Society

Supporting Community

SCEMES understands that for communities to survive and prosper it is vital that they have strong and vibrant local economies. We believe passionately in buying locally, employing local trades and using resources and skills that are available locally, so that communities can become self-sustaining economies.

Over the past few years, SCEMES’ mission has been to build a database of local and regional suppliers to cater for each schools’ every need and to ensure that Headteachers and Bursars can find a range of products, services and skills in their community.

SCEMES’ Online Database now has thousands of suppliers listed, with hundreds more added every month. By sourcing businesses locally, schools bolster the local community, promote a more sustainable way of life and also reduce unnecessary travel and transport, which could reduce the impact of climate change.

Our online database is complemented by the Headteachers and Bursars Handbooks, which are divided into both regional and national sections to provide purchasers with a choice of product and service providers, and allows them to source best value products from within their local communities as well as from a national marketplace.

Supporting Schools

SCEMES is committed to supporting schools, and has run annual competitions for the last five years to demonstrate that support, donating prizes valued in excess of £100,000.

SCEMES began running competitions for schools in 2004 and has been generously donating prizes in various forms ever since.

In their first prize draw, at The Education Show at the Birmingham NEC, SCEMES presented a brand new 17-seater LDV minibus to Meadow Bridge Primary School, Hillsborough.

Following the success of this competition, SCEMES repeated the draw at the Education Show in 2005. The first prize, which was won by Lees Primary School in Keighley, was again a brand new 17-seater LDV Minibus with the remaining 9 prizes ranging from £500 cash to £1000 worth of musical equipment.

In 2006, SCEMES’ prize-draw competitions reached a climax, when SCEMES presented St. Mark’s C of E Primary School with a cheque for £10,000. Holden Lane Primary School with £4,000 of playground equipment and Old Dalby C of E Primary with a brand new Toyota AYGO!

The competition also awarded prizes to eight other schools, which ranged from £1,000 of books to a digital camcorder.

The Headteacher of St Mark’s, which won the top prize of £10,000 impressed upon us the difference that the prize money would make, saying: “St Mark's is a small school in Cornwall so has to manage on a tight budget. To win this incredible amount was just wonderful. For the school we will buy outdoor play equipment. We wanted something ALL the children would benefit from and a good quality adventure playground would be something that could NEVER come out of the ordinary budget. We are very grateful to SCEMES for this opportunity"

Last year, in response to a consultation with teachers, SCEMES ran its first competition involving pupils, in the form of a national poetry competition. The competition invited KS2 pupils nationwide to write a poem on the theme of ‘The Environment’ for the chance to win a top prize of £10,000 for their school as well as a holiday for the winning pupil.

The competition caught the imagination of schools and resulted in entries of such a high standard that SCEMES published an anthology of the pupils’ poems entitled ‘The Green Book of Poetry’.

Following the success of the National Poetry Competition, SCEMES ran a National Short Story Competition on the theme of ‘One World’ in 2008. The competition offered pupils the opportunity to develop their understanding of ‘The Environment’ by placing it within a global context and was met with an even more positive response than its predecessor, the poetry competition.

Hundreds of entries flooded in for the Short Story Competition, which offered a total prize fund of £4,500 for the winning schools and a holiday in Swedish Lapland for the winning pupil, courtesy of responsible travel company Explore!

Both writing competitions provided schools with an easy route through which they could teach sustainable development within the national curriculum and offered a vast range of teaching resources to help pupils engage with issues such as climate change.

The SCEMES National Short Story Competition provided each school that registered for the competition with a free ‘One World’ resource pack, containing lesson plans, worksheets, story ideas and writing tips from famous children’s authors as well as certificates, posters and bookmarks.

Both writing competitions have proved to be extremely popular and rewarding, not only for the schools who have won fantastic cash prizes, but also for all those that have taken part.

SCEMES intends to continue running competitions for schools, to encourage pupils to think about issues surrounding sustainability and to provide real cash rewards for schools and pupils alike.

Supporting Others

SCEMES is committed to supporting poor and needy communities across the world, and takes charitable giving very seriously.

In 2007, SCEMES ran its first National Poetry Competition, inviting pupils aged between 7 and 11 to write a poem on the theme of The Environment. The response to the competition was so good and the standard of entries so high, that SCEMES decided to publish a selection of the best entries in an anthology and donate all profits from the sale of the book to charity.

‘The Green Book of Poetry’ was published in December 2007, priced at £6.99 with all profits going to the Charity, PLAN, one of the largest child-centred community development organisations in the world.

So far, hundreds of pounds have been raised for PLAN through sales of the book on SCEMES’ website and through other outlets and we hope that much more will be raised in the future.