Our social value team returned to Smethwick recently to develop our relationship with two local schools. Rosie Hughes is working closely with Annie Lennard Primary School and Holly Lodge High School on a number of community initiatives, as part of MCP’s social value commitments to Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council.
“What does home mean to you?”
We are currently refurbishing a number of empty properties in Smethwick on behalf of Sandwell and will be providing a Welcome Pack for all new tenants to ease them into their new home to include tea, coffee, sugar and cleaning products. To accompany the pack, we wanted to add a welcome card. Rosie worked with Mrs Rebecca Whitehurst, Annie Lennard’s’ Year 3 Class Teacher and Maths, Art, DT and Music Lead, and decided to hold a competition for the pupils to design the front of the welcome card.
Rosie, Tracy Collins and MCP’s Mickey Mascot were invited to the pupil’s assembly to launch the competition. At the assembly, Rosie and Tracy held a short presentation to introduce MCP and the competition. To enter, the children were asked to submit a drawing, based on the theme of ‘What does home mean to you’. We asked the children this question at the assembly and were greeted with many heartwarming responses including ‘love’, ‘safe’ and ‘fun’.
Louis Jones, our Supervisor for the Sandwell contract, collected the entries after Half Term and brought them to the office for judging. Three fantastic designs were chosen and we returned to Annie Lennard Primary School on 16th November to announce the winners. Each winner was awarded their prize, an arts and crafts set, at their assembly. We are now looking forward to seeing their designs in print.
Investing in future career development
In November, our People Team, Amy Parkin and Anna West, visited Holly Lodge High School. They met with a group of students, studying for their Level 2 qualification in work skills, to offer careers guidance and discuss work opportunities in the repairs and maintenance industry. Following the discussion, the students took part in mock interviews for an office administrator role to increase their experience and help them develop interview skills that they could use in the future.
Amy commented ‘It was a pleasure to meet the students and to discuss their career aspirations. I hope that they were able to take away some good interview advice from our meeting and help build their confidence.”
Opportunity Award
Holly Lodge High School is a College of Science that focuses on Ambition, Opportunity and Community – values that align perfectly with our own. MCP are pleased to again sponsor this year’s ‘Opportunity Award’.
The awards ceremony will be taking place on 11th December and our Supervisor, Louis Jones, has been invited along to present the winner with their prize.
