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2021-08-31-accounts

TrinityLearning's Annual Report

for the reporting period 1st September 2020 - 31 August 2021

Registered Charity Number 118272

Table of Contents

Our Mission ........................................................................................................... 3 Chair’s Review ...................................................................................................... 3 Our Objectives ....................................................................................................... 4 Programme ........................................................................................................ 4 Legal and administrative .................................................................................... 4 Review of activities and achievements against our programme objectives ............ 5 To continue to develop existing TrinityLearning projects such as Peaceful Activity Packs, as well as new ones such as Bereavement Packs...................... 5 To identify areas of need resulting from COVID19 and develop new ways to support wellbeing in school communities. .......................................................... 6 To develop new ways to deliver ongoing TrinityLearning workshops such as Experience Easter. ............................................................................................. 8 To maximise our reach and impact through redesign of our website. ................. 9 Finances .............................................................................................................. 10 Review of activities and achievements against our legal and administrative objectives ............................................................................................................ 12 To review volunteer policies and disseminate them via our website. ................ 12 To ensure all volunteers in child facing or school roles have received Oxfordshire Safeguarding training. ................................................................... 12 Get involved ........................................................................................................ 13

Our Mission

TrinityLearning believes that every child deserves a calm, positive start in life. We aim to relieve the pressures on busy schools through specially tailored activities, including practical help for school leaders, regular mentoring for children and workshops for pupils and staff.

Chair’s Review

Welcome to TrinityLearning’s 2020 – 2021 Annual Report and Accounts. This has been another year where we have continued to build on and develop initiatives to support schools through COVID-19. In line with Covid guidance, we have continued to adapt our wellbeing projects to provide remote video-based workshops and Peaceful Activity Packs, as well as nature walks for children and their families, and regular advice and support leaflets (including mental health) for teaching staff. We have also developed new classroom-based projects to roll out as restrictions are lifted.

Sadly, Rosemary Perrow - our founding Education Development Officer - died on 19th February 2021, following a six-month struggle with cancer. Rosemary shaped and developed TrinityLearning, providing inspirational leadership and working with head teachers, staff and children to provide much needed support.

Rosemary was also key to bringing a number of reflective primary school gardens into being; working with and overseeing volunteers from many local groups and businesses in order to achieve this. We were very happy to be invited to Kingfisher School in the summer to finally be able to celebrate the opening of the Kingfisher Garden and to see their new plaque dedicated to Rosemary. We were also pleased to learn that other local schools are planning their own remembrance garden plaques.

We feel it is a wonderful tribute to Rosemary that she is remembered through the peace and joy enjoyed by children and staff in the reflective gardens she worked so hard to bring into being.

This year also saw continued and welcome support for our projects from TrinityLearning volunteers. All our activities are supported by qualified staff, but our outreach work would not be possible without our wide-range of skilled and dedicated volunteers. We are proud to work together with them to support our local schools and the wider community.

Eve Newton, TrinityLearning Chair of Trustees.

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Our Objectives

Programme

Legal and administrative

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Review of activities and achievements against our programme objectives

To continue to develop existing TrinityLearning projects such as Peaceful Activity Packs, as well as new ones such as Bereavement Packs.

Our caring, sharing and dragons Activity Pack.

Peaceful Activity Packs: Following the successful trial of the packs in June and July 2020, TrinityLearning successfully applied for a grant from the Coronavirus Support Fund distributed by the National Lottery. This enabled us to provide packs for children from local primary schools as well as children from Kingfisher school. Following further

requests from other schools additional funding, provided by regular giving from St. Helens Church, Abingdon, allowed us to increase the number of packs provided so that in total 31 children from local primary schools and 27 children from Kingfisher school received three packs each.

“Parents said the packs were terrific to keep children busy and away from screens whilst supporting teaching and reading and creative skills. The carefully planned activities also fit well with our school ethos of Be Kind”. Paul Crandon, Head Teacher, Carswell School.

The packs provided peaceful, calming and sensory activities for children to do independently or with their families to help reduce anxiety and stress when many parents were working from home and children were off school. We received good feedback from all the schools involved, with one head teacher describing the packs as ‘transformative’ for the group of young carers who had received them.

“I enjoyed that there was a book to keep me calm because I get angry and stressed easily.” Year 5 pupil

Lots to spot on our walks

Wildlife Safari Walks: After a successful trial last school year we continued to develop our Wildlife Safari Walks, with a total of three new walks added over the year, one of which was prepared by a volunteer. Details of the walks were distributed through school and church newsletters across Abingdon. We received positive feedback from both school and church communities about all the walks, but especially our final walk which we also checked for wheelchair accessibility.

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Moving and singing with scarves

Kingfisher Singing Group – online! Volunteer projects are at the heart of TrinityLearning’s ethos so we were thrilled to be able to support volunteers in producing videos of nursery rhymes for Kingfisher School which could be accessed through our password-protected online Kingfisher Singing Hub. At a time when volunteers could not go into schools, the online songs were used by the school for both in class

teaching and home learning throughout the year and the Kingfisher School Peaceful Activity Packs were themed to fit in with the songs and rhymes.

“My daughter and I wanted to thank you so, so much for our beautiful singing/instruments activity bag. We will have lots of fun singing along. My daughter often hums the ‘Falling, falling down’ tune.” Parent of Kingfisher pupil.

Tiny teddies - a welcome addition to the Packs

Bereavement Packs: TrinityLearning volunteers and staff worked together ‘virtually’ to develop Bereavement Packs for adults working with bereaved children in schools. These packs include an excellent bereavement journal produced by AtaLoss.org, another Church based charity. The packs also include activities devised by TrinityLearning volunteers and a list of useful books which TrinityLearning can provide to schools if needed. Ten packs were distributed to local schools and families over the year and each contained a hand-crocheted teddy

produced by one of our key and long-term supporters. We plan to retain the Bereavement packs as a regular part of our service to schools going forward.

To identify areas of need resulting from COVID-19 and develop new ways to support wellbeing in school communities.

Laptop appeal : As home-schooling returned in January, it quickly became apparent that many local families were struggling to access online resources because they did not have access to appropriate devices. A TrinityLearning volunteer offered to donate a spare laptop and this quickly The children are so pleased developed into a laptop appeal, which we advertised with the new devices and it through church newsletters and Facebook. Many TrinityLearning supporters and local church members Head Teacher, Abingdon donated laptops which were wiped and refurbished before

The children are so pleased with the new devices and it has really made a difference.” Head Teacher, Abingdon

being passed on to local schools. We also received cash donations totalling £1000 which we used to buy new laptops and tablets. In total, TrinityLearning provided 7 new devices and 10 reused devices to four local primary schools.

Supporting wellbeing - Recognising the increased stress experienced by school staff over this year, we redesigned our Help and Advice for school staff leaflet which provides links to both school specific and general mental help support services as

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well as sharing links to local online Pilates and yoga classes. This leaflet was updated and redistributed regularly over the year to ensure advice remained current.

Regular conversations with local school leaders during this reporting period, as well as school feedback surveys for our Peaceful Activity Pack project, indicated schools were continuing to notice higher levels of emotional distress across more children than was usual prior to COVID-19 – with many indicating a real need for simple projects to support children's mental health.

Toolkit for Happiness: Whereas previously TrinityLearning has targeted workshops towards small groups of children with specific needs, our Toolkit for Happiness is designed to be used with whole classes or small groups, reflecting the widespread and long-term impact of Covid on school communities.

Natural art portrait designed by Larkmead students

The project consists of a series of five workshops designed to enable children to learn about different strategies they can use to boost their own happiness, such as getting out into nature,

doing exercise, helping others or feeling thankful. The workshops provide an opportunity for children to have fun as they learn these simple strategies and are a positive way for TrinityLearning to continue to support the wellbeing of individual primary school children, many of whom have found the last two years extremely challenging.

In July 2021, TrinityLearning worked with 6th form pupils from Larkmead School in

“I enjoyed the creativity and acts of kindness workshops the most as they were the most fun and cheered me up.”

Abingdon to train them as volunteers to lead kindness workshops the most as they and support the project going forward. Each were the most fun and cheered me up.” group of around 30 Year 12 students took part in a day’s training on all the workshop “The acts of kindness helped me connect activities culminating in them creating with my emotions.” photograph or video instructions for one activity. All the students entered into the Larkmead Year 12 students activities with enthusiasm, with many of them commenting on how the individual workshops had improved their sense of wellbeing or happiness, and 26 of them expressing an interest in volunteering with the project going forward.

“The acts of kindness helped me connect with my emotions.”

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To develop new ways to deliver ongoing TrinityLearning workshops such as Experience Easter.

Christmas Activities : Although not strictly project work, given that Covid restrictions meant local school children were unable to hold their Nativities and Christmas services in Trinity Church we produced a set of storytelling videos based on the Christmas story which we were able to host on our website to enable schools to access them. The videos were

designed to be used for either school-based or home-based learning. As well as providing a useful resource for schools, the videos enabled us to trial methods of delivering workshops virtually which really helped with our preparation for Experience Easter.

Experience Easter: This year, Covid restrictions meant we moved the Experience Easter online and supported TrinityLearning volunteers in making short videos of the Easter story and Experience Easter workshop activities. These were then hosted on our website.

Palm crosses, garden animals and flowers and thank you notes all made by children taking part in Experience Easter 2021.

Resource packs to support the workshop activities were provided free of charge to schools and were funded mainly through our regular donation from Churches in Abingdon. In response to requests from schools we provided a total of 512 pupil packs for 7 schools. One school, from the outskirts of the Abingdon Schools Partnership, accessed Experience Easter for the first time and so enjoyed it that the children made us a book sharing their thoughts and feelings about Experience Easter.

“The children loved the Gethsemane (workshop) because they could relate as well as they could create.”

“In general, the workshops were well suited to the needs of the children. They were a good length and the resources were great too.”

Experience Easter feedback from Class Teachers, Abingdon Primary Schools

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To maximise our reach and impact through redesign of our website.

TrinityLearning’s work has developed and grown significantly over the past two years and we felt it was vital that our website reflected this with clear messaging about our ethos and what we can offer local school communities. We also wanted a central place where schools, supporters, volunteers and those interested in our work could find what they needed quickly and easily on a simple to navigate website.

We achieved this by simplifying the website structure and adding new features for volunteers and schools. These include our Volunteer section where potential, new and existing volunteers can find information relating to volunteering with us as well as the latest volunteer news. For schools we added new sections for the online activities we have recently developed as well as updating our general information.

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Finances

This financial period encompasses the final year of TrinityLearning’s original threeyear funding plan.

Where our money comes from

----- Start of picture text -----
Total Income: 1st September 2020 - 31st
August 2021, £ 27,336.05
22% Donations £6,097.05
Grants £21,269
78%
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Our core funding is provided through grants from the URC Wessex Trust and the Wantage Methodist Circuit. We have also received financial support from Trinity Church and St Helen’s Church as well as Churches in Abingdon. Individual supporters, mainly from Trinity Church, support our work and we have received donations from All Saints Church as well as donations made in remembrance of Rosemary Perrow. This financial period we received a grant from the Coronavirus Community Support Fund Project, distributed by the National Lottery, for our peaceful activity packs projects. Funds were to be spent within six months of receiving the grant in September 2020 and this deadline was met.

Where we spend our money

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Total Expenditure: 1st September
2020 - 31st August 2021, £29,062.62
24%
Project £7201.65
4% Admin £1145.82
72% Salaries £21860.97
----- End of picture text -----

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Our expenditure in this reporting period shows a greater than usual amount spent on project costs. This was due to a move to pack-based projects during lockdown and was largely covered by the Coronavirus Community Support Fund Grant of £6019.

Time Allocation

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Total Time Allocation: 1 September 2020
to 31 August 2021
School Projects
5%
Volunteer Communication
22%
Administration
Grant Applications
57%
16%
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As anticipated, our time allocation for this reporting period shows a much greater percentage of employee time spent on school projects and volunteer communication. Now that the core structure of the organisation is more secure, we expect these percentages to remain stable going forward.

Funding going forward

In this financial period, we were delighted to learn that both the URC Wessex Trust and Wantage Methodist Circuit had agreed to extend our funding until 2023. This means a payment of £14500 per year for a further 2 years from the end of this financial period - a total of £29,000. This covers around two thirds of core costs for this period, with the rest being covered by current assets. We will however also continue to explore other funding and grant opportunities.

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Review of activities and achievements against our legal and administrative objectives

To review volunteer policies and disseminate them via our website.

Volunteer policies apply to all TrinityLearning volunteers, staff and trustees. Many of them relate specifically to staff and volunteers who work directly with children and young people, but all those volunteering and working for TrinityLearning are expected to be familiar with policies that are relevant to their role.

Using a Policy Checklist over this financial year has ensured all policies are reviewed regularly by staff and trustees at Trustee meetings and amendments made in line with new legislation when needed. Discussing the policies with volunteers during inductions means we can identify policy areas or procedures that may need further clarification.

During this financial period, we have moved all of these policies online and they are now easily available in the Volunteer section of our website. Policies are written in plain English and are easy to read and understand. We can also provide large print/ hard copy versions of the documents if volunteers request these formats.

To ensure all volunteers in child facing or school roles have received Oxfordshire Safeguarding training.

We are committed to the safety and wellbeing of all those we work with and all volunteers who work with children are subject to DBS clearance and given relevant safeguarding training. During July 2021, we ran Oxfordshire Safeguarding training for 12 volunteers and 2 staff members. Training was provided in-house by our Education Development Officer who is also TrinityLearning’s Designated Safeguarding Lead. We will continue to run this training when needed to ensure all volunteers have completed it before they go into schools.

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Get Involved

Volunteers play a vital role in TrinityLearning, enabling us to work with children, teachers and the wider school community and give them the support they need. From helping to set up workshop spaces to supporting children’s emotional literacy, our outreach work would not be possible without the invaluable input of our volunteers.

We can offer school-based (Covid regulations permitting) or remote volunteering options and we provide training and support for all roles.

Find out more about volunteering with TrinityLearning on our website: https://trinitylearning.org.uk/volunteer/

Connect and keep up to date with our work

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TrinityLearning-108933674177652/

Website: www.trinitylearning.org.uk

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