Community Foundation Funding: How Churchill Community College students achieved Pledge awards
Schools North East partnered with the Community Foundation to make a staggering £100,000 of funding available for schools wishing to develop their cultural, sporting or careers provision for disadvantaged and looked-after children. Funding of up to £4,000 was available per bid for schools across Northumberland and Tyne & Wear.
This project meant so much to us all here at Schools North East, and we were delighted to facilitate such a powerful opportunity for some of our local schools.
We recently caught up with Churchill Community College to learn more about how they used this fantastic funding opportunity to better their pupil outcomes.
The impact of the project
Overall, the aim of this project was to support more students (44 percent of which are Pupil Premium) to achieve Pledge awards, which are given in areas of:
- Participation – for getting involved in extracurricular activities
- Leadership
- Equality and Diversity
- Development – for getting involved in activities outside of school
- Giving back – raising money for charity
- Environment
This is both to reward and recognise those students who get involved in various activities of their own choice, both inside and outside of school, such as those who play for football teams, or are involved in cadets.
It was also an attempt to ensure that those who don’t typically get involved in anything beyond lessons at school (or anything outside of school) are encouraged and supported to achieve an award to improve their self confidence, and foster a sense of belonging to the school.
A fantastic arrange of activities to boost confidence
Tennis club: This was linked to the PE lifeskills award. Students who were not involved in any school clubs identified that this is a sport they would like to do. With this funding, Churchill Community College was able to employ a coach, as no PE staff had capacity to run this in addition to other activities.
Peripatetic Music lessons: Despite subsidising music lessons through the music hub for PP students, some students still struggle to afford the cost of lessons. This funding allowed the school to support this, which in turn supported them in learning an instrument and assisting with their Music GCSE courses.
Drama: Drama was new to the curriculum at Churchill Community College. The funding allowed them to offer a drama enrichment day for targeted students who had shown potential in lessons – but were not doing any drama beyond lessons – to develop their skills further and get involved in an after-school drama club. Some students also subsequently chose drama as a GCSE option. Success!
Further activities included…
- Archeology club: for a group of vulnerable students, which took place both on and offsite
- Sign language club: for 15 students
- Go Karting competition: 3 SEND students took part in a regional round of a national competition!
- Journalism club: The pupils worked hard and even got to publish a page in the Chronicle.
Extracurricular activities play a crucial role in pupil development by providing opportunities for socialising, skill-building, and personal growth beyond the classroom.
Engaging in these types of activities that the funding made possible – whether sports, arts, or clubs – fosters teamwork, discipline, and leadership, helping children develop essential life skills. Great work, Churchill Community College!
Churchill Community College is a Schools North East Partner School. If you’d like to find out more about our Partner School membership, click here.
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