Category: Youth

President John joined Wolverhampton Mayor Councillor Bert Turner and local MP Gavin Williamson at Wightwick Hall School today for the opening of the school’s new Starfish Café.

The School has recently reviewed its curriculum to place a greater emphasis on workplace activity in order to better prepare its students for the world of work and the new café forms an integral part of this new skills based curriculum. The work which the school is undertaking with its partners aims to address the under-representation in the workforce of young people with learning difficulties and/or disabilities.

Members of the Club have worked with the School for several years to help develop its annual business and enterprise competitions and we’re looking forward to supporting the students in this latest venture.

Our 30th Anniversary Dinner was the perfect occasion not only to recognise the contributions which our founding members had made to our Club but also to recognise the ongoing work which members are undertaking to continue to make a difference in our community.

Paul Harris Fellow recognition was created by the Rotary Foundation (Rotary’s charity) in memory of Paul Harris, the founder of Rotary, as a way to show appreciation for the exemplary contribution made by individuals to further the Foundation’s charitable and educational aims.

To be awarded a Paul Harris Fellowship is to be recognised as an advocate of the Foundation’s goals of world peace and international understanding and tonight President John had the pleasure of recognising the contribution made by Club member Derek Evans who heads our Youth committee.

Over several years Derek has worked as the Rotary liaison with local schools and he has been responsible for building a hugely successful mentoring scheme which the Club undertakes with Smestow School. The scheme now operates with mentors from both Tettenhall Rotary and Tettenhall Inner Wheel clubs providing advice and support to students to help them attain their full potential.

The award of the Paul Harris Fellowship to Derek, who embodies the Rotary concept of service above self, is richly deserved and our thanks go to him for his work on behalf of the Club.

Each year Wolverhampton Youth Wind Orchestra and Wolverhampton Youth Orchestra top off their year by taking the show onto the road. This year they will be touring Umbria and Tuscany with concerts in Soave, Torri della Benaco, Casalmoro, Mariana Mantovana and Wildpoldsried. Tonight saw the Orchestras pre tour concert at the City’s Civic Hall – an opportunity to thank the sponsors who help to make the tour possible.

Tettenhall and the other four Rotary Clubs of Wolverhampton have been supporting the Youth Orchestras summer tour for 15 years now and its a pleasure for us to be able to support such gifted and dedicated young musicians who really are a credit to their City.

The Orchestras are made up up of some wonderfully talented musicians and the evening is an opportunity to recognise the achievements of many of the individual musicians with the presentation, by the five Rotary Presidents, of key stage certificates which have been attained over the last year – many with distinction and for excellence playing several instruments.

It was a great evening with some excellent individual performances and we have to make special mention of Young Musician of the Year, Eleanor Cooper, and her enchanting flute solo in Chaminade’s Concertino for Flute.

Its clear that these young musicians really do have a great time playing together and its is wonderful to see so many alumni of the Orchestras attending the pre tour concert to catch up with friends and to give their support. We’re sure that the tour will be a great success and that these young musicians will be excellent ambassadors for the City of Wolverhampton.

Rotary is committed to helping to improve literacy rates both locally and around the world. Since 2007  Rotary Clubs across the country have distributed over 200,000 dictionaries to 11 year olds graduating from their primary schools as part of the Dictionaries 4 Life project. Throughout this week members of Tettenhall Rotary have been attending special assemblies at local primary schools to present the dictionaries to pupils.

The use of dictionaries has been shown to improve pupils reading and writing skills as well as helping to develop their autonomy and confidence – a core goal of education – and we hope that they’ll be put to good use for many years to come. We’ve also been pleased to see that many of the schools have  begun to use the dictionaries as year books in which teachers and pupils can leave good luck messages – a lasting reminder for the children of the happy times which they have spent at the school.

The promotion of literacy is one of Rotary’s core objectives. Each March Rotary Clubs around the world recognise the importance which literacy plays in helping people to play a full and active part in their society, in improving economic development and in helping to reduce illness and disease by highlighting literacy and education issues in Rotary Literacy Month.

Once again this year the five Rotary Clubs in the Wolverhampton celebrated Rotary Literacy Month by joining together and inviting local school children to enter a writing competition. 234 entries were received and we were pleased this month to recognise the winning entries with the presentation of gift vouchers and Certificates of Achievement.

Our congratulations to the winners listed below:

Years 3 and 4

First: Subhaan Khan- Woodthorne PrimarySchool

Second: Reuben Lal – Woodthorne PrimarySchool

Third: Dean Collins – Woodthorne Primary School

Years 5 and 6

First: Lola Gregory- Christchurch Junior School

Second: Ethan Boachie – Woodthorne Primary School

Third: Morgan Phelps – Woodthorne Primary School

Years 7, 8 ansd 9

First: Emma Moulding Kings School

Second: Navneet Benning – Deansfield School

Third: Karis Weightman – Deansfield School

Years 10 and 11

First: Nisha Fishlock – Kings School

Second: Maryam Jiva – Kings School