Community
Connections
January 2023 Update
Great Abington Community Primary School
Having fun with Mr Shakespeare
The Leys partnership with Great Abington Community Primary School received a boost this term with the recommencement of the Shakespeare drama workshops led by The Leys Performance Director, Cory Pulman-Jones. This year she was ably assisted by Upper Sixth pupil Laura N, who attended the workshops and the performance supporting both Cory and the children.
The pair ran three drama workshops for the Year 6's on 11 & 25 November and 2 December, which culminated in a performance to the School and their parents. This was a wonderful way for this year group to be introduced to Romeo and Juliet exploring plot, character and language through drama.
The drama experience concluded with the Great Abington pupils enjoying the end of term School performance of A Christmas Carol.
Mr Guy Underwood, Headmaster of Great Abington Primary School, gave a glowing testimonial on how much the pupils gained from the experience, with both the enrichment of their learning and the many skills they have developed through the process.
Several of the Parents waited behind to extend their thanks to Cory and Laura for giving their children this opportunity and to say how much they enjoyed seeing them so engaged with Shakespeare.
Abbey Food Hub
In 2021 The Community Fund and The Leys established a relationship with Abbey People food hub awarding two grants of £1000 each to support the purchase of fresh food boxes during the February half term and Easter holidays. The fresh food boxes were supplemented with dry goods donated by our Leysian Community.
Building on this established relationship, in December 2022 The Leys supported Abbey People Food Hub once again, taking up a collection of dry food donations from the audience over the three evening perfomances of the School production of A Christmas Carol.
In addition to the food donations, Christmas gifts were collected from The Leys staff and donated to Abbey People to be included in their seasonal Christmas Hampers.
Abbey People support families in need in the Cambridge ward of Abbey which is the most deprived ward in Cambridge. They work closely with local schools to identify families who normally receive free school meals and may struggle to feed their children in the holidays. For more information visit their website here.
Bike donation to OWL
The Leys facilities team instigated a bike cull, gathering together all unwanted bikes which had been left unclaimed at the School over the last few years. In late November 2022 a truck full of Leys Community pre-loved bikes was delivered to OWL Bikes in Chesterton.
Part of The Papworth Trust, OWL recycle and refurbish unwanted or donated bikes selling them on at great prices, alongside bike repairs and services. It relies on the generosity of people donating their old bikes with all funds generated going back into supporting the work of OWL Bikes.
OWL Bikes provides an opportunity for adults with a learning disability to work towards goals related to customer service, mechanics and IT, leading to support empowering individuals to access volunteering and employment opportunities. For more information visit their website here.
iPad Donations
As the new academic year began, the IT Department had a number of pre-loved iPads ready to be donated. These were split between four local primary schools: Swavesey Primary, Shirley Community Primary, Hemingford Grey and Arbury Primary.
In addition, a contact through a Leys School staff member enabled the donation of 30 more to Saint Barnabas Church of England Primary School in Erdington, Birmingham. At the time of the donation, Years 1/2 did not have their own set of iPads, and had to borrow them from another year group in the school. All year groups now have access to their own set of iPads for use in the classroom.
"Year 2 would just like to say a huge thank you for our wonderful iPads. They have made a tremendous impact on our learning. We have been using them for interventions to help us with Maths and have seen great progress. We have also enjoyed using them for coding, making music and digital photography lessons. We really appreciate your kind donation and are elated that we have been given the opportunity to use these daily to help us in our learning."
Mrs S Choudry, Teacher Year 2 'Bluebells'
Environment Matters
As part of our Personal Development, Service and Leadership Scheme, some of our pupils in Year 11 have been travelling to Barton every week to work with the Countryside Restoration Trust.
This term they’ve been harvesting willow which has been sold to raise funds for the Trust and have been clearing land for the next stage of the project.
They marked the end of term with a bonfire.
Built with Shorthand