To celebrate the various partnerships in our Norwich School community and with variety evening on the horizon, we sat down with Mr Humphrey Bedford-Payne to discuss his involvement with Amnesty Group.

You can book tickets to Amnesty Variety Evening here!

Can you tell me a little bit about your involvement with Amnesty International?

Currently we invite members of the sixth form to participate as part of their community service and it is also offered as a club/society. We meet every Monday lunchtime but frequently there are ongoing afterschool projects. Not only do we try and raise others’ awareness of human rights crises around the world but locally I think it is absolutely critical to connect, participate and share as much as we can. During the past few years we have focused on dance, food and bicycles, with the aim of involving everyone in the projects. One thing I want to avoid is this narrative of being a provider as I think not only is that belittling but it devalues our partnerships. For example, with the Jerusalema dance, I wanted us all to learn a dance and perform it at five local venues to not only attract attention whilst dancing but also to film and edit these dances into a three-minute celebration of diversity in age, background and heritage. It was one of the highlights of my school career. The idea came about during lockdown when I simply came across other groups doing this dance and I asked a sixth form pupil to teach us, which included members of both the senior and lower school, and we were joined by children of English Plus clients.

Can we access this video?

Yes on youtube! But you will have to bear in mind that as much as I learnt the steps I did not learn the timing! You can watch it here.

So is it just sixth formers that participate in Amnesty?

Yes it is really just sixth formers because there are some very challenging issues that we consider and I want to focus on one particular year group so I thought L6 was the best year to involve on the committee side of things. In the annual events other year groups join in, such as with the International Dumpling Day or the Bicycle Restoration Sessions that we do. People are intrigued and they participate and that’s delightful.

You’ve spoken a little bit about Amnesty and your involvement in the local charityEnglish Plus as well. Can you tell me a little bit about English Plus?

Indeed. I have the highest of respect for this charity and the staff who work there. As their name implies, they offer a lot more than just English language tuition. I and the school support their activities as much as possible: on a Thursday morning, Penny Staufenberg and a couple of Lower 6 students go to their Trinity Church location and on a Wednesday there are three students who go to the Cathedral Hostry to support the class of 60 or more. As well as giving English tuition they offer advice with visa applications, job prospects, transport, accommodation and academic courses. They are absolutely phenomenal.

Back to Amnesty. You have several events throughout the year: can you tell me a little bit about them and which one is your favourite?

Well I suppose our flagship is the Amnesty Variety Evening in February because it is such a festival of creativity, dance, delight and music-making. We even had the staff rock band a year ago which was a particular highlight. It brings in a certain amount of income to fund the projects that we are involved with, be it the bicycle restoration scheme, the Christmas stocking filler project or the Easter egg provision. We also have a lot of support from the school, particularly the catering staff, who have just helped to provide a Christmas lunch to the students of English Plus. It is amazing how caring and supportive they are. It is a continuation of what they did during lockdown. In January, around the time of the Chinese New Year, we have our International Dumpling Day where we invite members of the Amnesty group, the refugee support group but also the international students to come and help us make some Chinese Dumplings. We make about 600 but we of course end up consuming at least 200 of those! Then the following Wednesday the catering team steam them for us and we take them over to the clients of English Plus.

Can you tell me a little bit about the Bicycle Restoration Scheme?

We have occasional donations of bicycles and we give them a service, change the cables for the brakes, provide a new saddle and do bits and pieces like that. Once they are ready, we give them to members of the local refugee community. We provided about a dozen last year. The current plan for this year is to provide a batch of five bicycles to the outlying hotel, where refugees are being housed, in order to provide a means of transport for those who want them. I have enlisted the help of colleagues and pupils who know a lot more about bicycles than I do. The FONS have just granted us some funds to buy more tools and equipment.

So does the money raised from the Variety Evening and other events go towards the Bicycle Restoration Scheme?

Yes and also at Christmas we like to provide some stocking fillers. So one of my favourite tasks is going to the shops and buying 100 chocolate Father Christmases and sundry packs of chocolate coins, then bringing them back in triumph to school. We distribute them to the refugee community on a Wednesday at the same time as the Christmas lunch. We also support the amazing Nandana Werapitiya Community Centre in Sri Lanka.

So you do a lot of work in the local community. Do you do much internationally?

We focus a lot on the immediate and local issues. In the Variety Evening we show extracts from the Amnesty International website. However challenging that it may be, it is important that we face up to the harsh reality of some people’s lives.

How long have you been involved with Amnesty?

I started this 40 years ago and then took a step back when my children were born. Fortunately a succession of members of staff took it over. There was then a bit of a hiatus and I could not let it disappear, so I returned to the Amnesty fold about six years ago.