Member Article

Goldsmiths' Awards for Community Engagement recognise students' who helped tackle crime and deprivation

The Goldsmiths’ Awards for Community Engagement has this year awarded its gold medal to students who used volunteering and martial arts lessons to help keep kids away from County Lines crime gangs.

The Mosslands School in Wallasey was awarded the honour at the awards final at Goldsmiths’ Hall in London last Tuesday after presenting its volunteering work for consideration alongside seven other schools. The seven were selected from 172 secondary schools entries from across the UK at heats in March.

The finalist schools presented their community projects during a ceremony at Goldsmiths’ Hall in London, with students travelling from as far as Northern Ireland and as near as Buckinghamshire to take part.

Students volunteer work attracts attention of local MPs

County Durham 11-16 institution Ferryhill School was awarded the silver medal for helping change the perceptions of young people in their area. The work they carried out in their community involved raising crime awareness, collecting litter and keeping care home residents company.

Mosslands has received a gold medal and a cheque for £3,000 to be used for increasing the impact of the school’s charitable activities. While Ferryhill won a silver medal and a cheque for £1,000.

The other schools were presented with finalist certificates and were warmly congratulated by Goldsmiths’ Company Prime Warden Professor Charles Mackworth-Young CVO, who told them: “By being here today, you have been recognised for the work you have been doing.”

Volunteer work helping thousands recognised through awards

The eight finalist schools gave presentations about their community work to a panel of judges, who also quizzed the pupils at physical stands they had set up.

The Mosslands School has seen the serious impact of County Lines gangs on their local area, notably when 26-year-old Elle Edwards was shot in a Wallasey pub on Christmas Eve, generating national news headlines.

Mosslands students have for the past three years worked with Merseyside Police to deliver their Active Citizenship project. This involves after-school sessions once a week to engage young people with volunteering, Scouts, the police cadets, and martial arts.

Ferryhill School, based in one of England’s most deprived areas, has helped around 4,000 people through its local foodbank. One hundred and sixty student leaders have also worked with Durham Police and the local Police and Crime Commissioner to set up a reward scheme for primary school pupils who raise awareness or reduce crime.

Ferryhill students were invited by three local MPs to discuss the scheme in Parliament and there is talk of it being expanded to other local police forces.

St. Michael’s Church of England High School students spoke in their presentation about the school’s 21st Century Child project. The West Midlands school has for eight years delivered information events for students and parents on topics such as social media, mental health, body image, and youth violence.

Stockport School put forward their intergenerational dementia choir project. This started after two staff’s family members were diagnosed with the condition but also included a student who used to sing for her grandparents when they were affected by the condition. The choir featured in a BBC One show presented by actress Vicky McClure.

The Halifax Academy opened a community kitchen to provide over 20,000 meals to people in need and planted over 300 trees. Its school has also provided compact gardens to help provide fruit and vegetables to households in their mill town which has many terraced homes and limited garden space.

Newbridge Integrated School from Northern Ireland, which educates Protestant, Catholic and other students, has three key projects: intergenerational work, anti-bullying ambassadors, and their work to develop the skills of the student population. For their anti-bullying work, for example, 35 student ambassadors have been speaking in local primary schools about anti-bullying strategies and how to work together to promote kindness.

Alfriston School, a specialist school in Buckinghamshire, has worked to inspire young people with special educational needs and disabilities to go out into the community and show what they can do. This Alfriston achieves by students helping package up groceries for a local food bank, working with a social enterprise to create craft products, and assisting the Chiltern Rangers with their conservation work.

Brighton College has run a series of projects to help their community, including the Pelican Primary Club which provides extracurricular activities, led by Brighton students, for primary pupils in areas such as coding and Mandarin. Brighton students have also provided “tea and company” for the local homeless community to tackle loneliness. The school has also been helping teach English to Syrian refugees.

Finalists have gone ‘above and beyond’ to engage with their local community

Speaking at the event, Professor Charles Mackworth-Young CVO told the schools: “Ferryhill School was named runner-up for their tremendous amount of initiative, inventiveness, and engagement with the local community.

“But the gold prize went to Mosslands and a group of students who have shown a huge amount of engagement and initiative with a very challenging local population and demonstrated how they really make a difference to lives in their area.”

Awards chair and judge Judith Cobham-Lowe OBE said after the event: “It was wonderful to welcome the finalists to Goldsmiths’ Hall on Tuesday. Each of these schools have made a remarkable contribution to their local community and all eight of them ought to be applauded.

“The finalists each demonstrated how they have gone above and beyond to engage with their local community, despite problems caused by deprivation or crime. Their work is precisely what the Goldsmiths’ Awards for Community Engagement are here to recognise.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Dorothy Semple .