This year, for the first time, we have welcomed students from Rutherford School to Trinity, to join in with our Lower Sixth A Level Drama lessons.
Rutherford is a specialist independent school in South Croydon for students with profound and multiple learning difficulties with a high degree of dependency. We have partnered with the school for many years, with small groups of our Lower Sixth students completing five volunteering sessions there as part of their Diploma. During this time, they engage Rutherford students aged 19-25 years old with activities, read to them, help them gain life skills and provide support to the staff. Our students always get a lot out of the experience themselves.
This year, in addition to the volunteering, a small group of Rutherford students have been joining our Lower Sixth A Level Drama lessons once a month during the summer term. Mr Chambers, Head of Drama Productions, and the five A Level students have welcomed our visitors and included them in a whole range of activities, which everyone has thoroughly enjoyed. The team from Rutherford has fed back how happy the sessions have made their students.
Mr Chambers said, “It was a great experience for all of us to work with students and carers from Rutherford. We particularly enjoyed creating some bespoke drama games utilising different lighted areas of the space in different colours as well as creating a mini musical with all students involved in telling the story using tableaux, narration and song with an improvised piano backing.”
Lower Sixth student Dhyan is an A Level Drama student and has also been volunteering at Rutherford for his Diploma. He said, “We have enjoyed hosting students from Rutherford School over the past few weeks to help as we devise a play during our A Level Drama lessons. I’ve also had the pleasure of volunteering with Rutherford during Diploma sessions, and so it has been wonderful to work with their lovely, hard-working students in these lessons as well. Fun activities have involved creating soundscapes, drama games, improvising and characterisation. We hope that Sophie, Prince, Adam, Joseph and Sachi have had an enjoyable and creative experience, and that this is the start of a long relationship between Trinity Drama and Rutherford. Thank you to their assistants, their class teacher Gemma, and Mrs Burrage [Head of Community Action] for organising this partnership.”
Lower Sixth Drama student Michael agrees, “It’s been a pleasure working with a few of the students at Rutherford School during our Drama lessons, an experience that not only has helped me understand more about Rutherford, but also one that I have thoroughly enjoyed. Whether it be immersing ourselves in a soundscape of tooth-brushing and hair-combing, experimenting with dramatic techniques, playing party games to further develop the play that we’re currently devising, or just simply having a bit of fun, I will certainly remember these experiences for a long time.”
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As part of their Sixth Form Diploma, Lower Sixth students from Trinity School, Croydon, commit to undertaking five sessions of volunteering over as many weeks. Every student is given the opportunity to work in local care homes, primary schools, or charities. We have long-standing relationships with around 200 local organisations, who come back to us every year to work with our students as they value the work they do so greatly. Some of these partnerships go back well over 20 years. The time they spend at these organisations gives them the opportunity to really give back to our local community, and for them to truly appreciate the joy that can come from spending time helping others. This programme builds on the time many of our students spend volunteering locally on Field Days in the Fourth and Fifth Years and gives them the chance to get to know the people they’re working with on a deeper level.
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