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Community Service

Community Service

In addition to CCF on a Monday afternoon, there is a busy and active Community Service option.  Pupils who apply for and are accepted into the Community Service programme are allocated to a one-year placement in the Taunton Community.  Activities that pupils have taken part in recently have included:

  • working in a charity shop
  • helping in a class in a primary school or at Selworthy Special School
  • helping an individual pupil learn to read as part of the 'Reading Buddies' scheme
  • visiting a local residential  home
  • volunteering at the local 'Riding for the Disabled' centre

Primary School Drama

Primary School Drama is a Monday afternoon option that can be taken in the 4th form, 5th form and 6.1 instead of CCF or Community Service. A small group is picked to devise and rehearse a play to be performed for a primary school audience in the spring and summer terms.  After rehearsing in the Michaelmas term we go out every Monday afternoon and put on the play in a wide variety of local schools.  Past shows have included Shakespeare and classic stories from history like The Odyssey.  This year we will be doing an interactive piece about the Blitz in the local cities, and creating air raid shelters in the classroom and giving all the pupils gas masks!  There is a lot of room for creativity and the pupils involved find it very rewarding working with the local children.  Most people take it as an option again and again and it is very popular.

Primary School Athletics

For the more sports-minded pupil, there's the chance to coach athletics to primary school children, whilst gaining valuable certificates and awards.  We concentrate on athletics skills and games, leading groups of primary school aged children through each weekly session, visiting each different school on a half-termly basis.

The pupil coaches develop skills of leadership, organisation and management, whilst qualifying for a variety of awards:  Red Cross First Aid, National Governing Body Coaching Level 1, and Sports Leaders UK Levels 1, 2 or 3, depending on age, experience, ability and length of service.  All awards are supervised by national bodies, with Level 3 equivalent to an AS Level for many university courses.