Associated Companies
- Airbus
- Avon Fire and Rescue
- Bevan Brittan
- Bristol International Airport
- Business West
- Clerical Medical
- Clifton Scientific Trust
- Computershare
- DAS Legal Expenses Insurance Company Ltd
- Deloitte
- Ernst and Young
- GE Capital Solutions
- Hewitt
- HTI
- Industrial Trust
- KPMG
- Norwich Union Life, RBS Operations
- PricewaterhouseCoopers
- Rolls-Royce
- Space Engineering Services Ltd
- United Bristol Healthcare Trust
- Watershed
- Young Enterprise South West
Buddy Can you Spare Me a Rhyme?
The ABLAZE Reading Buddy and Number Partners programme for Primary School children allows a business partner to read or play maths games with a child for 30-minute sessions, weekly or fortnightly. Rolls-Royce has partners working in Millpond, Sefton Park and Cabot Primary Schools.Each year the pupils visit Rolls-Royce to learn about the company, take part in a fun challenge, visit their partner at his / her place of work and have lunch. This year over 40 pupils visited the site in July and their challenge was to design and build a parachute or glider, with the aim of taking the longest time to reach the ground, after launch from a fire escape.
Teams of four, produced a variety of imaginative designs. Launching the finished products from the fire escape was exciting, as a strong wind affected the flights.
It seemed that the winning time was going to be 6.4 seconds, but the Super Stars team from Millpond snatched victory with an amazing time. Their entry, a parachute of unusual design, flew from the fire escape and due to the strong wind landed on the roof of an adjoining building. As the building is due to be demolished during the spring of 2008, the parachute won't reach the ground for approximately nine months!
Rolls-Royce engineer Graham Slack is a Governor at Millpond and has been actively involved in several education activities at the school run by Rolls-Royce. Following the visit he said, "The children always look forward to these visits to see where their buddies work. It is an important part of their development, both socially and educationally. The challenges set are both fun and stimulating for them. Enhancing the link with Rolls-Royce will also hopefully increase their awareness and interest in science and technology."
Rolls-Royce Engineer, Mukesh Solanki, has been a Reading Buddy at Sefton Park Primary School for 3 years. During this time he has witnessed the motivational affects on the pupils of the programme and the progress they have made. Mukesh said, "Schemes such as Reading Buddies and Number Partners are of great benefit for the schools as it gives children the opportunity to further develop and improve their learning skills on a one-to-one basis. This builds up their ability and confidence as well as their self esteem and communication skills."
"Myself and a colleague have been involved with the scheme for a number of years and the feedback we have received from teachers is encouraging and states that the children have displayed a vast improvement. The scheme is very rewarding as well as fun."