Community work and fundraising
Pupils Donate 2366 Hours in Volunteering for the Duke of Edinburgh's Award
Duke of Edinburgh's Award participants from Norwich School who donated 2366 hours of voluntary service to the local community. The social value of these hours is a total of £10,292.
Amnesty Group Fundraising
The school’s Amnesty Group held their annual Christmas fair in December 2023, with the aim of raising funds in support of both English Plus in Norwich, and the Nandana Village Fund in Sri Lanka.
Members of the group baked biscuits and cakes and even prawn crackers and set up an innovative photo booth in D2. A total of £250 was raised. Congratulations to all concerned.
Volunteering for YMCA Norfolk
The school has a long-standing relationship with the YMCA and has run several community service projects with the charity. In December we supported the YMCA Norfolk branch with their Christmas Fayre event which took place to raise money for the charity and celebrate the opening of their new Community Hub facility in the city.
Norwich School pupils helped in various ways, by volunteering as elves for the Santa's Grott and greeting families as they arrived. Two of our music scholars went along to sing carols and provide musical accompaniment for the afternoon. Business Enterprise pupils from our Lower 6 were also able to set up stalls alongside the other sellers at the Fayre to sell products they have been developing as one of their A Level tasks.
Community Service Programme for Sixth Form Pupils
The school has a long-running Community Service Programme which places pupils in a community placement for two timetabled sessions per week.
Each year around 110 pupils undertake volunteering in a variety of settings and the school typically works with around 24 organisations, ranging from care homes, primary schools and charities to social enterprises and community groups.
This equates to 138 hours of pupil volunteering each week and 4830 over the academic year. The school also dedicates 12 members of staff who oversee placements. Pupil volunteer hours in 2020-21 equated to £23,280 working hours (£4.82 NMW for Under 18s).
Donation of over 11,000 meals for vulnerable people during Covid-19
During the Christmas break and Lent term school closure, volunteer teams from the school's catering provider, Chartwells, Estates teams and pupils from the 8th Norwich Sea Scouts have set about making meals for the most vulnerable people in Norwich.
To date, they have cooked, packed and delivered in excess of 11,100 meals. These have been donated to our local community partners and include:
100 meals a day for 6 St Martin's Housing Trust accommodation houses for homeless people
40 packed lunches per day for residents staying at Norfolk YMCA's accommodation in the city
100 chilled takeaway meals each week for the Community Fridge set up by The Feed, a local social enterprise offering a foodbank for vulnerable people in Norwich
Transport for NHS Staff During Poor Weather
During a period of poor weather in January, members of the Estates team were on standby for staff at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital to transport them to and from work if they were stranded by adverse driving conditions.
Volunteer drivers were on call 24/7 to ensure staff could get to their shifts, covering a total of 120 miles over 2.5 days on ungritted country roads.
YMCA Norfolk Sleepeasy
On Friday 9th March Norwich School pupils joined forces with YMCA Norfolk for their annual 'Sleep Easy' event. 12 intrepid L6 formers, taking part in the YMCA Sleepeasy, spent the night in the pouring rain, with nothing more than a tarpaulin to shelter them.
'Sleep Easy' is an event which aims to raise awareness and understanding of homelessness, as well as to raise much needed funds for the YMCA Norfolk. Participants choose to give up their bed for one night, brave the cold and sleep in a cardboard box. 1 in every 100 young people experience some form of homelessness every year. YMCA Norfolk provides a safe home and support for over 240 young people every night.
Norwich School grounds served as the location for the event, with the school also providing fodd and drink for participants, and materials for making shelters. 12 Sixth Form pupils took part in the event, which was organised by the Charities Committee, alongise members of Norwich School staff.
8th Norwich Sea Scouts
Led by a Group Scout Leader paid for by the school and open to young people from outside the Norwich School community, the group enables a wide range of young people to access sea scouting and develop both water and land-based skills.
Allowing use of the Groups equipment and the School facilities for venues has supported scouting across the county. This has included a Queens Scout Expedition from Colchester camping in our grounds; to larger events such as Norjam Scout Jamboree in which we provided sailing to over 400 scouts and the St George's Activity Day which attracts circa 300 scouts annually to a multi-activity day.
In addition we are happy to loan equipment and facilities to neighbouring groups to enable them carry out activities they would not easily be able to do on their own.
The group is one of the oldest, largest and most active Sea Scout Groups in the UK with over 220 young members from age 7 to 18 and over 100 active adult leaders and instructors. Members are drawn from the Norwich School community alongside 32 young people from 16 local schools.
