Young Ambassadors
Cliff Lane's Young Ambassadors
Who are our Young Ambassadors?
Gracie, Brandon, Ernie, Archie, Eliza, Lily, Zoe, Katie, Oliver, Fergus and Brooklyn were the original Young Ambassadors in Year 5.
Lily, Eliza and Archie have continued with the events in Year 6, due to their confidence levels and passion for the project.
What is their role?
To put forward initiatives of how to make a positive change in the local community.
To attend various events with young people in the community where ideas are shared and various discussions are taken part in.
Friday 7th July 2023
We had a special visit from Stephen Skeet who is part of the #iwill movement. He presented the children with some certificates for their dedication and hard work throughout the past 18 months. Eliza, Lily and Archie all joined Stephen at the front of assembly to tell the rest of the school what they have been doing.
Everyone is so proud of them and they have all been a real credit to Cliff Lane.
Monday 19th June 2023
Eliza, Archie and Lily attended an event with Ipswich Social Mobility Alliance at BT Adastral park. They had to work together over a few weeks attending online meetings with a mentor and working with staff at school to plan and prepare for the event. This event was for young people to expand on their feelings about Ipswich. The 3 children chose to greet and open the event, create scenarios for various companies who had attended the event, then closed the event. The children wanted the companies to think about how young people are treated around Ipswich, in schools and their workplaces.
The group had received much praise for their confidence on the day and the staff involved were very proud of them especially with getting up on stage in front of so many people and confidently addressing the audience.
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Wednesday 29th March 2023
Today 3 of our year 6 young ambassadors attended an event run by the Ipswich Social Mobility Alliance. They met with other young people and started with a discussion about what they love about Ipswich and what they think they could improve in our local community. Later in the day, as a group mixed with young people from Suffolk One our children mind mapped services they are aware of which are for young people or for everyone. They then shared experiences in their lives and the services which they could have used, highlighting the importance of these services. Our Young Ambassadors shared their experience as a group of the fundraising they had completed and how proud they were to have helped in the community in a positive way.
The children were so excited to hear about our next event in June and planning is underway already. Lily expressed to us, "I am so proud of what I have achieved with the Young Ambassadors and my confidence today has increased. I have lots of ideas for how services can help young people and I can't wait to share them".
We are so proud of them as a group, they were respectful and a real credit to Cliff Lane for how positively they worked alongside other children from primary up to 16 years old. Event leaders also complimented the children on their confidence, skills and behavior.
I have written many ideas to plan for our future event in June. When Tom Hunt was campaigning for the council he came to our door and I spoke to him about the young ambassadors project. He was impressed. - Archie.
Thursday 24th November 2022
DCMS Minister Stuart Andrew
We attended an event at the University of Suffolk where the children presented the project they had worked on to the Minister in a meeting with other young people from around Ipswich. They presented this to him with great confidence and pride. He was really impressed with their achievements throughout their journey. The children answered all of the questions about the project fluently, they spoke with various schools, and adults during the afternoon and showcased their project in a booklet which they proudly presented.
Friday 8th July 2022
Our group of Young Ambassadors were invited to the University of Suffolk to take part in some workshops and to receive a certificate for the achievements they had accomplished since starting on the project. We had a video made and this was shown to a group of students, young people and organizations from around Ipswich who were also involved in making a youth social action project. The children enjoyed watching a variety of projects being shown and congratulating all involved. It was a lovely ceremony for the whole group to be involved in.
After the awards, the children participated in some workshops which allowed them to take part in team building games and group discussions. The children showed maturity throughout working alongside some young people up to the age of 16.
Tuesday 21st June 2022
Our Young Ambassadors went on a trip to FIND where they took their food donations from their fundraiser. They met the founder of the charity, Maureen Reynel MBE and the children had a tour of the establishment and found out a lot of information about the organization and what job roles they have throughout. They helped to sort through the donations they had brought with them, so they really got a feel of what they do ‘behind the scenes’. They were amazed to find out how many families they help and how far they travel around Suffolk with the various parcels. Liz Harsant, our local councilor, arranged our trip to FIND and joined us for our tour with Maureen.
Thursday 9th June 2023
Our local councilor, Liz Harsant, came to visit the group at school. We spoke with her about what the CLAmbassadors are all about and what our intentions are with our project. Liz explained that she has a lot of contacts that she could get in touch with to help us with our donations. She also gave us a lot of ideas as for who we could help and who would benefit the most from what we had received.
Thursday 26th May 2022 - Friday 27th May 2022
Our fundraising has begun! The group filmed a video which was shown in assembly, explaining what they are going to be doing. Below is an extract from an email which the group worked together on to send to all teachers who read this to their classes also.
In Year 5 we have a Young Ambassadors group who are organizing a fundraising event on Thursday 26th May and Friday 27th May 3pm-3:30pm on the playground. Their event goes under the name of 'Operation Donate' and they are called the CLAmbassadors. We are looking for donations of unwanted or old clothes, toys and tinned/long life food items to donate to local charities/ the hospital,care homes and disadvantaged families.
If anyone wants to come and meet our Young Ambassadors while they are at the stools they are more than welcome to have a chat about our project!
The group were very welcoming and open to parents/carers who came to donate and also ask the children about the project. They spoke with great confidence and expressed how much these donations would help people in the community.
We started our promotion!
Tuesday 1st March 2022 - Tuesday 14th June 2022
The Young Ambassadors group was formed, and started with online zoom sessions with mentors to build on our leadership skills and understand what a good leader needs. The group shared various ideas and experiences with each other to develop the project. We thought of a logo for our group that fitted around our thoughts and aims.
Eventually we came up with the name CLAmbassadors and their Youth Social Action was going to be to help disadvantaged families and older people in the local community. This project was going to be called “Operation Donate”.
The weekly meetings involved working through various case studies with our mentors and working collaboratively to find the best way of dealing with situations you could find yourself in as a group.
