COVID-19 Response

NORWICH SCHOOL COVID-19 PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION

Norwich School is committed to making a valuable contribution to the community during the Covid19 outbreak. Whilst the school is closed to most pupils, we hope to continue to support those most affected and those working on the frontline during this time.

DONATION OF 11,100 MEALS FOR VULNERABLE PEOPLE

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. 

FRIEND IN DEED PARTNERSHIP 

The school has a long-running relationship with local charity Friend In Deed and regularly supports it in it's aim to integrate our older generations into the community. 

During Covid-19, care homes have been unable to accept visitors for residents for safety concerns and Friend in Deed's regular enrichment activities for older generations have had to be adapted to an online way of living. To keep residents connected to the community, Norwich School have been working with Friend in Deed in several projects to bring the generations together. Pupils have made cards, written letters and made pictures to share with residents. 

January saw the first Norwich School Intergenerational Quiz between keyworker pupils being supervised in school and residents at Laurel Lodge care home. More about this fantastic event can be found here.

SHARING MUSIC WITH CARE HOMES

Pupils have also been sharing their musical performances, recorded both in school before the period of lockdown, and in their own homes. Our usual Making Musicians concerts featuring some of Norfolk's most talented young performers, were recorded and live streamed to care homes through our partnership with Friend in Deed. The concerts are normally held in Norwich Cathedral with a public audience, many of whom are local care home residents. 

During the lent term, pupils worked together to produce the "Barbirolli Sessions from Home" a collection of musical performances which were made into a DVD and posted to 40 local care homes for residents and staff to watch and enjoy.

COOKIES FOR CARE HOME STAFF

We were delighted to be approached by the Norwich branch of Love Your Neighbour, a community initiative aiming to help local families through volunteering, food donations and practical help, to help spread some cheer amongst keyworkers. The school's catering team baked 550 bespoke heart-shaped cookies to be included in Valentine's care packs for care home staff,  pharmacists and medical workers. Care Homes also received a copy of the Barbirolli From Home DVD to share with residents and staff. 

 

PPE FOR FRONTLINE STAFF 

Our Art and Design team began producing protective visors for use in medical and care settings almost as soon as the country was placed in lockdown. The team repurposed the school Art and Design workshops into a production line for making PPE, the design for which came from 3D Teacher Ed Cann, who devised an original prototype. The team have now produced over 8,820 visors, which have been donated to over 90 locations in Norfolk and the wider UK. These have been distributed by the school to local hospitals, care homes, hospices and other medical settings, with masks also donated to community volunteers such as St John’s Ambulance and RNLI.  

The school also shared the design instructions with other schools and organisations with facilities to make visors in their own settings. 

 

 

RESOURCES FOR YEAR 11 PUPILS - PREPARATION FOR A LEVEL STUDY 

Norwich School subject leaders have created schemes of work to help current Year 11 Pupils prepare for studying at A Level whilst their school is closed. These resources have been made available for all Year 11 pupils and are published on the school’s website. The school recognises the particular disruption to education for pupils in this year group, who would normally have spent this time sitting public exams. The resources, which cover 16 subjects, have been developed to help pupils to make the transition from GCSE to A-Level and are designed to be accessed and used remotely.  

The Year 11 Resources are available by clicking here. 

 

 

NORWICH SCHOOL DANCERS PERFORM AT LOCAL CARE HOMES 

During Trinity term, pupils from U6 devised an initiative to visit local care homes to perform dances for residents in the gardens. The school has a long-running relationship with a local charity Friend In Deed, whose mission is to help combat loneliness amongst the older generations in Norfolk.  

Pupils Amélie Hitchings, Emily Wallace and Ellie Hayward came up with the with the idea of an outdoor dance performance to boost morale and hopefully spread some joy and positivity to residents who had not been able to receive visitors during the crisis. In total, the girls performed dances in the grounds of 4 local care homes, which visitors could watch at a safe distance outside, or from their room windows. The care homes were delighted to have some live entertainment for residents after a long period of isolation. 

Read the full story here.

 

 

PROVIDING MEALS FOR VULNERABLE PEOPLE THROUGH THE NR5 COMMUNITY HUB 

Whilst not providing meals for the larger pupil body, the Norwich School catering team spent much of the Lent and Trinity terms delivering meals to people in need in Norwich through the NR5 Community Hub. The initiative, which run by hub volunteers and a number of charity partners who are delivering the meals, aims to get food to vulnerable people primarily in the NR5 area of the city. 

Read more on the story here.

 

LOWER SCHOOL PUPILS WRITE 140 LETTERS FOR LOCAL CARE HOME RESIDENTS 

Lower School pupils have been writing letters of friendship to local care home residents, with 140 messages being delivered to older people in total. 

Inspired by the National Literacy Trust's campaign #mydearnewfriend, pupils decided to write letters to those living in care homes after hearing that many residents have not been able to receive visits from friends and family due to the lockdown. Loneliness amongst the older generations has been highlighted as a particular issue in Norfolk, one which is made even more prevalent in the current national situation. 

Pupils enjoyed writing about themselves and their families, describing the many activities and learning they have been doing whilst staying away from school. Letters have been sent to 16 care homes in Norfolk, which the children hope will dispel any boredom and bring a smile to their faces. 

 

 

NORWICH SCHOOL SIXTH FORM PUPILS CREATE A DVD AND CD OF MUSIC AND DANCE FOR LOCAL CARE HOMES  

 

Pupils from Norwich School Sixth Form have been working together to create a CD and DVD of pupil music and dance performances to be sent to local care homes during lockdown. The group were inspired by the school’s long-running partnership with Friend In Deed, the Norfolk charity dedicated to combatting loneliness amongst the older generations. Pupils Amy Griffiths, Katja Ruda, Ruby Landis and Emily Wallace have been gathering past footage of pupil performances and recording new material for the project, which have been turned into a DVD and CD for care homes to play with their residents. Entitled “Arts of Connection”, the DVD and CD also featured a pupil-devised quiz for residents to play to help keep them entertained.  

These have sent to 37 homes in total, and staff and residents have shared their enjoyment of being able to watch the performances and receive kind wishes from Norwich pupils.  

 

 

NORWICH SCHOOL SIXTH FORM PUPILS DEVELOP CONTACT SCHEME FOR VULNERABLE AND OLDER ALUMNI 

A group of our community-minded and enthusiastic Upper Sixth pupils have been helping senior members of our Old Norvicensian (ON) community during the pandemic through a volunteer contact scheme. They have offered a friendly phone call to ONs, centred around Norwich School life and shared experiences of school over the decades. 

Hearing that some ONs had been shielding indoors throughout the pandemic and many had not been able to see grandchildren and loved ones due to restrictions in place, the pupils wanted to do something to help and, working with the School’s Development Office, they set up the scheme. 

Read the full story here.

 

 

NORFOLK UNIVERSITY SUMMER SCHOOL TAKES PLACE ONLINE 

This July, Norwich School once again hosted the Norfolk University Summer School for Year 12 pupils from across Norfolk.   

Now in its 18th year, the Summer School has a long history of supporting local state school pupils in learning about competitive university courses and UCAS applications. Normally, pupils would be invited to the school for a week of lectures, seminars and talks but current restrictions meant that the week was re-developed into an online format to ensure that the event could still go ahead. Pupils had a timetable of evening subject seminars taught by Norwich School academic staff along with industry experts. A range of subjects were available from Architecture and Medicine, to History and Mathematics, with 56 seminars totaling 84 hours of teaching.   

The virtual Summer School took place instead over 4 days of online lectures and webinars, with 40 Year 12 pupils attending from 16 schools. 

The importance of this kind of support for young people in Year 12, who have experienced a great disruption to their education this year, has been highlighted in recent months by the Independent Schools Council and the Schools Together Group. Norwich School was particularly grateful to be used as a case study for their report The Missing 2000. 

More information about the Norfolk University Summer School can be found here.