Service please! - HMC (The Heads' Conference)

On Thursday afternoons when I was at secondary school in Birmingham, I participated in an activity rather dubiously nicknamed, ‘Granny Bashing’. I must immediately state that this did not involve any physical violence whatsoever, although it did involve a Granny. Her name was Doris and she lived on the top floor of a rather rundown block of high-rise flats in a rather insalubrious part of Aston, not far from my bus stop home. The activity was offered to Sixth Form pupils who were keen to give some help and support to elderly people in the local area. We would visit our ‘Granny’ for up to an hour and sit and chat or help around the flat – my weekly meetings with Doris would also involve a small glass of sherry, which as a seventeen-year-old was definitely part of the appeal.

If we fast forward thirty years, on joining Warminster School as Headmaster I was pleased to learn that we ran an annual ‘Community Action Day’. On this day in June, we would go forth from the School gates and do good deeds around the local community, from painting fences to clearing churchyards of weeds. However successful a day this was, I always felt we could do more and that as a school that has been an important part of the community since 1707, we should take a much more active approach in helping others. In September 2021 we therefore launched the EDGE (Explore, Discover, Grow, Engage) program which runs every Wednesday afternoon. For some of our pupils this means being part of our Combined Cadet Force and for the younger ones we have games. However, for well over 150 of our pupils in Years 11- 13 it involves a wide range of community action projects.

EDGE

Explore, Discover, Grow, Engage

At the outset it was important that we went out to the community of Warminster to ascertain what was needed. Our Community Outreach Co-ordinator, Lisa Cook, spent a lot of time engaging with various groups and individuals to see where there might be gaps, and how our pupils might start to fill them. One of the early and most successful projects was the Tech Club. Working with members of Warminster University of the Third Age (U3A), our pupils offered help and support in using new mobile phones or other electronic devices. The feedback was excellent, and we could immediately see the benefits for those who came along each week. The relationship with U3A flourished and we expanded into croquet, art, and chess clubs, where our pupils and their members got together each week to enjoy the activities and each other’s company. The Tech Club now also runs pop-up sessions in the local surgery, making sure patients can install and effectively use the NHS App.

Over four years on and the EDGE has grown significantly, and we currently run eighteen different projects in and around the town of Warminster, including:

Charity Shops – We go to five shops each week where pupils sort donations, tag items, and serve customers.

Wessex MS Centre– This is a centre for people who are having oxygen therapy for Multiple Sclerosis. Pupils meet and greet, make tea and help with daily tasks.

Care Homes- We visit several local car homes providing music performances, board games clubs, art club and simply chatting to residents.

Pen Pal Club – For local residents who are housebound, we have set up a pen pal club. We have now expanded to several care homes. The club has over 45 pen pals, all linked with pupils.

Local Primary Schools – Pupils plan and deliver several afterschool clubs, in three local schools, including art, sport, and drama.

There can be no doubt that as well as helping our local community, our own pupils have benefitted hugely from the EDGE program and have grown in confidence and learnt to develop relationships with a wide range of different people, young and old. As Headmaster, it makes me very proud that the experience I had with Doris all those years ago can now be repeated, and that our pupils can appreciate the benefits of serving others – without the Sherry!

To end, one of my favourite quotations, and one I’ve used a lot in school assemblies:

...to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden, a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, American Essayist

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