The Phoenix School Parent Guild has a long tradition of raising money for child-related charities that it selects on an annual basis. All of the charities that we select have small overheads, making sure that the money we raise is put to maximum effect. Furthermore, the money we raise goes to the charities, not to our school. This year, we are proud to confirm that we are supporting the following very worthy causes.
The Bloomfield Learning Centre
The Bloomfield Learning Centre provides the only significant subsidised specialist teaching service in London. Their mission is to provide as many free and subsidised teaching places as possible to those in need. The headmistress is one of our parents, Mrs. Jane Orr. The centre assesses and teaches children with specific learning difficulties, from areas of socio-economic disadvantage in London. Difficulties include dyslexia, dyspraxia, attention disorders and Asperger’s Syndrome. They provide subsidised and free literacy support to as many children as they can. These children are generally underachieving by between two and six years in reading and spelling.
They also promote dyslexia awareness and good teaching practice through the provision of training courses on site and in schools, for teachers, teaching assistants and parents. The centre also encourages good teaching practise through the publication of their own synthetic phonics reading scheme and workbooks- The Dandelion Readers. Furthermore, they support parents, who are often disadvantaged through poverty, unemployment and their own literacy difficulties, in obtaining appropriate educational provision for their children. The centre also helps schools, with limited access to local authority educational psychologists, to identify pupils’ difficulties. They provide remediation and help them to obtain statements of special educational needs for these children. Specialist maths assessments and lessons for children with dyscalculia are also provided. Between 200 and 250 children per year benefit directly from the service and hundreds of others benefit indirectly from improved dyslexia awareness in schools. To learn more, visit their website.
Swiss Cottage School
Swiss Cottage is a Specialist School for Special Educational Needs. It opened in 1995 and is now recognised as one of the most successful schools in the country. 3 Ofsted inspections have seen the school placed in the ‘outstanding’ list each time. It has doubled in size since opening and is very heavily oversubscribed. The school has 150 students, aged 2-16 years, with a range of learning difficulties and associated needs including communication, physical & learning; other significant additional associated needs, including emotional/behavioural and autistic spectrum disorders; and medical, including Mental Health. It has a ratio of 150 students to 100 teachers. The Phoenix aims to foster a long-term relationship between the two schools, enriching the lives of both sets of pupils through joint social activities as well as providing financial support through our fundraising efforts. To learn more about Swiss Cottage School, please click to visit their website.
Nirvana School
The Phoenix School has set up a relationship with Nirvana School in Pondicherry, South India. The school provides a free private education to 350 children from the age of 3 to 13, enabling the poorest of local children to get a high quality education that can help them improve the quality of their and their family’s future. It also offers evening tutoring, financial sponsorship and donations of clothes and stationery to other children who attend local state schools. It was set up in 1995 by a lady called Mrs Samani, who works on an entirely voluntary basis, and who is currently fundraising to expand the school so that it can help more children. The Phoenix has agreed to sponsor Nirvana School for the next 5 years with money raised through our fundraising events and teacher training and lesson planning through our teachers visiting the school. The money raised by our fundraising efforts in 2008 have been used to build a new school building, provide a range of educational materials and some sunshades in the outside spaces to provide respite for the children from the heat, and to sponsor five children to get a complete education. For more information about the Nirvana School, please visit their website. Three members of staff from The Phoenix School, Miss Dina Hamalis, Miss Sabahat Hasson and Ms. Lamees Al Mubarak travelled to India in October 2011 to teach the child and train the teachers. Click to view their presentation.
We are very grateful for any help and support you may be able to offer us with our fundraising activities in the form of gift/voucher/product donations and really appreciate your kindness. If you have any queries please do call the current Co-Chairs of the Parent Guild:
Anna Mellitt 07779579308
Gemma Riche 07770302997
Mandy Tafler 07989 971207
Thank you for your kind help.