Elizabeth will soon be taking up her role, in order to get fully immersed in the plans and preparations for the school and will be attending Chapel St’s next community consultation meeting at 7.30 pm on 1st February 2012, for local parents and carers. The meeting will be held at the Jubilee Hall Function Room, St Richard Parish Centre, Stanley Street, Atherton.

Elizabeth has considerable experience in successfully raising attainment and aspirations in education as well as having the track record of successfully opening two academies. Her teaching experience began in Mexborough, a South Yorkshire mining village where her interest in working alongside communities began. She has had almost 30 years of teaching in a range of schools both in Britain and overseas, at all levels of seniority.

Elizabeth successfully opened Salford City Academy where she led the transformation of education from satisfactory to good over her five years tenure with substantial improvements across the board in all indicators. Her recent post was as Acting Principal of St Peter’s Academy, Stoke on Trent where she rescued the project to successfully open in September 2011.

‘I am thrilled to be taking on the post of Principal Designate of Atherton Community School. I am looking forward to working with the whole community to create a school that will have a significant and lasting impact that the whole town can be proud of,’ says Elizabeth.

As well as meeting the new Principal, Chapel St’s next community consultation meeting will provide community members with another important opportunity to complete a consultation survey. Chapel St have created the survey to gather views and opinions about the school.

As with every Free School project around the country, Chapel St are required to demonstrate to the Department for Education the local demand for the school, and this survey is part of a consultation process that started on 17th December and runs to 17th February 2012. Paper versions of the survey have been circulated to the community and an online version is also available.

Visit the web site for Atherton Community School

Starting off at the Houses of Parliament for an early morning breakfast concert in Black Rod’s Garden, we were pleased to perform to a very special audience. Baroness Maeve Sherlock (Chair of Chapel St) and her amazing assistant Robert Carr braved the frosty morning and gave us lots of encouragement for the day ahead. From there, the runners set off for the first part of their marathon run and the players started a marathon of their own: non-stop carolling from dawn ’til dusk!

During the day, the Carolthon crew performed a number of concerts around London, including Westminster Tube, John Lewis on Oxford Street, St Pancras Station and Marks and Spencers on Oxford Street. The runners met up with the band at various stages along the way to join in with the playing or collecting efforts. The run route included numerous circuits of Hyde Park, interspersed with a few ‘dodge the shoppers’ routes to Oxford Street and St Pancras. With such amazing weather, we couldn’t have asked for a better day!

Our Carolthon Finale was held at Chatham Financial in Covent Garden. Hosted by Phong Dinh and Jamie MacDonald from Chatham Financial, the Carolthon crew were very pleased to be part of Chatham’s office Christmas celebrations and also to come in from the cold! Chapel St would like to say a very big thank you to everyone at Chatham Financial for their hospitality and generous donation to the Carolthon’s fundraising.

Our Special Thanks…

The Carolthon day would not have happened withouth the hard work and help of lots of people, including our amazing Carolthon crew. We’d like to say thank you to:

The logistics guru: Dave Hitchcock
The runners: Russell Rook, Johnny Laird, Jennifer Wallington and Janet Miles.
The band master: Clive ‘if-you-are-out-of-tune-you-probably-are’ Rubery.
The band: Adrian Gosling, Gav Dunn, John Bloomfield, Johnny Laird, Russell Rook, Phil Wall, Philip Haigh, Raymond Pont and the young man that spontaneously joined us at St Pancras after his audition at the Royal Academy of Music. Want to join in next year?!
The support crew: Barry Waterton, Pat Waterton and Andrew Miles
The physio/osteophath: Helen Amemble
Baroness Maeve Sherlock and Robert Carr
Roehampton University: Donna Jarvis and Chris O’Boyle for your support and mini-Carolthon on campus!
Chatham Financial: Phong Dinh, Jamie MacDonald and all the great team in Covent Garden
The staff at St Pancras Station
London Underground and in particular the staff at Westminster Tube Station
London Metropolitan Police
Westminster Borough Council
T-Shirt Design: Pete Smith from Recognition Awards

And finally – thank you to all our donors. Your donations and support to our charity are very much appreciated and has made the Carolthon what it was. If you’ve enjoyed the journey so far and would like to help support Chapel St on a more regular basis, just visit our Just Giving site for more information.

See our Carolthon photos on Chapel St’s Facebook Page

Become a regular donor on our Chapel St’s Just Giving Page

This Christmas, Chapel St are organising a charity challenge with a festive edge. On 15th December, the Chapel St team and friends will be taking to the streets for London’s first ever Christmas Carolthon to raise money for community health projects.

A day-long challenge from 8 am – 8 pm, the Carolthon will see a team of runners cover 26 miles and do concerts around the capital. They will be joined by a team of brass musicians who will play extra concerts during the day at key locations in London.

Starting off with a breakfast concert at the Houses of Parliament, the route will also include a lunch time gig at St Pancras station, stop offs at Oxford Street and Regent Street, and concluding in Covent Garden.

The Carolthon team is made up of Chapel St staff and other friends of the charity, and aims to raise as much money as possible through running sponsorship and carol busking collections on the day.

As a charity that exists to make change happen in community life, Chapel St is creating programmes in education, employment and health. Money raised through the Carolthon will help Chapel St’s health arm create community health programmes which can run alongside and extend the reach of their Medical Centre and Health Hub in Hammersmith and Fulham.

From dad’s and lads groups, mentoring for mums, debt counselling or care for drug and alcohol users, Chapel St hope to tackle the broader issues impacting people’s health and connect the care of the medical centre more deeply with the needs of the community.

‘As Londoners, we’re used to the phrase ‘Mind The Gap’ – but through the Carolthon, we want to help people mind the health gap that can exist in community life.  In London alone, there’s a gap in life expectancy between richer and poorer boroughs. Board the tube at Westminster and get off in Lambeth and someone’s life just got shorter – by seven years! Post codes and health prospects are linked and we want to do something about it,’ says Janet Miles, from Chapel St, who is running on the day.

‘We really hope that people will support our Carolthon, whether it’s by donating to our Just Giving page, or turning up on the day and dropping a few pennies in our busking buckets! Everything that people give helps so much and enables us to reach out more effectively to vulnerable young families, the isolated elderly and other marginalised people in deprived areas.’

To support the Carolthon visit our Just Giving page!

There is a Just Giving Page for the Carolthon Team at:
http://www.justgiving.com/teams/carolthon

Press/General enquiries:

Janet Miles, Communications at Chapel St: 020 8241 2017
Email: carolthon@chapelst.org
Web: www.chapelst.org/carolthon

Parents, carers and community members are being invited along to hear more about the plans and preparations for the new school that will be opening in September 2012.  The first of these meetings are scheduled for 7.30 pm on the evenings of the 3rd and 17th November at Jubilee Hall Function Room, St Richard Parish Centre, Stanley Street, Atherton.

The purpose of the Open Evenings is to provide an opportunity for local people to hear more about the vision and ethos of the school, get the latest information on the curriculum, learn about the registration and admissions process, meet some of the Chapel St team and provide input on shaping the design of the school’s motto and emblem.  

‘At Chapel St, listening to and involving the local community in our work is a real priority and we’re really excited about this series of open evenings. They will play a really important part in the creation of this new school.  Between now and the school’s opening, there are a lot of preparations to be made. We want to do all that we can to update people on progress, answer questions and hear what’s important to local families in the shaping of this new school. We hope that people will take the opportunity to come along, meet us and hear more,’ says Russell Rook, CEO of Chapel St.

The open evenings are free events and all are welcome. Community members can arrive on the evening, but if you wish to let us know you are coming, simply email us and we’ll add you to the list!

For more details about the school and to sign up for news updates and application details, visit: http://www.chapelst.org/acs or email: schoolinfo@chapelst.org

Download a flyer about the open evenings:

Over the last year, hundreds of local residents and community leaders have worked and wished for, campaigned and called for a new secondary school in the community. Atherton Community School’s top priority will be to equip the children of the town to achieve long-lasting success in school and society and in the workplace and the world.

Atherton Community School will help to transform the lives of children, celebrating every child’s strengths and talents, providing personalised and creative routes to learning and actively engaging parents and carers in their child’s education. Atherton Community School will grow a student population of 450 secondary students, combined with 200 Sixth Form students.

Atherton Community School will partner with Fred Longworth High School to ensure that local children and families receive outstanding teaching and learning across all areas and ages.

Jenny Naylor, a local parent, speaks on behalf of the 97% of Atherton parents who wish to send their children to a local school when she says, “As a parent that lives in Atherton and has four children, one of whom will be starting secondary school in 2012, I am more than pleased that Atherton Community School has the go ahead.”

Paul Ackers and Sam Reece commented along similar lines, “At last, brilliant news for the children of Atherton, their own High School, which they all truly deserve! We look forward to sending our daughter to the new Atherton Community School.”

Dawn Hurst, another parent and local teacher, expresses the hope of hundreds of families when she writes, “I am certain that this new venture will be an inclusive and nurturing environment which will be capable of transforming the lives of the young people who attend.”

Chapel St Chief Executive, Dr Russell Rook, commented, “It is a huge honour for the Chapel St team to work so closely with community leaders and members in Atherton. Having worked together for over one year on these proposals, the important work of creating the school that the community needs and deserves has now truly begun.”

Atherton Community School will open as part of the Department for Education’s Free School programme. The school location will be announced shortly.

Over the next months the founding governors and Chapel St team will be holding a series of Open Evenings where parents, carers and community members can discover more about the school. Community members can sign-up for regular information and email updates using the form below. Full information about the school is available on our web site at: http://www.chapelst.org/acs

Get more information about the school

Read more about Atherton Community School
Follow the Facebook page about the School

Press/General enquiries

Call Chapel St: 020 8241 2017
Email Chapel St: schoolinfo@chapelst.org

About Chapel St

Chapel St is a change agency and a registered charity. We exist to open doors of change, opportunity and relationship in community life. Chapel St delivers public services in the areas of education, employment and health. Chapel St is working with the founding board of governors to sponsor and support Atherton Community School.

Sign up for Email Updates on Atherton Community School

A new school web site will soon be available. For regular updates and announcements about the school, please fill in this form:

[gravityform id=1 name=AthertonCommunity School updates title=false description=false]

Chapel St has recently won a project to work for Healthy Happy Communities in the Mill Hill area of Blackburn.

Chapel St will be working with Mill Hill residents, community groups, Blackburn with Darwen Primary Care Trust (PCT) and Cornerstone Healthcare to support to a GP practice (the Bentham Road Medical Centre) in the delivery of a Community Oriented Primary Care (COPC) pilot.

Bentham Road Medical Centre

The aim of the initiative is to engage local communities in the process and delivery of improving health outcomes for the ward. This year-long project will help to redesign local healthcare provision and provide local people with opportunities to enjoy the very best of health as individuals, families and community.

A large focus of the pilot is to create a special online platform, where healthcare professionals, community group leaders and local residents can access and provide information about local health services.

Gary Bishop, COPC project lead for Chapel St

Chapel St are particularly delighted to work with the Cornerstone Group, a social enterprise and GP partnership that have pioneered transformational healthcare for deprived communities over decades.

The project is being coordinated by Gary Bishop, a specialist in third sector business and urban regeneration.

At Chapel St, we’re busy planning a ‘Carolthon’ to fundraise for community health initiatives. Planned for this December, the ‘Carolthon’ is a running and carolling fundraiser for community health. The challenge is to run a marathon route around London, stopping off to perform 13 carol concerts en route. The aim is to raise as much money as possible from sponsorship and carol concert collections.

Please support Johnny, Janet & Russell who are running the Carolthon this December!

Johnny, Janet, Russell and other friends of Chapel St, are all planning to run and raise money for the Chapel St charity and are really hoping that others will join us. We are looking for anyone that would like to run, play an instrument, or both!

‘The furthest I’ve ever run is about 8 miles, so the Carolthon is going to be a bit of a challenge for me, but I’m looking forward to giving it a go! I’m doing the Carolthon because I really want to make a difference to community health in under-resourced areas. I had never realised that in London alone, the gap in life expectancy between richer and poorer boroughs can be as much as 7 years. I’m hoping that running the Carolthon will help Chapel St create new programmes to tackle health issues in poorer communities. Plus, it should be a great laugh on the day – if I don’t collapse!’ says Janet, from Chapel St.

All money raised on the Carolthon will be used by Chapel St Community Fund to create community health projects. We currently run a health centre with the Hurley Group in Fulham and are developing other initiatives. From debt counseling, parenting workshops, improving care for drug and alcohol users, or addressing the needs of minority groups, our goal is to extend the reach of health provision more deeply in to community life.

We’d love your support! Here’s how you can help:

Get more information about the Carolthon

Read more about Chapel St community health initiatives

Make a donation to the Carolthon

You can also join the Carolthon Campaign on Facebook.

Maeve has been a member of the Chapel St Advisory Board and will be working with us to oversee the governance of the Chapel St group. Maeve said ‘I am delighted to be taking over the Chair of the Board and look forward to working with Russ Rook and his colleagues to help Chapel St develop and inspire the change that our communities need.’

Read more about Baroness Sherlock

Our School Atherton icon

Chapel St is working with a group applying to establish a brand new secondary school in Atherton. We are committed to placing the opinions and ideas of the local community at the heart of the plans.

Last year Atherton parents and community members formed a consortium with Chapel St. After consulting with local parents, educationalists and the wider community Chapel St and Atherton Community Consortium (CSACC) submitted an application to the Department for Education as part of the government’s ‘Free School’ programme. The Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, has recently approved the application, and invited those involved to develop a full business case for a new secondary school.

CSACC will now prepare a full business case and feasibility study outlining the proposed ethos and model of education, identifying a suitable site and demonstrating sufficient parental demand to create and sustain the exciting new school. As well as consulting with local experts, parents, children and business leaders CSACC will continue to include the views of all those potentially involved. It is vital the business plan reflects the needs and aspirations of the whole community.

Whilst progress to the business case phase does not guarantee success the consortium is hopeful that with hard work and the continued enthusiastic involvement of the local community a brand new community secondary school serving young people in Atherton will soon follow.

Members of CSACC are looking forward to continuing their work with parents and community members and are also consulting with local organisations and businesses, churches and charities to create a school that of which the whole community can be proud. Details of public consultation events will be announced shortly. In the meantime people can keep up to date and contribute their ideas by visiting a special Facebook site that has been set up about the school.

Find out more and submit your ideas at:

http://www.facebook.com/ourschoolatherton

To Join the Our School Atherton Mailing list please fill in the form below.

Parents at the Family Hub participate in a workshop on 'learning through play'

‘Learning should be fun whether you’re 5 or 55,’ shared Early Years Specialist Liz Rook tonight at the Chapel St Family Hub. Running a workshop on ‘Learning Through Play’, Liz presented her ideas and insights in the vital role that parents can play in their child’s development.

Liz encouraged parents to enable children to pursue what they are interested in and think about what kind of learning is underpinning the child’s play. Parents were also invited to share their experiences and raise questions about how they can support their child’s play.

The workshop is part of the Family Services that are being developed at the Family Hub. Running alongside the day nursery service, the Roehampton team are developing a range of resources and workshops that are designed to help children and families learn together.

For more information about the Family Hub:

http://www.roehamptonfamilyhub.com