Chronicle Spring 2022

31 ST EDWARD’S CHRONICLE

The School charity for 2021 was The Gatehouse, for which St Edward’s raised over £13,000. Fundraising events included the School Steeplechase, Christmas Jumper Day, School Cake Sale, collection after the Carol Service, Tilly’s Horse Racing evening and the Oxford Half Marathon. A huge thank you to everyone that donated to any of these events. We have lots of new projects on the horizon. We have plans for pupils to run drama classes for local primary schools as part of their Pathways and Perspectives courses, to volunteer at Oxford Hub and The Gatehouse, run cricket workshops for primary schools and hopefully to go back into our local care homes, something which we have missed greatly. We are also hoping to return to volunteering with FarmAbility, a charity which works with people with learning difficulties and autism, allowing them to connect with the land and providing them with meaningful and fulfilling farm- based activities. We are keen to continue to grow our local partnerships and hope that the many discussions we are currently having will come to fruition over the coming months. If any of our community have contacts within local charities which would benefit from partnering with us, we would be delighted to hear from you. Please call Rachel Moffatt, Partnerships Manager on 01865 319325 or email moffattr@stedwardsoxford.org .

Pupils prepare to welcome refugees to St Edward’s

living in Oxfordshire. This was hugely successful with the Teddies community providing seasonal gifts for over 250 individuals. Sandy Relton, a current St Edward’s parent who bought gifts, said, ‘Beyond Teddies are doing such a great job helping people in the community that are in need. ‘M’ so graciously accepted the gifts and we really enjoyed selecting presents for her and her children’. We are pleased to announce that Asylum Welcome was chosen by staff and pupils to be the School charity for 2022, so we will look forward to supporting them further.

to support Oxford Mutual Aid as part of their ‘Kitchen Collective Programme’ and each week cooks and boxes up in takeaway boxes, 75 main meals and puddings. They also support the Limes Club in North Oxford which is a day centre providing care and support for those living with dementia. All attendees of the club are given a hot meal twice a week, cooked in the Teddies kitchens. Our catering staff provided over 150 Christmas meals over the course of December as part of the the Cutteslowe Christmas community meals initiative. Teddies have worked with Asylum Welcome to welcome refugees from Afghanistan living in Oxfordshire to the School on several Sunday afternoons. It has been rewarding seeing the pupils and visitors interacting and enjoying each other’s company. The thank you email from Dr Hari Reed, Policy and Advocacy Coordinator of the Afghanistan Resettlement Scheme at Asylum Welcome sums up one of the visits: ‘I just wanted to say a massive thank you on behalf of all staff and clients for the wonderfully organised, positive afternoon that everyone enjoyed yesterday. I’ve had some glowing reviews and it seems like being outside and running around was what everyone sorely needed. It’s shown us that getting out of the hotel to do these kinds of activities is hugely beneficial for the clients, and we’d love to organise another one of these events with you in the future.’ In December we worked with Asylum Welcome, running a gifts appeal for refugees

Nina Brandler, Teddy Dorich, Joseph Osei, Oscar Smith, Dawood Nasir, Kourosh Jaafari and Olivia Olisagu outside Cutteslowe Primary School