Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

 

I hope 2018 has been a fulfilling year for you personally and professionally and you go into 2019 full of hope.

 

In the name of hope I have featured on my card this year a picture of some of the children who participated in the 2018 Bristol Together Championships. BTC is a football tournament for primary schools with a difference, run by Community of Purpose. The only way a school can enter is by twinning with a school serving children from a radically different race, class or religious background in a different part of the city and forming a joint team. Last year Headley Park Primary (89.7% White British) and Millpond Primary (88.4% BME) were twinned and the children named their team Headley Pond.  QEH (0% of children on Free School Meals) were twinned with Summerhill Academy (37.1% on Free School Meals).  The children named the team QE Hill Academy.  In the first year the BTC ran they had nine primary schools. In 2018 they had 22.

 

Each school chooses five pupils, one of whom must be a girl.  These pupils are not necessarily the best football players, but those children who need help with confidence, social diversity and communication skills.  The teams have four training sessions together (two hosted at each school) and the programme culminates in a huge festival at the University of the West of England.  Four schools are then selected to represent Bristol in Bordeaux as part of the cities’ twinning relationship.  The Bristol to Bordeaux programme provides young people who haven’t left the city with new experiences, new educational aspirations, travel opportunities and a chance to gain greater independence away from their families. Click here to watch a short film about the 2018 trip.

 

It is initiatives like this that will help us take on the fractures that exist across Bristol. It’s an investment in our hope that we will be a city that stays together in the face of all the forces that would pull us apart.

 

May I take this opportunity to let you know that the Mayor’s Fund for Bristol has been relaunched by Quartet Community Foundation.  Any donation you are able to make will help fund the Bristol Together Championships.

 

For more details about the Mayor’s Fund and how to donate, please click be

 

With best wishes for the festive season,

Marvin Rees

Mayor of Bristol

 

t:  +44 (0) 117 922 2420

e:  mayor@bristol.gov.uk

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