by Philip Miles (Basketmaker), Chairman of LIvery Schools Link (2007-08)

The Basketmakers' link with Notre Dame R.C. Girls' Secondary School began in 1998 when Livery Schools Link's predecessor organisation, LOGVEC, put the Company in touch with the school so we could see how best to work together.

The first project was to sponsor the school's new Certificates of Excellence in Art and Technology, donating picture frames engraved with the Basketmakers' Company's coat of arms to display the award winners' work.

We then moved on to financing tuition and sourcing materials for Basketmaking classes which the school decided to offer as an option for the Duke of Edinburgh's Award Scheme at Bronze Level, for those aged 14 or over. The first course was run in 2000 with a programme of fourteen two-hour sessions working in a variety of materials and techniques. It was a great success and has been repeated every year since. Each summer the school holds an end-of-course party for the girls, their parents, the tutors and the Prime Warden of the Basketmakers who presents a certificate and a small gift to each girl and delivers an address, telling the girls about the role (both ancient and modern) of the Livery.

As well as the practical skills of the craft itself, girls can learn about the history of basketry and thegrowing and harvesting of the materials, thereby bringing history, geography and the environment together in their studies.

The teachers report that the girls noticeably improve the development of concentration skills and take pride in their work because they engage so well with the subject-matter and materials. They can then apply the skills and knowledge that they have acquired in the rest of their school work, to the benefit of all.

When the Pewterers' Company indicated that it was considering support for a school, the phone call came quickly. A Church of England primary school in North London was in dire straits, with a failed OFSTED inspection and languishing in Special Measures, any help would be invaluable.

That was in the late 1990s and the school has moved on and, indeed, been rebuilt. No longer are there rats in the building nor are the children's loos outside in the playground. But there are still great needs, which the Company can meet. After school activities need sponsorship and Livery Companies are in a unique position to help children get to know their own City. We make sure, for example, that the top class is always introduced to Shakespeare through a visit to the Globe on Bankside. Children from Year 5 are always invited to Pewterers' Hall on Lord Mayor's Show Day. Indeed, one year the Company, the school and City of London School for Girls worked together to provide a float called Pewter in Harmony

We have also taken the opportunity to see how the school might benefit from other Company activities with the result that we help finance and take groups of a dozen or so nine year olds out of London each summer to spend a long weekend at Whirlow Hall, a residential farm for inner city children in Sheffield which we support. Set between the outskirts of the City and a National Park it provides hands-on experience for the children who, as the Head reported, have "quite frankly the time of their lives".

The Pewterers' fellow at UCL Institute of Neurology also works with us to enable the school to participate in the RCUK National Science and Engineering Week each year, enabling the children to conduct a day of experiments with a group of graduate scientists.

There is always scope for individuals to help in the school and a member of the Company who attends each week works on literacy with groups and individuals as well as producing school plays and running the Poetry Club, one of the after school clubs so important in modern school life.

For this school there is now a positive, if as yet hazy, understanding of the Pewterers' Company and the City. When Special Measures were lifted, we offered to mark the achievement and, at their request, this took the form of a beautiful pewter Cross which takes pride of place in the School Hall. Moreover, in the entrance hall of the school there is a wall of individual pewter plaques, made by the children under guidance from Company members.

The Mercers' Company has long supported projects that are aimed at raising the aspirations and achievements of pupils in London Maintained Schools, especially those in challenging areas. However, the Company in its discussions with Inner London headteachers realised that one-off grants are less effective than those where projects can be evaluated over a period of time so that they can become sustainable (i.e. without Mercers' funding) and replicable in other schools.

The Company therefore established its London Schools Network in 2005, initially supporting a group of 12 Inner London Primary, Secondary and Special Schools in running projects on a small number of educational topics. These are selected (and reviewed annually) on the basis of those priorities identified by school heads that it is felt are important for pupil progress and that are unlikely to be resourced from mainstream school funding. Such priorities have included (current ones in bold):

Literacy (particularly with targeted groups e.g. boys, or members of a particular ethnic group, or at a particular age e.g. Key Stage 3):

• Science and Technology in Primary Schools;
• Parent and Community Support for Learning;
• Enrichment opportunities for pupils from deprived backgrounds;
• The Arts in Primary Schools.

Annual grants average £5000 to £6000 per annum, funded from the Mercers' Charitable Foundation. Each school has to put forward a project proposal, with expected outcomes clearly identified. The programme is approved by the Mercers' Education Committee, and the year's budget is allocated (there are between 12 and 20 projects running at any one time). The school receives a termly monitoring visit from someone from Mercers to check progress, and then at the end of the school year (usually early July), all the schools meet for a conference at Mercers' hall and give a short presentation on their projects to each other, to members of the Mercers' Education Committee, and to other attendees from schools, Livery Companies and Educational Trusts.

Schools can then assess how the projects run by other schools might work for them and good practice can be 'rolled out'. The impact of the programme has been very encouraging, with specific references in OFSTED reports to the benefits gained by pupils from several of these initiatives.