August round-up blog
We’ve had a busy August of hitting milestones, hosting knitting classes, collecting the stories of local people and having summer school fun! Read all about it in this month’s round-up blog.
A new Schools Plus milestone
In August we reached a new milestone of 4000 lessons on our virtual Schools Plus platform! The platform is a wonderful way of keeping track of the virtual tutoring that has been taking place since the COVID-19 pandemic.
Schools Plus tackles educational inequality in Oxford by providing free tutoring and academic support for local pupils aged 7–18. We match local children with volunteer tutors who support children to reach their full academic potential.
Thanks to every tutor who has provided a lesson, and every child for attending! If you’re keen to add to this lesson total as a tutor, check out our webpage here: www.oxfordhub.org/schools-plus.
A new volunteering opportunity: Storytelling!
In collaboration with Arts and the Old Fire station, we are currently piloting a new volunteering opportunity all about storytelling! The OFS team describe storytelling as “an evaluation methodology which involves collecting stories from different participants about their experience of a project and what it’s meant for them, and then analysing these stories…”
We are working with the wonderful not-for-profit group called Body Politic, a professional Hip Hop Dance Theatre company that inspires young people. Student volunteers from the University of Oxford have been collecting and editing together stories from those involved with Body Politic’s work, such as alumni, parents and the founder of the group! These stories will be useful for Body Politic to learn from, measure their impact in a qualitative way, and to refer to in future funding bids.
Some students are also collecting stories for Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS), Oxford Hub’s mentoring programme that is turning 5 this year. We can’t wait to read all the amazing stories collected by the student volunteers!
Turville and summer schools
This summer we have been running lots of summer provision for young people around Oxford!
Firstly, we ran 5 weeks of summer schools in schools across Blackbird Leys and Cowley. The children had lots of fun taking part in games, crafts, sports including swimming and cycling and more with wonderful volunteers.
Secondly, the annual trips to Turville returned! We took 2 groups of children involved in Big Brothers Big Sisters on a week-long summer holiday, to the village of Turville in Buckinghamshire. We had the chance to try a wide range of activities including horse riding, rafting, rowing, sports, crafts and lots of swimming! Across the week we built up our teamwork skills and confidence, whilst having a really fun summer holiday. A huge thank you to the Turville Trust for providing the opportunity, as well as the volunteers who came along for making this incredible experience possible.
Knitting sessions
At the end of August, we hosted a craft session for wellbeing, where attendees were able to share or learn a new skill in knitting, crochet or pom-pom making. It was a lovely morning, with attendees aged from 12 to 80+ chatting over a cup of tea and creating things together.
The group was such a success that we’ve decided to host it monthly on the third Wednesday of every month, 10am — 12pm at the Venue at Ark-T. The next one will be on the 21st of September! Contact Jade by emailing jade@oxfordhub.org or calling 07840376925 if you’d like to chat about coming along, or just turn up on the day.
