Special Newsletter - Number Six
May 2020 Email: [email protected] www.archoxfordshire.org.uk
We hope everyone enjoyed watching the Great British Menu series which this year celebrated 150 years of children’s literature. We especially enjoyed the banquet finale of course as we were invited to attend along with some of the children we support and teacher Lauren Freedman. The banquet was filmed in early February - here we are being welcomed by host Susan Calman. It was amazing to enjoy the wonderful food in the dining hall of Exeter College, Oxford, where ARCh Patron Sir Philip Pullman once studied, and to be surrounded by so many famous children’s authors and illustrators. The star studded list included Authors Cressida Cowell Jacqueline Wilson Lemn Sissay Anthony Horowitz Julia Donaldson Terry Deary Francesca Simon Charlie Higson Konnie Huq Vashti Hardy Muhammad Khan Nick Sharratt & Giles Andreae Jacqueline Wilson pictured with Jasbinder Bilan pictured with us above us above Catherine Johnson Sally Gardner Cerrie Burnell Lemn Sissay reciting his poetry Nina Wadia Chris Smith and Greg James Giles Andreae Illustrators Nick Sharratt Tony Ross Helen Oxenbury Nadia Shireen It was particularly fitting that the winning dish from chef Niall Keating was inspired by Sir Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights. To quote Philip Pullman “After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world”. We wish we could have invited all our volunteers and the children we work with but the good news is that you can watch the banquet on iplayer.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000j4f3 See if you can spot us! The rest of the series is also available to view. It is a feast for the eyes and has provided a very welcome distraction from the world recently. Thanks go to GBM series editor Antonia Lloyd and tv company Optomen. We hope Antonia. Lauren and the children will join us at a future volunteer meeting to share their memories of an exciting day. Book of Hopes We mentioned this wonderful book in the last newsletter and thought we would share one of the favourite pieces here, particularly for those who do not have internet access to enable them to read the book online. https://literacytrust.org.uk/family-zone/9-12/book- hopes/
Sunday 10th May was National Garden Day. We know many of our volunteers are keen gardeners and we are sure all your gardens are looking immaculate. We would love to see your photographs if you would like to share these. https://www.gardenday.co.uk/
The COVID-19 crisis has caused a great deal of anxiety for everyone in many different ways. Oxford University Press have recently published an e-book for children called Everybody Worries. Artist, professional doodler and OUP author/illustrator Jon Burgerman decided to create the book after hearing parents worrying about how to discuss Coronavirus with their young children. He worked with editor Peter Marley and designer Holly Fulbrook to create the book in just a couple of weeks – a feat even under normal circumstances! The book has been endorsed by clinical psychologists specialising in anxiety in young children, and we hope this will be a really helpful resource to support children and parents during this difficult time – and make them smile too! You can find out more and read the book for free on Oxford Owl: https://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/everybody-worries
Letter writing project We have been enjoying reading volunteers’ letters to children as we pass them on via schools. Julia Huddart’s account of her dog hitching a lift in a delivery van that had called at her house entertained us as well as the children she wrote to and we thought this could be a theme for a story. We passed the idea to Maggie Lloyd who, as many of you know, has written some super 2 part plays for ARCh. We are delighted to report that Maggie has now produced Lockdown Lizzie – available for download on our website on the ‘Support Us’ page.
We know there are some very talented story writing children out there. The BBC Radio 2 500 Words competition final takes place on 12th June and you can now listen to the shortlisted stories here https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/KNWsKPrg7stQ54tTbcf6P7/500-words- the-stories
Many of us are missing our trips to theatre but there are new streaming titles from #NationalTheatreAtHome coming up on YouTube to keep us going including: From 21st May A Streetcar Named Desire From 28th May This House and from 4th June Coriolanus For more information go to https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/nt-at-home Oxfordshire History Centre Oxfordshire History Centre wants to capture experiences of the lockdown in words and pictures, so that they can be archived, creating a publicly accessible legacy for future residents and communities. Please send any printed material you may have received or created, any stories or diaries you have written, and any photos you have taken that you are happy to share and see added to the historical record. And tell us about them too please! More information is available on the website. https://www.oxfordshirehistory.org.uk/public/covid/appeal.htm Items can be submitted via the post to:- Oxfordshire History Centre, St Luke’s Church, Temple Road, Cowley, Oxford OX4 2HT or delivered to libraries once they reopen. May - National Walking Month Many of us have been enjoying more walking than usual recently. May is National Walking Month. Walking keeps you fit, eases joint pain and decreases symptoms of depression and anxiety. It also boosts the immune system and this has taken on extra importance for us all recently of course. There is lots of information on this website www.livingstreets.co.uk “Walking is man's best medicine” Hippocrates
To mark 150 years since the death of Charles Dickens, the Journalists Charity has launched a competition to find modern day characters who might have inspired him. They want to hear about people living today who might have captured the writer’s imagination and would be his great inspirational characters of the 21st Century. If you would like to pen a portrait of a modern day personality you should submit a maximum 300 word piece by 9th June. Entries online can be sent to [email protected] or by post to Dickens House, 35 Wathen Road, Dorking, Surrey, RH4 1JY.
Full details here https://journalistscharity.org.uk/dickens/
EVERY ONE must hear EVERY word of this amazing bedtime story of how it started, and why hindsight’s 2020. One of the best videos around...
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=522219448446097
VE Day celebrations Although muted somewhat, we hope you all managed to enjoy the day in some way. Field Worker Amanda tells us “Herewith 3 pictures taken at the Franks on VE day. One is my VE pavlova, which looks quite good on the photo, but was actually a disaster! I left it in the oven to cool off, forgetting to tell my son Felix, who switched it back on an hour later! So it almost got baked twice, when he realized his mistake he whipped it out pronto but we had a heck of a job peeling it off the parchment paper. I managed to cobble the pieces together and hide them under a gorgeous mountain of whipped cream, when it came to serving I decided to call it an Eton mess! The other two photos are of my boys celebrating VE Day with that most quintessential of British games, 'cricket', albeit an odd one, with 2 players in boxers and bare feet, a 3rd in trackies and sliders and, in keeping with the times, a woeful lack of PPE!”
Elaine’s mum was featured in the Daily Express as she was in London enjoying the celebrations on VE Day. This is her story. Challenging times
This is a very challenging time for charities so do please remember there are a number of ways to support ARCh – by volunteering of course but also by donating to our 2.6 Challenge, lotteries or via Localgiving. We are grateful to those who have donated. These links are all on our website on the ’support us’ page, please share with anyone who may be interested in supporting us.
Urgent appeal – Movement for Good – closes May 24th
We would be really grateful if you could nominate us in the Ecclesiastical Movement for Good awards. Your nomination could be the one that wins us £1,000. It is very quick and easy to nominate us. Just visit https://movementforgood.com, click ‘nominate now’ and enter our details – the ARCh charity number is 1146276. The closing date for nominations is Sunday 24 May 2020. The more nominations we get, the greater our chance of winning, so please spread the word to your friends and family. Thank you in advance for your time and support.
With government plans to gradually reopen schools during June and July we are gearing up to resume ARCh sessions as soon as possible.
There is much concern of course about how much schooling children have missed out during lockdown and this will have affected the most disadvantaged children particularly badly. ARCh sessions will be needed more than ever soon and we look forward to resuming as soon as it is safe to do so.