Our work with the Comino Foundation

The Hathershaw College is delighted to be working with The Comino Foundation.

Comino supports innovative practice, social opportunity, personal capabilities, and practical, technical, and vocational capabilities.

We have already hit the ground running with 8 exciting projects and collaborations.

One of the projects is The Poet in Residence project led and coordinated by Mrs Akhtar.

It is an opportunity for our students to collaborate with cultural organisations and most importantly work alongside a Poet. Bringing poets into the classroom to model their enthusiasm and talent for reading and writing poetry is a powerful way to empower students to explore their abilities as well as visit the Manchester Poetry Library and central library. The theme for the project focuses on the personal legacies, origins, and aspirations of our year 7 students. Combining content from their recent Ancient Origins module, the medium of poetry and the maps collections, and content from the Family History Society with the Central Library, the aim is for students to create a variety of poetry. Our ethos for this is “Shoot for the moon and you’ll land amongst the stars”. As a collective, we want to empower our young people to express themselves regarding either their personal or family origins or their aspirations and dreams – their worlds, and their futures.

Comino Foundation is a national charity which ‘seeks to improve social opportunities for young people; by helping them develop their personal and practical capabilities to unlock their potential to live fulfilling and prosperous lives.’

Since 2013 Comino Foundation has funded the North West Comino Consortium (NWCC), a ‘Community of Practice’ of Greater Manchester schools, businesses, and charities who work in close partnership with the Foundation to deliver projects which are designed to help NWCC school's diverse community of young people to thrive.

At the heart of our work is a belief that learning experiences developed through partnerships with people and places beyond school have the power to motivate and inspire young people and to nurture the social, cultural and career capital they need to face the future with confidence. Many NWCC schools sit in areas of high disadvantage, where cohorts of pupils particularly benefit from the personal and individualised creative, cultural and career development our carefully curated projects offer. We are hugely excited to add Hathershaw College to our community this year, and have already been inspired by the joyful curiosity with which pupils embrace the opportunities on offer.

We are incredibly proud of the inspirational partners we are able to bring to our community of schools; and look forward to engaging Hathershaw pupils and staff from all areas of the curriculum in working with many of them in the years ahead. Here are just some of the partners staff and young people have been able to work with over the past 12 months:

• MPs James Frith & Christian Wakeford and Houses of Parliament

• The Royal Opera House & Royal Ballet

• Royal Society of Arts (RSA)

• McCann Manchester Advertising Agency

• Royal Horticultural Society, Bridgewater

• Heritage Crafts Association

• Paul Hamlyn Trust

• University of Cambridge

• Avanti Trains

• The Manchester Poetry Library

• Ideas Foundation

• Patrick Grant and Community Clothing