At Newton Prep we encourage the children to have a positive impact on our local community. This might be through bringing food for a local Food Bank, raising money for local or national charities or working closely with other local schools.
Our charity work is very much led by our pupils. Led by our Year 8 Charity Prefects, children choose a diverse range of charities based both in the UK and abroad. Over the past few years, we have carried out a whole range of exciting and successful fundraising events including a whole school sponsored walk in Battersea Park, termly cake sales, an overnight sleep out for homelessness, as well as numerous charitable drives organised by the PTA.
Through our strong links with several local schools, we often carry out a range of joint clubs and events. We run a Summer Enrichment Programme for pupils at a local primary school. This focuses on a range of exciting activities, such as Art, Science, Music, PE and Drama and is hosted here at our school. We also enjoy running a joint weekly debating club with our partner primary school and have run several trips with them in the past including a visit to the Houses of Parliament, and a trip to Prime Minister’s Question Time. We regularly invite children from local primary schools to join us when we have a visit from a children’s author, theatre production or other exciting workshops.
Even in the lower years, we have enjoyed forming relationships with local schools and initiatives. Last Christmas, we collaborated with our neighbours, St Mary’s Primary, on a local ‘live’ Advent Calendar across the whole area of Nine Elms, launching our joint ‘No 9’ windows with an outdoor carol singsong using our Year 2 choir, complete with tree, reindeer antlers and flurries of snow! This Christmas we plan to widen this singing-based Lower School project to include our other primary friends at St George’s.
Working with other schools, and making these links with the local community, allows our pupils to become increasingly resilient, tolerant and respectful global citizens.
“Our partnership with Newton Prep is of real and lasting value to us and to our children. We have never felt like the poor cousins from down the road. I know from what our kids and Newton Prep kids have said that there is mutual benefit and increased understanding that comes out of these shared initiatives. It has also sparked real creativity in our children, and aspirations beyond their previous horizons, as reflected in the number of St George’s children who have gone to Newton on a bursary, with our total support. I couldn’t be prouder!”
– Sarah Collymore, Head, St George’s CofE Primary
Sustainability
In recent years, Newton Prep has introduced a number of Environmentally Responsible measures including achieving gold accreditation in the Transport for London (TfL) STARS programme in order to reduce our carbon emissions and other transport-related impacts. The school has Lower School and Upper School Eco Committees, and has appointed two Sustainability Leads from within the teaching staff to help generate ideas and co-ordinate action. We believe the time is now right to look for further environmental impact reduction opportunities to help make our school even greener! During the next academic year, we hope to take additional practical and cost effective steps to reduce our environmental impacts.
