Posted: 23/09/15
Students seek Mayor’s support
Society, education, young people and homelessness were issues discussed around the board room table this week (21 September) as students at Mansfield’s Vision Studio School welcomed the town’s mayor.
Britney Rayner, Kelly Hopley, Kerisha Brocklehurst, Kate Allsop, Luke Yates, Kayne Ashley, Kayla Hernandez
Students at Vision Studio School, who are studying the GCSE in Citizenship, invited Mansfield mayor Kate Allsop to their Chesterfield Road campus to listen to their plans for a project on the course.
The topic of homelessness was discussed with the class of twelve students, who are studying the GCSE Citizenship subject alongside their main subjects in engineering and health and social care. The project will go towards their final exams in May 2016.
Over the last few weeks, they’ve been asked to select a topic which they feel impacts on the town they live in and think of ways of reducing the problem. Homelessness and crime featured high on their list.
After speaking with their tutor Kelly Hopley as well as meeting with members of Maun Valley Citizens (MVC) – a group which connects the community to do good for Mansfield – students did some research and brainstorming on the subject of homelessness and began a project to look at how they could help tackle it.
Today, at a meeting led by the students themselves, they spoke with Kate and Wendy Ince and Hugh Murdoch from MVC about their ideas to set up a soup kitchen for homeless people in the area.
Mayor Allsop was highly impressed with the students’ ideas and attention to the topic. She said: “I’m so proud that they’re so responsible and thinking about problems and possible solutions to them. They’re amazing and I can’t wait to meet with them again in spring to see how their project’s getting along – it’s a great idea.
“In the meantime I’ll be visiting lots of other schools and youth groups to listen to their views about matters that affect them in the locality.”
The students also gave Kate a tour of the studio school and spoke to her about their studies there and the progress being made both in the classroom and on their one day a week placements in employment.
Health and social care student Kerisha Brocklehurst, 16, said: “It’s been so good to invite Kate in to hear our views. I feel like we can do something about it now and she’s there to support us.”
