Rowdown Inspire to Aspire Foundation

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6th February 2019 – Tuition Programme Catch Up

February 6, 2019 by Gary Coy

Let’s talk about those children that have already started their secondary education at some very prestigious schools in and around Croydon.  We ask for regular updates from parents on how these kids are getting on.  Our commitment to them means we want to make sure they are happy and making the most of the opportunities that we have helped to create for them.

We’re pleased to say that all eleven children are getting along just fine.  That’s a bit of an understatement as it is all going very well according to their latest school reports.  And I bet they all look as smart as Priscilla does here in her Royal Russell school uniform.  I’m pleased to say there are 11 sets of proud parents that we have helped to realise a dream of a really strong secondary education for their bright children.

Here’s a reminder who is where:

Filed Under: news

6th February 2019 – A 6 Month Catch Up

February 6, 2019 by Gary Coy

We’ve been very remiss in not posting any of our news on the website but hopefully you have seen some of the great things we have been doing – or the kids have been doing with our support – on Facebook and Twitter.  But here’s a very quick catch up of six months of news:

Christopher continues to make excellent progress in his piano lessons.  He’s soon going to be taking his Grade 5 exam in March and we are confident of success.

Our two gymnasts, Emma and Layla-Belle are enjoying their lessons at AllStarz in New Addington and their coaches tell us they are making good progress.  But we also have some evidence!!

Dancing sisters Aliyah and Soraya are moving onwards and upwards with Dance with Grace.  They are having classes in a number of different types of dance and have taken part in several performances, showing off what they have learnt.  Keep it up girls!

 

Ciara continues with her Irish dancing at the Conor Academy.  She is improving with every session and recently competed in the Surrey Championships.  Here she is in her costume, which we contributed towards to make sure she looks the part every time she competes.  Glad we don’t have to wash and iron it though!

 

 

The Art Masterclass at Rowdown has continued on a weekly basis during school term time and the art being produced is very impressive indeed.  In November we set up a similar Art Masterclass at Fairchildes school so we now have around 15 pupils getting some expert tuition in all things art.  Here’s a gallery of some of the recent output at the two schools.




Filed Under: news

13th July 2018 – 5th Annual Rowdown School Awards

August 9, 2018 by Gary Coy

We have just had a great afternoon at Rowdown School presenting the annual school awards, the 5th time the Foundation has organised the event, sponsored by Shard Capital LLP.  We were entertained by old boy Christoper Opoku on the piano and the Year 6 steel band and the awards were presented by Sarah Jones MP.

The format was the same as in previous years with two categories: Academic Achievement and Attitude & Effort, with 4 nominations from each year group for each award (including Reception year for the first time although they had their own private awards presentation).  The nominations can be found here.  Each nominee received a certificate and a huge round of applause from the rest of the school when they walked into the main hall to take their place on the stage.

The winners were:

Congratulations to all these winners, and to everyone who was nominated.  It is a real feat to be on the list of nominees: we only wish everyone could win!

The overall winners and Pupils of the Year 2017/18 were Deanne Yung-Hoi for Academic Achievement and Abigail Streeter for Attitude & Effort.  Unfortunately, Abigail was off sick but here is the very pleased Deanne receiving her Year winner trophy from Sarah Jones MP.

It was a great afternoon: the sun was shining on Rowdown on Friday 13th July!

More photos are available on the dedicated page.

Filed Under: news

7th July 2018 – AGM

August 9, 2018 by Gary Coy

Reports on our AGM might not fill our followers with huge enthusiasm, but there is some exciting news!

Before sharing the news, we’d like to say a big thank you to Al Kennedy, Karen Walsh and all the team at Trinity School for allowing us to use their excellent facilities for our AGM today, including organising tea and coffee a Kit-Kats for when we needed to “have  a break”.

So what’s the exciting news?  The Trustees have approved an expansion of our remit from supporting students at Rowdown Primary School to any pupil attending a New Addington primary school.  We have been doing this a little bit already under the Tuition Programme, but this formalises our ability to financially support these pupils and also to approach the other schools to find individual children to enrol for art or sport sponsorship.  We also hope to be able to talk to other schools about masterclasses similar to the extremely successful Art Masterclass at Rowdown (see some pics below).

However, and here, as always is the crux, we need to keep up funding to be able to expand and support more talented New Addington kids.  If you are keen to help out, then support us with a donation by clicking here or get in touch if you can offer your services in any way.

Filed Under: news

13th June 2018 – Last Chance for World Cup Competition

June 13, 2018 by Gary Coy

Last chance to enter the World Cup prediction competition. In theory the deadline is 11.59pm this evening but I could probably stretch it until noon tomorrow. Here’s a link to the entry form, so get going and get your friends involved, even if it is at short notice. It only takes a few minutes to fill in the scores and send me the spreadsheet to gary.worldcup18@gmail.com.

 

World Cup Competition 2018

 

 

Filed Under: news

4th May 2018 – Young Artists Learn New Skills

May 4, 2018 by Gary Coy

The Art Masterclass has just finished the week with another class at Rowdown Primary School.  8 children from Years 3 through to 6 have an extra hour or so of expert tuition by Deborah Aves, a very talented young artist that has connections (her mum) with the school.  They have been concentrating on sketching and still life so far this term and just look at the results.  One of the peppers picture is painted by Abigail in Year 3.  Wow, what a gift!

If we can raise more funds, we would like to repeat this in the other primary schools on New Addington, so if you think helping these talented children to learn more and improve further, please support us.




 

 

Filed Under: news

27th April 2018 – The Weather Proves a Handicap But Not a Dampener

May 3, 2018 by Gary Coy

We’ve just had a great inaugural Rowdown Foundation Fundraising Golf Day at the Addington Golf Club.  20 teams of 4 competed under the Stableford scoring system in a shotgun start on a dreary day with a couple of April showers turning into prolonged rain just as everyone started getting back to the clubhouse.  The weather certainly kept the scores below expectations but congratulations to the winning team “He who laughs last” (Joe Fanning, Matt Wilkinson, Pete McGregor and Ian Throssell) who took home a little trophy and a rather nice bottle of Margaux (supplied from our Chair’s cellar).

Nearest the pins on two of the par 3s were won by Joseph Fanning and James Runciman and the longest driver was Tony Milbery, proving why he was playing off a handicap of 2.

And the great news is that everyone was oh so generous and we raised over £3,800 from the day.  That’s a fantastic amount of money and will cover an art masterclass for 8 pupils at 2 schools or go towards supporting uniform costs for all our 11 pupils now at grammar and independent schools.

Thank you so much to everyone who came along and gave so generously.

We are definitely on for 2019 event, so if you want to join in, contact us.

We were a bit lax with the photos but here are a few to show off the various styles of swing:



 

 

Filed Under: news

9th March 2018 – A Couple More

March 9, 2018 by Gary Coy

We’re so pleased to report that a couple more of our 2017 Tuition Programme students have been offered places, both at Trinity School.  Congratulations to Asad Dilawar and Sabeeh Choudhary.   Both have been offered significant bursaries through the Whitgift Foundation so we say a big thank you to Trinity and the Whitgift Foundation.

This takes the number that will be starting at independent schools in September 2018 to six: four at Trinity, one at each of Royal Russell and Old Palace.

Our Tuition Programme continues to be a great success, placing 11 children from New Addington into top selective schools over three years.  And with 20 in the current Year 5 group at Trinity and another 18 in the Year 4 masterclasses at Royal Russell, the future of the programme looks rosy.

Filed Under: news

3rd March 2018 – All Becoming Clearer

March 5, 2018 by Gary Coy

With the secondary schools’ national offer day on Thursday (1st March), we are now a little clearer as to where our 2017 Tuition Programme students will be off to for their secondary education come September.

As regular readers will know, we have real ambitions for social mobility for New Addington children and have set our sights high.  Our post in January explained that 13 of the 15 ‘Class of 2017’ took entrance exams with many receiving interviews at the prestigious independent schools in the area.  Two were waiting for 1st March to see if their passes for grammar schools in Sutton would yield an offer.

Unfortunately, neither of the grammar school passees (is there such a word?) were offered places, but both of these pupils have been offered – and I believe will be accepting – places at independent schools: one at Trinity and one at Royal Russell.  Both have been provided with a combination of scholarships and bursaries to make taking up these places possible.  So well done to Mohammad Diallo from Castle Hill Primary School and Priscilla Obeng from Fairchildes.

The good news doesn’t end there.  Bailee Sheldon (from Applegarth) will also be off to Trinity in September having received an offer of a place with a very generous bursary award from the Whitgift Foundation.  And finally, Amelia Wiggins (another Castle Hill pupil) has accepted a place at Old Palace of John Whitgift School.

So, we have four definite places at these great schools, giving these children a real life-changing opportunity to gain a top class secondary education as well as all the other character building co-curricular activities these schools offer.  There are three other boys on waiting lists but it will require a lot of things to fall into place for offers with bursaries to materialise.  We also have been made aware that one girl would probably have received offers (from two schools) with a meaningful bursary if her family had actually completed bursary applications.  Unfortunately our constant message to the parents about bursary applications didn’t get through on this occasion.

We are a little disappointed that it is only four; we had set ourselves a target of eight or nine.  But we must remember that the vast majority of these children had only received tuition for six months, so the fact that they generated two grammar school passes and a total of 15 offers of places at independent schools, we should remain both proud and optimistic.  Here is a summary of what happened.

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized

19th January 2018 – Rowdown Art Masterclasses Underway

January 29, 2018 by Gary Coy

This afternoon saw the inaugural Art Masterclass at Rowdown.  This weekly class (meeting on a Friday afternoon, that’s how keen the children are) takes a small group (currently 4, but hopefully soon to become 5) of the most talented artists across Rowdown (from Year 3 to Year 6) and gives them an opportunity to express themselves artistically, under the watchful eye of Deborah Aves, a very skillful artist in her own right.

They’ve started off sketching still life but will try many different techniques over the coming weeks and months.  We hope to be able to provide some pictures of their artwork, so come back to the website to have a look from time to time.

If funding allows, we would like to expand the sessions to two a week as Deborah has identified a wealth of artistic potential at Rowdown.  If you would like to donate to help this happen, please click here.

Filed Under: news

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