On Monday 6 October, our community service programme launched for our Lower 6 pupils. “Monday morning signified the start of our community service launch for our lower sixth formers, one of which is an exciting new project with Kelly from Friend in Deed. Four of our amazing pupils will be meeting weekly to plan exciting adventures with the old and the young, it forms part of a whole year group project where our pupils give up roughly an hour a week of their time to help in the community” said Nicola Hill from Norwich School. “It was a pleasure to meet these sixth formers to talk about what they are studying and discuss their aspirations for the future. Community services is such an excellent opportunity for young people to gain hands on and face to face experience. We are looking forward to seeing what this project brings to all ages” said Kelly, Managing Director of Friend in Deed.

In the penultimate weekend of school, we hosted our annual Charity Fashion Show in Blake for the first ever time (previously we have held this in The Open and The Space - bespoke studios). It proved to be a real success, with Sacha Burke (a returning leaver from 2016) joining us hot off London Fashion Week to make the event as professional as it possibly could be. Hosting it onsite not only enabled us to raise so much more for the chosen charity, Street Child, but also enabled our very busy pupils to be able to partake in the many other rehearsals/commitments they had on the same day! This event could not have been possible without the incredible support of the Charities Committee, notably Mia Scarborough who led on this event with such commitment and passion alongside Boo Harrad, our Chair for this year who also was so positive about the whole event throughout. Alongside them, many other committee members, plus those from the wider advisory group and pupils from the textiles departments also helped to get this show off the ground. This being the final event of the year for Charities Committee. Here are a few words from Mia: "It was amazing to see all our hard work from over the last month come together on Friday evening; the show itself was so much fun and I want to do it all over again. A big thanks to all the models, dancers, comperes, designers and to those who bought tickets. We really appreciate all the support we received from staff at school too. We couldn’t have done it without you all!" And from Anna Lloyd who works for Street Child: "On behalf of everyone at Street Child, we would like to extend an enormous thank you to yourself, the charity committee and everyone involved in Friday’s fashion show for Street Child. It was a truly inspiring, impressive and fun event – and clearly a lot of hard work and talent had gone into making it so! From the incredible dance performances to the hospitality, production, raffle, and runway choreography, the whole event ran seamlessly. We hope that the committee are incredibly proud of their efforts, with the knowledge that all funds raised will go towards making a real and tangible impact in the lives of their peers around the world."