Written by Mrs Sheppard, Head of PSHCE, Wellbeing and Social Action Lead
We are delighted to announce that Oxford High School GDST is embarking on an exciting project to increase our social action. Our vision is to empower our whole school community to do something positive to make a difference on a local, national or global level.
As we start this project we are focusing on the following key strands; Community action projects, fundraising, volunteering and increasing awareness of important issues to our students.
We are proud of the community partnerships we already have and we are looking to further the links in the local community, ensuring we get involved with local projects that would benefit from our support. Our mission is to help local initatives and encourage more engagement from the whole school community.
Oxford High School has a strong tradition of supporting charities and many students have undertaken outstanding work for a variety of causes. We look to deepen our relationships with these organisations by focusing our efforts on fewer charities so that the impact is greater, helping students see the difference they make.
We are excited to announce the date of our first big event. The Christmas Bazaar takes place on Wednesday 13 December 2023. All students will have the time to support the causes they choose.
Many of our students go beyond to give their time to volunteer in a variety of settings, so we want this to be the norm and for them to share their passion through more exciting opportunities. Therefore, we will be increasing the avenues and the support available for students to find out and participate in volunteering placements.
Finally, we will continue to raise awareness of issues close to the heart of everyone in our school community, through whatever means suit the students. This includes planning lesson content for whole year groups, leading whole school assemblies, optional talks about current global issues, writing articles for all to read or co-ordinating projects or special events, such as our Celebrate Your Culture Day in November.
One of the key principles we want to focus on for this project is that it should be led by our community, actually helping those around us and aligning with the school values. Therefore we would urge you to have your say! Are there any causes you would like us to support? Any local projects that need help? Any volunteering opportunities that our students could help with? Any issues you think we should be raising awareness of? If so, please take a few moments to share them with us here and we will explore how we can be involved now or in the future.
I look forward to sharing more news as our Social Action project evolves. Watch this space for year group charities being announced, the FoodHub collection and our first exciting ‘make a difference’ afternoon where Year 10 will go out into the community on projects they are passionate about.