Last week John Conway, Key stage 3 Pastoral support worker at Archbishop Holgate’s School, met with trustees of The Little Society. This is a philanthropic organisation which helps to fund local projects benefitting those in need. The meeting was to secure vital funding for the after school bike maintenance and refurbishment club that he has established. The club will work with selected students in years 7, 8 and 9 in a variety of bike-related ventures. They will fix staff and student bikes for a small cost, they will also refurbish broken bikes donated by The Bike Rescue Project on Lendal Bridge to raise money to sustain the project. More importantly however, most of the refurbished working bikes will be donated to York Besom, a charity helping those in need in the local community and further afield. Thus providing fun and cheap transportation to the recipients.
The club represents a great opportunity for students to learn a valuable skill and make a positive contribution to both Archbishop Holgate’s School and the wider community. Mr Conway was ably assisted by Nick, a student in year 9. Together they spoke to representatives from The Little Society about the aims of the project and why they thought the club should be able to access funding. The visitors toured the school with Nick and Mr Conway and were greatly impressed with the hard working students. As a result of Mr Conway’s vision and research, coupled with Nick’s enthusiastic, knowledgeable delivery The Little Society have agreed to support the project by awarding £3,000 to get it up and running! Mr Conway and all the students involved are absolutely thrilled and see the grant as reflecting their hard work and passion for the project. They would like to say a huge thank you to The Little Society for supporting this work and are looking forward to being able to offer the mechanical skills and qualifications gained by the young people to fix staff, student and parent bikes in the near future.
Richard Nihill, Lay Chaplain and member of Senior Leadership Team, Archbishop Holgate’s School
Pictured above: John Conway (AHS), Linda Ali (The Little Society), Nick (AHS), and John Graham (The Little Society).