to our school to tell us about what he has done in the past and what he is going to do in the future”. Micah
” It was special to me that people are researching and helping people with Cancer because my Gran had Cancer”. Zach
“It is nice to see someone makes a difference, my Gran died of Cancer”. Evie
“It was amazing to hear about what he’s going to do and how he raised £22, 000, my jaw dropped open”. Clayton
“It’s nice to see someone so inspiring and nice to know someone who helps raise money to help others”. Lucy
“My Great Grandmother died from Cancer. She lost her hair and needed a wig and it made me think”. Noah
“I’m happy that he’s been through all of that and helps others”. Ava
