There are three strands to The Fothergill Society: the first is the Platform; the second is the Innovation Challenge; the third is Service. This is an excerpt from my original vision: We must learn to use and harness the power that knowledge gives us by proactively contributing back to our communities. Students participating in The Fothergill Society will be expected to use their wider learning to tangibly contribute back to our community. The only limitation would be the students’ imaginations: a series of vlogs or radio-style podcasts explaining or exploring issues of interest; preparing and facilitating “platforms” for those capable of excellence in Coram House and in wider primary schools; being inspired to volunteer for an organisation who came to speak at Ackworth; student-led dramatic or musical performances. The drive to “give back” is as resolute as the ways of showing that contribution is varied. I firmly believe that the school’s motto “non sibi sed omnibus” should underpin all that we do at Ackworth, and so I believe that The Fothergill Society must live up to this expectation. This was the challenge set to students who met for the first session of Fothergill Service: to give back, in whatever way they saw fit. They are the ones on the ground, so to speak; they are the ones who can see the gaps, the holes, the areas that need improving. Empowering them - and helping them learn the skills needed to turn their ideas into reality - is the aim of this community-minded (which community? Local or global?) element of the Society. To help them with this, they were given three texts to consider. The first, an article from The Guardian by Alex Andreou entitled, "Random Acts of Kindness Can Make the World a Better Place." Click on the image to read the comment piece: Lovely idea, some might say, but I totally don't have the time for this. I disagree: if you can find one hour in your week (and you can find one hour in your week), I think people underestimate just how much can be achieved in 60 minutes. There is a pedagogical trend going around at the moment called "Genius Hour", and it's this idea that inspires "the one weekly hour of service" theory: again, click on the image to do some initial reading on it: And a final thought: a juxtaposition between Martin Luther King and our own school motto - non sibi sed omnibus; not for oneself, but for all. Students were challenged to devise their own community-based passion project. We meet in two weeks to discuss our initial start-points. |
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