Mole Valley CLP

Projects

Bringing the Community Together in Leatherhead

As part of a Community Cohesion Project at West Hill Special Needs School, Hubble Community Enterprise was asked to work with a group of Year 7 pupils. Over the Spring term 2009, they worked with a collection of puppets, using them to explore scientific terms and concepts through music. The use of the puppets made it easier for those students who usually would have difficulty in expressing themselves, to “find a voice”.
The culmination of the project was a show they put on for parents and pupils from Leatherhead Trinity Children's Centre which is only 5 minutes down the road from West Hill. One of the concerns which led to the Community Cohesion Project was that, despite being very near to one another, there was no interaction between the two schools. Now that the link has been established, further joint activities will be planned so that West Hill becomes truly integrated into the life of North Leatherhead community.
From behind screens, the pupils sang along with Sam as the puppets danced above them and captivated the younger pupils from Leatherhead Trinity. After the show, visitors from the Children's Centre had a chance to handle the puppets and the West Hill pupils told the younger visitors about themselves and the project.
Sam Sutherland will be taking Hubble to Leatherhead Trinity Children's Centre on Wednesday 27th May 2009 - the designated Story-telling Day in National Family Week. Some of the West Hill pupils will join them to consolidate the first steps towards partnership between the two schools.

Family event promotes mobile library use

A mobile library visit had been regularly made at Leatherhead Trinity Children's Centre, however very few visitors were making use of the service. The popularity of the mobile library had been dwindling over the course of a few months and the particular stop was to be cut from 30 to 20 minutes in length with the risk that it might be taken off the round altogether, with the result that many families would lose access to library services. The Community Learning Adviser decided to raise awareness of the mobile library and, together with the Children's Centre and Surrey County Council Family Learning, an afternoon event was planned during summer 2008. Partners were able to provide games, face painting and story-telling and a display of foreign-language books for ESOL learners, which engaged many children and adults in a successful day which promoted the role of the library in the community. To download a case study about the event, click here

Young Travellers Take Up Training

As a result of discussions between Surrey Youth Development Service, other partners within the Surrey Traveller Relations Forum Education sub group and members of the Travelling community, two young people applied to the Youth Opportunities Fund in Mole Valley to raise money for a new type of training course designed for Travellers aged 13-16 who have stopped going to school for six months or more.

£7,000 was awarded for the first term. The young people had said that they needed to learn to read and write better and to do maths and computer work. Also important was to learn trade skills and get basic certificates. This would give the young people a better chance of getting onto a college course at 16, which is becoming increasingly important in order to find work.

During the second term Surrey Youth Development Service will be working closely with the Travelling community, including the young people, to shape the course so that it is appealing and relevant to them. New developments will include providing laptops, working separately with different age groups and presenting all the work so it is seen as 'parts of a whole': a pathway onto a college course at 16

To find out more click here to read the full story

Story Gatherers Attend BBC Training Session

Five volunteers attended a BBC training session in Epsom on becoming a Story Gatherer for the People's War website. The training was delivered to enable the volunteers to support the Box Hill Project, which had its launch in October 2005.

Story gatherers will help people who have important stories to tell of the 2nd World War but do not have the ability to contribute to the BBC's website. Following the training participants will interview older people from the local community and help them to add their memories to the online database. 

Robot Wars in Leatherhead!

Robot Wars were held at the Leatherhead library in conjunction with Family Learning Week, 2005. The Mole Valley CLP secured funding for the workshop facilitator who presented three 2 hour workshops. Each workshop consisted of two child and parent teams who each designed and built an "Ant Weight Robot" and then battled their robots in an arena within the library. All sessions were fully booked with 17 families participating.

More Money for Local Pensioners in Boxhill

Pensioners from an Over 50's Club in Boxhill attended a question and answer session with Dorking Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB) at their local pub function room and many of them went away to find out if they can receive benefits they didn't realise they were entitled to.  More...

Free Internet Access in Dorking

Since Autumn 2002 Dorking Library has provided free Internet access for local residents with support staff on hand to give help, advice and guidance.  The Learning Access Points have become very popular and are busy most of the day.  An Annual Report  is available on this project.

      
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