Leos and Lions Unite!

On Friday 20th November, two generations united at the launch of the Southwell Minster School Leo Club. Southwell Lions club has been in operation for many years and approached the school in 2014 with the aim of forming a link.

Southwell Lions were keen to build a relationship with the school in the hope of finding out more about the young people within their community and involving them in some of their work. At the same time, the School Council at the Minster School suggested that they would like to have more opportunities to make a positive difference on their school and their community.

As a result, the two parties met and worked together for 12 months in order to set up the Southwell Minster Leos Club. All School Council members are members of the Leos club – this includes the Sixth Form Head Team and Year 11 House Captains and Deputy House Captains. These 30 students were the founding members of the group. Within this group, two joint chairpersons were elected: Sarah Burke and Becca Pritchett, who are supported by a committee of three: Ellie Hudswell, Beth Fitzsimmons and Tilly Osbon. The group aim to create community events which make links between young people and adults within the community, and to create in-school events which allow the relationships between older and younger students to be further developed.

The Leos group have met a couple of times, led by their joint chairs, and their first event will be a social within school, which they hope to use to raise money for Syrian refugees. The next meeting is planned for December where key members of Southwell Lions will also attend to support the group.

At the launch event, speeches were delivered by John Horsfall, current Lions president, Graham Venables, who has provided much support in the establishment of the group and has experience of Leos groups and the District Chair of Lions. These were followed by an address from Becca and Sarah who gave an inspirational speech about their aim for the group and thanks to all involved. This was followed by a ‘tea and cakes’ reception, with cakes that had been baked by the Leos members as a gesture of thanks to Southwell Lions. The two groups spent a couple of hours talking and getting to know each other and a great deal of fun was had!

Mrs Lyons, Assistant Head – Enrichments at The Minster said: “As a school, we are incredibly excited about the prospect of a sustainable working partnership and the opportunity for our students to develop their personal skills, while being supported by experienced and enthusiastic older members of the community. We are very grateful to Keith Hobbs and John Horsfall in particular for their support and our students can’t wait to make a start with their new venture.

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