Community parnterships
We are proud to be an outward facing school; embracing opportunities to work with others in our local community and beyond. We are always looking for new partnerships and welcome suggestions. Since Summer Term 2022 we have embraced many enriching partnerships:
Botany Bay Project, Border Crossings
BOTANY BAY is a Participation and Learning project, supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The project makes use of the migration histories of plants and crops, and their Indigenous cultural heritage in relation to ecology and reciprocity, as a way to stimulate young people to explore new ways of living. The Covid-19 pandemic and the climate crisis have made a re-assessment and recalibration of human relationships to the non-human an urgent necessity, and young people have to be at the heart of this process, forging a future for humanity and the planet.
The project is evolving through a series of engagements with Indigenous thinkers and activists, exploring questions like:
- How can ecologically sustainable spaces be created within urban environments?
- How can food be cultivated in a sustainable and reciprocal way, which honours the plants and the Earth?
- What plants can and should be grown in a sustainable garden, and how can they be prepared nutritiously and respectfully?
- What is the role of planning, art and artefacts within cultivated green spaces?
- How can ceremony and / or performance in green spaces help us to engage more deeply with the natural world?
- What are the politics of food sovereignty and sustainable food production?
Each topic serves to generate learning materials which are posted on this site, encouraging people to create sustainable gardens following Indigenous practices. The latter part of the project will see participants cultivating the plants they have chosen in the space they have created and curated, harvesting them, cooking with them, feeding their friends and families, and engaging the wider community in the meaning of these gardens through performances, photography and writing.
Bringing people together around these important ideas will help advance our shared efforts on behalf of land and people. I’m grateful for your work; we are all called to acts of reciprocity with the living world and I’m glad we’re in this together. - Robin Wall Kimmerer (Potawatomi), author of Braiding Sweetgrass.
Chiswick House and Gardens
Throughout the year, all children from Reception to Y6 visit Chiswick House and Gardens regularly for community gardening. Just a short walk from school, this provides a wonderful opportunity for hands on learning with curriculum links to Understanding the World and Science as well as the benefits of being outdoors and experiencing seasonal changes.
Meet me at the gates:
February 2023 - a close encounter with some minibeasts
March 2023 - seeds for Spring!
Chiswick Pier Trust
Chiswick School
Chiswick School is a short walk away and we are looking to embrace all opportunities to collaborate to enhance our children's experience. In Summer 2022, the hosted our Sports Day and Sports Ambassadors from Chiswick School helped to organise the event. We also look forward to cooking there and taking part in events such as PE. Chiswick welcome our Y5 children for a taster day each year ahead of applying for secondary schools. Transition from Y6 to Y7 is an important time to get right and we work closely to introduce the children to School and ensure that this transition is a success.
Community Recycling Scheme
In Summer of 2022, we gratefully received a canopy for our playground to offer some much needed shade, from the Community Recycling Scheme.
This new scheme donates a collection of second-hand, overstocked and end-of-line equipment to schools in the UK. A wide range of items has already been given away, including shade sails, post pad protectors and colourful fence pales. The full range of items can be viewed online, where requests can also be submitted. Several companies are involved with this initiative, including A&S Landscape a supplier of canopies for schools.
Dukes Meadows Trust
School has a long-standing relationship with Dukes Meadows Trust. The Trust, set up by the local community, transformed the park from a derelict no go area to the lovely park it is today. Cavendish children were involved all along the way, helping plant the orchard and meadow and providing input for the design brief for the playground. A carved plaque in the playground bears the names of all the children who were involved. The regeneration of the park has created a fabulous outdoor space enjoyed by local families.
In 2022 the Trust led on the restoration of Promenade Approach gates. It took three years to raise the £60k needed and Cavendish children helped by researching the history of the park and local area in a project sponsored by the Trust and delivered by Historian Sara Dhanjal. Children researched local industries, made paper and printed on it and produced chocolate. The project ended with a WW2 themed Street party attended by the Mayor. Once funds were raised for the restoration, the Trust introduced the school to one of the funders, Heritage of London and its Proud Places programme. Children visited the site to see the restorers at work and learn about the restoration process. The restoration of the gates has created a lovely new space beside the school.
Most recently children have enjoyed a collaboration with the Trust and Hogarth Youth Club. The Trust sponsored football coaching and accompanied visits to Hogarth Youth Club. The Trust currently sponsors an after-school art club at the school, led by artist Michele Dendy offering free activity to children from local families.
GoodGym
We are excited and feel fortunate to benefit from the good work of volunteers from The GoodGym. Their generous commitment is hugely beneficial to our school and work is underway in clearing our wilderness and pond area.
Photos from 21.09.22
Heritage London and Proud Places
The restoration of the gates leading to Promenade Approach was an exciting project for us to observe. We were lucky enough to take Y4 and 5 to watch the blacksmith at work and enjoy class workshops lead by Proud Places. The unveiling of the gates was a wonderful occasion, celebrating the success of this heritage project in our local community. Attended by Chiswick School, local MPs, the Mayor of Hounslow as well as Heritage London and Dukes Meadows Trust it was an joyous occasion!
Hogarth Charitable Trust
Hogarth Charitable Trust provide a range of exciting activities and clubs for children and young people to enjoy. It has been fun to discuss those which some of our children can attend; most recently a football club at Kings School grounds run by coaches from the Trust.
Metropolitan Police
The Metropolitan Police visit our school in Autumn to teach our Y5 and 6 classes about being safe and the dangers they may face in the future. They also deliver a presentation to our parents and a Q&A.
In Summer Term, the Met Police visit Y5 again for Junior Road Watch; a scheme to raise awareness about the dangers of speeding and address the problem right outside our school. The activity itself involves a short brief by the police who explain their role and demonstrate how they stop speeding cars with their specialised equipment. With pupils standing a safe distance away, the police stop and run checks on any vehicle/driver they find exceeding the speed limit. If Officers are happy that there are no other issues and with the permission of the driver, students then get the opportunity to ask the speeder road safety questions using a prewritten questionnaire, prepared by us. This is only done when the driver is willing to participate.
Riana Development Network
Riana Development Network is a local charity, working with the local community to harness the skills, creativity, ambition and innovation found in people who make a unique contribution to society. We endeavour to work in partnership to support our children and their families. This will include supporting transition to secondary school.
Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI)
The RLNI station at Chiswick Pier, just a few minutes walk from our school in the second busiest station in the country. Living so close to the river, it is essential that our children understand how to be safe near the water. We invite the RNLI to speak to the whole school about this and about the work they do in saving people's lives.
Teach West London - Initial Teacher Training
We’re working with Teach West London (local Teaching School Hub) to recruit, train and support new trainee teachers for the West London region. We look forward to welcoming new talented and committed trainee teachers to Cavendish Primary School to begin their training and join our school community from September 2024. For more information about training to teach with Teach West London, click here.
TimeGivers
TimeGivers creates bespoke volunteering experiences in a safe, structured and age appropriate way for pupils, aligned with your school’s ethos and values, and tailored to the increasing maturity of pupils as they rise through the school.
Volunteering provides participants with a natural sense of purpose and accomplishment; it encourages teamwork, has the potential to take participants out of their comfort zone, and in doing so helps to build confidence and resilience. It boosts physical and mental wellbeing, by promoting greater self-esteem.
We sing at a local elderly residential home, garden, litter-pick and work together to find other opportunities.
The Upper Room
This Autumn we are collected for The Upper Room, a charity that provides an invaluable service to homeless and vulnerable people.
With the cost of living crisis adding extra pressures on those who are struggling to make ends meet, it is no surprise that demand for their services is at levels not seen in quite some time. In August – usually their quietest period – the kitchen fed on average over 90 people a day, and they expect demand to continue rising.
Those seeking help through The Upper Room, receive freshly cooked, nutritional meals, as well as other items such as tinned food, snacks, biscuits and drinks.
It is a vital service and can deliver with the support of the wider community. Thanks to the incredible generosity of thousands of individuals and families, they are able to store enough non-perishable supplies to keep them going for an entire year. We are proud to support this local charity.
The-Upper-Room-2022-Harvest-Appeal
Wild Chiswick
Joanne Gilbert from the charity Wild Chiswick has been giving us lots of advice and practical support to bring our pond and wildlife area back to life. Councillor Jack Emsley is supporting us with some fundraising advice, and Dr Seb Dunnett a local ecologist has been advising us on what needs to be preserved and how we can encourage wildlife in the area. He visited the pond and saw buff tailed bumblebees, damsel flies, hover flies and butterflies- all residents of our pond area who we must consider in our plans! Laura White, a colleague of a Cavendish parent, is kindly drawing up some plans for us so we should have some pictures to show you all soon! We are looking for volunteers on Sunday 18th September at 10.00am when we will embark on the first clearing of the pond area. Any one who has interest in gardening or is just willing to lend a hand is welcome to join us. Huge thanks to Governor and parent, Emma Lennard, who has given a vast amount of time to this project.
We are also supporting one of Wild Chiswick's projects, to install swift boxes in the local area to house these beautiful birds when they return to our shores next year.