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A fantastic day just for parents was coordinated across BLC schools and hosted at Evelyn Grace Academy in October. The aim of the day was to support adults with their wellbeing offering a range of activities including creative arts, stitching and crafting, photography, chair massage, manicure and the chance to participate in workshops focused on managing stress, self-care and movement for wellbeing. Local community organisations attended to give out information and chat with parents, including Lambeth Parenting Services, Fit Kids Healthy Minds, Capital City College, Lambeth Elevate, Safer Renting, Thrive Stockwell, Lambeth Community Engagement, High Trees, Raw Material, EcoSystem Coldharbour and NHS blood and sickle cell awareness team.

One parent who attended the event said, “I really enjoyed the mosaic class and the massage was amazing. I also enjoyed going around and talking to the different people here and learning about what’s in the community that I can join in with, and what’s helpful for my kids.”

Another parent said, “It was really nice to have something especially for parents.” And one added, “I’ve been so relaxed I didn’t reach for my phone all day!”

Staff from Archbishop Sumner Primary, Hill Mead Primary and St Gabriel’s College came together in September for shared BLC schools’ safeguarding training, hosted at St Gabriel’s site. It was a great opportunity for schools to share resources, expertise and learning and colleagues welcomed the chance to start the new academic year on a collaborative note!

BLC primary schools attended a special end of summer term event to commemorate Windrush. The day was hosted at Evelyn Grace Academy and the brilliant secondary school staff organised an impressive selection of secondary school taster activities with a Caribbean theme, alongside a Windrush exhibition organised by Pegasus Opera Company. This was followed by a workshop and exciting schools’ performance given by Pegasus of a specially commissioned new work: Windrush Opera, representing the real-life stories and experiences of elders from the Lambeth community who came to the UK from the Caribbean to help rebuild post-war Britain. Students from Heron Academy also attended the afternoon event to enjoy the wonderful opera performance.

The 2025 BLC poetry festival had a theme of ‘My Untold Story’. Six primary schools participated in this annual competition with nominated pupils performing their own poem in quarter and semi finals heats before a final event at Evelyn Grace Academy, hosted by performance poet Adisa and a judging panel made up of Evelyn Grace students and Principal Una Sookun. Everyone agreed that the standard of poetry was higher than ever and it was a very difficult task for the judges to select the top 3 poems for prizes. All participants were awarded medals in recognition of their fantastic creative writing.

The winning poem by Kemari, brilliantly expresses mixed feelings about the move from primary to secondary school:

Pupil Wellbeing Ambassadors from BLC schools have worked closely throughout the year with Wellbeing Ambassadors from our partner clusters, Windmill Cluster and Oval Learning. 19 schools are now involved in this programme and the Ambassadors have gone from strength to strength, meeting regularly and sharing ideas about how to support better mental health and wellbeing across the community.

This year pupils took part in drama, songwriting and creative workshops in school and all the Ambassadors came together for an end of year conference hosted at Evelyn Grace Academy where they worked with mindfulness coaches, song writers from Pegasus Opera and dance tutors from Corali Dance Company.

Pupil Wellbeing Ambassador feedback:

‘I’ve learnt to use my voice to stand up to things I don’t like’

‘It’s exciting and fun to meet new people’

‘Being creative and kind can make a difference’

Talented writers from BLC primary schools came together for a day of creative writing led by spoken word artist and author Steven Camden, aka Polar Bear. Using drama and storytelling techniques, children were inspired to create many fantastic stories during the session and left with endless ideas for further creations

Some super-science opportunities for BLC schools with the brilliant Science Dome, an immersive inflatable planetarium which was hosted at Loughborough Primary and Heron Academy for visiting groups of schools from across the cluster. Students were able to experience topics ranging from Under the Sea, Space Exploration and Earth, Space and Beyond.

The annual BLC Spelling Bee at St Gabriel’s College, led by brilliant team of St Gabriel’s staff and host Principal Josephine Okokon with teams of Yr 5 top spellers from seven BLC primary schools taking part. It was a hard-fought competition, eventually won by the team from Stockwell. Well done to all the participants for fantastic spelling!

St Gabriel’s College hosted the annual BLC primary schools Science Fair 2025 in March with Yr 5 pupil teams from 6 BLC primary schools participating in this exciting event as culmination of a programme of weekly science activity. Primary pupils worked with the Science Department at St Gabriel’s developing and investigating an area of research, recording their observations and presenting their findings to a judging panel at the Science Fair event. Congratulations to the team from Stockwell Primary awarded 1st place for their presentation investigating ‘Acid or Alkaline’

Throughout March, teams of Yr 5 pupils have been working with the Science Department and Mr Gulled at St Gabriel’s College to investigate an area of science. Pupils were assisted on a journey of discovery, to consider an investigation question such as: Does temperature affect the rate of dissolving? Does the volume of alcohol effect the temperature of the heat energy produced? Does flavour effect the energy of crisps? Over a number of weeks, pupils experimented, recording their results and put together a presentation to explain their findings. An exciting Science Fair event at the end of spring term brought all the science teams together to present their work to a panel of judges including special guest, Aeronautical Engineer Alexander Popov. The judges were very impressed with all the presentations – pupils demonstrated excellent scientific knowledge and understanding and some terrific presentation skills. Congratulations to Hill Mead Primary school who took the first place award for their demonstration and massive well done to all the teams for some fantastic research and knowledge sharing.