1646 – Issue 2

Visors for NHS In April, members of staff took part in an initiative that saw them making facial visors that were used byNHS staff working to tackle Covid-19. The visors were built by teachers and volunteers at Blue Coat and Leighton Park School after a fundraising drive by Leighton Park saw them reach out to other schools and organisations in the local areawithDT facilities that could support production. Leighton Park sent a Computer-Aided Design (CAD) file to Blue Coat’s Design Technology department, who set about cutting the straps to fit the visors. RBC responded to phone calls from people from care homes, small hospitals and care facilities who desperately needed PPE. The team of volunteers worked all the way through the Easter weekend to meet the demand. We are so fortunate to have the facilities to be able to do this. Two of the components were cut and assembled by our teacher-volunteers at Blue Coat, before the parts were taken to Leighton Park. Once there, the visor was attached to the strap, and distributed tomeet the orders that came in daily. It was a real team effort! Blue Coat Teachers Mrs Crossland and Mr Gilbertson were among the volunteers assembling parts before the visors were fitted to the straps at Leighton Park School and finally delivered to Royal Berkshire Hospital. Orders were also received from Reading Borough Council and Wokingham Borough Council, which were used by front line medical professionals. In the end Blue Coat made a total of 16,826 pieces for the project. Many of you will have been part of similar activities when you were at RBC and inspiration for this initiative came from Mrs Gemma Mitchell, who is the Director of the Aldworth Partnership. Gemma recognised the opportunity to do our bit to help end child hunger and food poverty. It is something she feels passionately about and is just one element of the School’s Aldworth Partnership. The garden itself was designed by Miss Barbie Truman, teacher of English and Film Studies who has her own allotment. Miss Truman said ‘The garden design is simple but enables us to extend the beds should this become successful. During the summer, Duke of Edinburgh students will take over responsibility, as part of their volunteering option, for keeping the beds watered and weeded during holidays and weekends. We also hope to create flower beds which we can give to the school to use in the flower arrangements!’ Mrs Mitchell has also set up links with Freely Fruity, who appeared on the BBC’s The One Show. Their aim is to produce as much fruit and vegetables possible to donate to local families. Blue Coat’s Year 9 and 10 students help Freely Fruity with plant care and maintenance during their weekly Activities sessions. Inspired by Freely Fruity Mrs Mitchell said, ‘Our vegetables and produce will go to the Grub Club, a part of the Share Wokingham organisation. This organisation operates within Wokingham and is looking to establish a centre in Woodley. The Share Wokingham team will be using our vegetables to cook and deliver healthy meals to low income families during the holiday periods. The vegetables will also be used to create food parcels that will be distributed to families with the aimof teaching young people how to cook using local and fresh produce.’ The Community Garden is currently in need of poly tunnels to protect the plants from our resident rabbits and deer, small trowels and forks and compost to help keep the plants healthy over the winter. If you are able to help, the Community Garden team would be exceptionally grateful. An Evening of Drama On October 8th 2020, the School broadcast its first live streamed drama performance of the year. As well as putting on a fantastic show, the performance was used to raise money for the Royal Theatrical Fund as part of the Theatre Community Fund. Here, Director of Drama Mr Devin Moller, tells us more: “Around the world theatres have been affected by this global pandemic. I’d like you to imagine for a moment London without its infamous West End. Many artists, musicians, dancers, designers and performers have been left unemployed and wondering where there next pay cheque will come from. An Evening of Drama was staged in October and as a department we wanted to give our students a platform to perform safely, and to entertain our community in a time of need. Not being able to sell tickets for this production we decided to appeal to our audiences to donate to the Theatre Support fund. The event was well supported and raised £891. Furthermore our original plans to stage Billy Elliot have had to be postponed until February 2022. However, a new and exciting musical production is set to take its place in February 2021. Entitled ‘The Show Must Go On’ our musical production is unlike anything ever seen before here at Blue Coat. In year group bubbles we will be staging extracts from some of the best musical productions from around the world. This musical will be presented as a musical revue that will showcase the very best of our performing arts. Musicals such as Hamilton, Mamma Mia, Oliver, Come From Away, Les Miserables and many other exciting shows are part of our programme. We’ve taken the very best songs and scenes from these shows, so the production is the very best of all of these musicals. Once again, rather than selling tickets for this production, it is our goal to be able to donate all proceeds raised to The Theatre Community Fund, and try and do our little bit to keep the arts alive in the UK.” Keep an eye on Facebook and RBC Connect for a link for the event. We hope you can join us.