MRS GEORGINA BROWN, TEACHER OF MATHEMATICS

On Monday 11th December, the Year 12s were involved in our first Community Action Day since the pandemic. It was wonderful to get this project up and running again and the Year 12 students were absolutely fantastic throughout the day.

Two groups of students visited local primary schools. At Hatfield Community Free School our students were involved in helping with the final preparations for the school’s Christmas Fair which is a very popular and vital fundraising event. The Q students were all expert present-wrappers by lunchtime! They also accompanied the Year 5 and 6 students on their trip to the Galleria to perform for their Christmas concert. At Oak View Primary school our students worked closely with the class teachers to provide a number of different activities, from Christmas art projects to filming with the school’s iPads and designing a soft toy in Design and Technology.

Two groups of students visited projects that support the elderly and vulnerable in Hatfield. The Jim MacDonald centre is a day centre and the Year 12s ran a craft activity and a Christmas sing-a-long session. A great time was had by all and the Year 12s particularly enjoyed getting involved in the weekly chair exercise class that was taking place while we were there. A second group visited Greenacres which is a dementia care home, and worked with the activity coordinator to support the residents while making some amazing gingerbread creations and completing a Christmas quiz.

Back at Q the remaining students were also very busy. One of their tasks was organising a special sweet sale which encouraged everyone to buy a gift for someone else and write a message of appreciation. Amazingly, they sold out of sweets - raising nearly £200 for the charity Crisis which supports the homeless throughout the year and especially as Christmas. Other students were supporting Maths, PSHCE and Art lessons and working with Reverend Kate to create materials for the Chapel. They also spent time tidying the Library and creating art out of old books that were heading to landfill.

Finally a few intrepid members of Year 12 braved the cold and helped with the mammoth task of keeping Q's grounds looking amazing by completing some weeding.

Well done and a huge thank you to all the Year 12 students who were involved and, as I said in Chapel on Tuesday, I hope that our community work inspires you all to think about ways you can support your local community and spread some wonderful Christmas cheer.