Family Day at Amberley--Mini to Maserati!

This years Family Day out at Amberley Working Museum will be held on Sunday 30 July, the day of the Museum's Classic Car Summer Picnic.  Over 200 classic cars are expected to be on show.  The Paviors Prize will be awarded to the best turnout as judged by the drivers.

The museum opens at 10am.  All Paviors, their families and friends are invited and, by kind permission of the Museum, entry is free.  Visit the Paviors Museum of Roads and Roadmaking and many other historic displays.  See age-old crafts at work and ride on a vintage bus and on the narrow-gauge railway.  Bring a picnic or lunch in the Limeburners Cafeteria.

The Museum's Education Centre ('The Base') has been reserved for the Paviors' use. E-mail Robin Wilson <rlwconsult@compuserve.com> with the names in your party.

Robin Wilson

Tower Hamlets and the Livery    One of the tasks that I inherited from
Terry Rochester on joining the Charity Committee last year was that of liaising with the Tower Hamlets Education Business Partnership (THEBP), which is a charity that acts as a link between business and the large number of schools in this needy London Borough.  Over the past three years, the Company has provided £6,000 to Our Lady's primary school in Limehouse to assist with the purchase of facilities for extramural activities and we will be responding again this year.

Terry and several recent Masters have been keen to expand the Company's involvement with the THEBP and on a recent visit to their Director, Mike Tyler, I learned about the various possibilities.  These are well summarised on their web site at www.thebp.org.  The charity exists to raise motivation, aspiration and achievement amongst the pupils, the majority of whom do not have English as a first language and for whom the world of work is distant and unknown.  THEBP have been very successful in attracting both funds for investment in a variety of school projects, which could not otherwise have proceeded (currently about £800,000 per annum), and in facilitating the involvement of business and professional people in the schools' activities, to assist both staff and pupils in various ways.  The transformation in performance of pupils in public examinations has been very significant since THEBP was established in 1991, but much remains to be done.

They have a number of schemes under the banner of 'Employee Volunteering in the Community', which include running mock interviews for groups of pupils, assistance with job applications, mentoring pupils to gain confidence in seeking opportunities, serving as school governors and the provision of support to head teachers.  Some companies have also run multi-school projects on a particular theme.  Mike Tyler reports that to date, nobody from our Company has taken part in any of these schemes.

The commitment of time can be very flexible, from as little as an hour a month to more regular, longer weekly sessions.  It is clearly much easier for people working in the City or Docklands to be able to help than those of us who are more remote.  The purpose of this note is to raise awareness within the Livery in the hope that some volunteers may emerge.  Anyone who would like further information should contact me in the first instance.

Stephen Brown