by Ester Davenport and Karin Baker

We Make Sandwiches for Charity

‘Nourish’ is a small charity providing hot meals and sandwiches to the homeless and vulnerable in Derby each Monday evening. Fritchley Primary School has been involved with the charity for over a year, and every month our volunteer children make sandwich packs containing a sandwich, a bag of crisps and a chocolate bar.

We also choose to add a little note in our packs letting the people who receive them know they are not alone – that our families and friends are thinking of them and hoping and praying their situation improves. We are very grateful to the parents and friends who donate items to use and to volunteers of the charity who collect and distribute our sandwiches – especially Kelly and Mandy, who co-ordinate our efforts.

We volunteer as play leaders

This idea originally started with the aim of combatting any bullying that might happen, whether physical, emotional, verbal or through isolation.

Due to instances of bullying being rare, this has evolved into play leading where the Year 5/6 children volunteer to spend a lunchtime per week leading play activities or being on hand in the playground to peer-mentor. There is no doubt that our play leaders enjoy their roles and younger children seek them out.

We host pensioners for lunch

This was introduced at the school about four years ago, with around six pensioners visiting us each month for their lunch (on roast dinner day!) and each Year 6 cohort asked to volunteer to serve them.  There is never any shortage of volunteers!

The children love the responsibility and it is great for them to have this opportunity to serve their community. The pensioners love chatting to the children; they have even stayed behind after lunch in the past and helped with the knitting club! 

One of the gentlemen who joins us is a grandad of one of our pupils and particularly enjoys coming for his dinner. As a result of coming for lunch, the whole of the pensioners’ group now use the school hall for their monthly get-togethers in the evening.

Volunteers help our classes

Phil Shore and Sally Galloway are two of our faithful volunteers at Fritchley School. 

Sally worked as a teaching assistant in our Early Years class for many years before she retired around five years ago. Since then she has been a regular part of school life helping out in the Early Years class, in school and at events. 

Phil joined us as a volunteer six years ago. He has attended every Tuesday since. He works mainly with the juniors, especially Years 5 and 6. With a background in industry, Phil has especially enjoyed learning about modern education and the expectations of the children by the end of Year 6. His love of reading has inspired many of the children over the years. We are very grateful for both his and Sally’s dedication.