The Swanage School Archives - Swanage and Purbeck Rotary

Rotarian Maggie Hardy, Community Committee Chair and event lead, reports on a wonderfully fulfilling day in the sun!

SWANAGE WALKS, held on May 5th 2018, was organised and run by the Community Committee of Swanage and Purbeck Rotary Club in support of Dementia Friendly.

From an original idea of Rotarian Hubert Pierce, the Rotary Community Committee organised a walk for all at the King George’s Playing Fields in Swanage.

Supported by the Swanage Area Dementia Friendly Community team, Swanage Town Council and Swanage Carnival Committee, a sub group was formed to facilitate the event for Dementia Friendly, the charity of this year’s Town Mayor Mike Bonfield and our own Rotary Club President Ro Clark.

The event attracted generous support from the Swanage Town Band, Kevin Burke (Children’s Entertainer), pupils from the Swanage School, who designed and painted a Dementia Friendly design on the graffiti wall at the field, and ‘Scooby Crew’ who provided a bouncy castle.

A Treasure hunt, organised and led by Rotarian Dai Hounsell, provided an excellent focus to the Walk around the half mile radius of the field which highlighted the lovely views across the Purbeck hills and the steam trains of the Swanage Railway.

The excellent weather of the day encouraged more people to the beach than to the walk so the hoped for donations to Dementia Friendly were not great BUT the increased profile to wide areas of the community and the coordinated working of several organisations made it a memorable and happy occasion which could be repeated in future years. We were delighted that our newly appointed Admiral Nurse Rachel was also able to pop in and show her support.

The “icing on the cake” for me was the invitation to attend an Assembly at the Swanage School which focussed on Dementia and the effects on individuals. The event also celebrated the Dementia design painted on the graffiti wall by two school pupils and which received so much interest from school members.

A whole school is now aware of dementia – a priceless benefit of community groups working together!

Rotary was privileged to lead this event and thanks everyone involved in raising awareness of Dementia.

For our first meeting of 2018, we were delighted to welcome Head Teacher Tristram Hobson, Chair of Governors Amanda Rowley, the Head Boy, Head Girl and one of the Senior Prefects of The Swanage School who came to talk to us with an update of what is happening at the school.

In March 2010 there was a meeting about local education reorganisation in the Swanage area. It was strongly felt that we should not use secondary education in Swanage. The Free Schools initiative, brought in by the new Government, was the opportunity to press ahead with the plan. It was also intended to develop a sense of community in the area.

The school is not under the control of the local authority, but part of Educating Swanage, and aims to develop children’s skills. The environment is conducive to learning and preparing students for life and the students have taken ownership of the school.

Student Leadership is important within the school and students are encouraged to participate as much as they can. This includes acting as ‘Big Brothers’ and ‘Big Sisters’ to those new to the school, to help them settle in. The school also runs events such as their annual fair and has a variety of sports and activities available to students. Rotary itself has been supportive in assisting with the catering club at the school.

The school undertakes a number of charity fundraising activities over the course of a year, supporting local as well as international causes. They work in the community too, helping to litter pick and keep the town tidy.

Head Teacher Tristram Hobson spoke extremely eloquently about how the school has developed from its original idea and how important it is that is it represents the dream that was formed a little over 5 years ago. He added that times change and it is important that the education provided adapts to the times and gives the students the confidence and ability to work as teams in the future. Tristram closed by showing a slide show demonstrating a flavour of what the school offers and provides, what it has achieved and what it hopes to achieve in the future.

On behalf of the club, Rotarian Jenny Hynan thanked Tristram, Amanda and the students for coming to see us and updating us about the school.

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