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Post Lockdown care for Planters

Volunteers have been working hard to brighten up the area around the Lightship Cafe at Grays Beach Park.

Led by local resident, Tricia Nicholls, new ornamental planters have been filled with plants and flowers and work has started on maintaining other planted areas.

Chair of the Lightship Cafe CIC, Tina Macklin, said;

“The Lightship Cafe relies on our dedicated volunteers to keep going. Tricia has recently joined us and has done a fantastic job brightening up the area outside the cafe.

Owing to Covid, we haven’t been able to do as much as we would have liked and have started late in the year – with Tricia’s help I am sure we will have a stunning floral display right through next summer.

Chair of the Riverside Community Big Local, which supports the Lightship Cafe added;

“We had a generous grant from Thurrock Council’s Community Environmental Development Fund to buy new, self watering, ornamental planters for the park. They are looking really good and the feedback from park users has been really positive.”

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Successful Litter Pick

Volunteers from the Orchards Forum were out on Saturday clearing rubbish from the alleyways around Benson Road, Salisbury Road, Richmond Road and Kent Road.

Tina Holland, Chair of the Orchards Forum, and was one of the volunteers said;

“When we started clearing local alleyways, last year, we would need six council trucks an alley to take all the rubbish away. Today, after visiting numerous alleys around Benson Road, we didn’t quite fill one truck. What a fantastic difference the community has made by working together!

“We know other alleyways are not as clear as these and we will get round to them as soon as we can – as always, the more volunteers we have the more we can get done!”

Andy Blakey, Chair of the Riverside Community Big Local, said;

“This is another great effort from by our local community and I would like to thank each and every one for their time and effort – thanks as well to Antonio Rodrigues, from Thurrock Council for making sure the rubbish was taken away.

“Next month is the Great British September Clean when we will be out cleaning up grot spots around the Riverside Community area. If you know of an area that could do with a clean you can use the link below to add it to the list – you can also use the link to volunteer to help out with a clean up.”

see the Great British September Clean for how you can be involved

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Thank You Benches installed

The Riverside Community Big Local has commissioned a number of benches to thank our NHS workers – and other volunteers – for all they have done to keep our communities as safe and well as possible during the Coronavirus crisis.

Chair of the Riverside Community Big Local, Andy Blakey, said;

“We have all been humbled by the work of all those who work in our NHS. We have seen nurses, doctors, paramedics – and so many other health and care workers – making enormous sacrifices and doing an incredible job in the most difficult circumstances imaginable.

“We wanted to make sure that all our key workers – and community volunteers – know just how grateful we are. We hope these benches are a very visible sign of our thanks and will continue demonstrate our admiration for many years to come.

“I also want to thank Thurrock Council for installing the benches for us.”

The benches can be found at Grays Beach Park, Elm Road Green Open Space, Grays Town Park and in Grays High Street.

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Free City and Guild course – Covid-19 – returning to the workplace and staying safe

This free e-learning course will support your understanding of Covid-19 and help you think about how you can reduce the spread of the virus in the workplace to protect yourself and others.

The module takes only 15-20 minutes to complete and has been split into four topic areas below. It will help you to develop an understanding on the importance of safely practices and the methods used to control Covid-19 transmission in the workplace.

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Welcome… to skillsworkshop, the home of free adult literacy, numeracy and Functional Skills resources since 2001.

The site was redeveloped in 2011 and had a major upgrade on 28 September 2018. New items are added regularly and there are now more than 2000 free Functional Skills and Skills for Life resources.

The about pages describe the history of the site, the benefits of registration, and explain how you can contribute.

Using this site ( click here to visit site )

The site has a powerful faceted search function: try typing something into the “Search” box at the top right of every page and then filter by author and type (resource or external link).

To look for specific curriculum topics in a given subject area use the tabs at the top of every page, such as the blue Maths tab. Then use the Maths search box  (left hand side) and/or filter the resource list by level, maths topic and/or resource type.

You can see our 500+ resource contributors and follow the links to their information pages to see lists of all the resources they’ve contributed.

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Free Teachers mental health and wellbeing pack

How can this resource support teacher wellbeing?

This Staff Wellbeing Positive Mental Health Resource Pack is the perfect way to provide resources for all school staff to explore ways in which they can support their own mental health and wellbeing, as well support the wellbeing of others, during challenging times and always. 

This resource pack is an informative and easy-to-use bank of resources which will support positive mental health and wellbeing within the staff team.

Why is it important to look after staff mental health?

Looking after staff mental health ensures staff can be the teachers students need. Teaching is a demanding job in which so much is given to others, it is therefore essential that staff are encouraged to take care of their own wellbeing.

This pack contains a range of ready-to-use activities, training presentations and feel-good resources that will help all in school to develop knowledge, skillls and understanding to enhance wellbeing and look after their mental health.

Click here or the picture for the web page