More than just education

Community support

Community is at heart of everything that we do here at the Learning Community Trust.

Supporting our community

Community at the heart of everything we do.

The Learning Community Trust aims to have a consistent and positive impact on our communities through a variety of programmes. Our Trust and academy initiatives focus on the following areas:

Supporting our families
Championing our communities
Ensuring our young people are proactive and have a full understanding of the importance of community
Supporting local businesses

creating community

Community Hubs

Our Trust is creating community hubs which operate from a number of our academies. The purpose of our hubs is to support anyone in the local area facing hardship. This involves providing access to safe spaces, resources, and signposting to specialist agencies.

Each hub has strong relationships with charities including Shelter, local food banks, Women’s Aid, and Citizens Advice. The hubs provide access to food and signposting to services as well as adult learning and workshops on mental health and debt counselling.

As part of the hubs, academies within the trust also provide community initiatives such as:

Recycled uniform
community fridges
Furniture projects

An example of one of our hubs is Community Fridge @ Wrekin View

Wrekin View Community Fridge, supporting the community of Wellington, was established during lockdown by our estates manager, the motto being ‘take what you want, donate if you can’. The hub has grown significantly, and we are now working with the Step Into Work programme to provide work placements in the hub for adults with specific needs. The community fridge project also helps people with gas and electric payments, runs a community café at Christmas providing presents and Christmas dinner, and provides furniture, carpets and beds to families in need.

Working with

Local partners and businesses

Within our communities, key partnerships with local partners and businesses play a significant role. Our local partners actively support us in various ways, including developing strong social groups and implementing strategies to reduce anti-social behaviour within local communities, collaborating closely with local police. Local businesses are the life blood of our community and as a result the Trust always prioritises using local contractors and suppliers. This strong relationship is fostered through their support of our schools, which includes sponsorship and career education initiatives.

Our students

In our communities

A key feature of the community work the LCT undertakes is our trust-wide ‘Community Award’ that allows student volunteers to:

Focus on their community work
Develop their understanding of helping others, the environment, and the community.

The programme provides a structure for our students to support, inspire, and encourage community spirit. Pupils receive recognition for community engagement and outstanding achievement is rewarded with a monetary prize towards a community project of their choice.

As part of the programme, our children have undertaken activities such as:

gathering donations for charity shops
helping with more chores around the house
making bird feeders
litter picking
garden projects
engagement event planning for the community such as Christmas dinner
volunteering.

Bringing academies and communities together

Community Events

Bringing academies and communities together is a key part of the LCT vision. Through concerts, performances, sports and huge events like the our multicultural celebration and music festivals we give our community the opportunity to celebrate the successes of their local area and the academy