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Clifton in the Community

The school has been a major part of the Clifton Community for almost 150 years and in this time has always strived to encourage its pupils to extend themselves to develop their moral and spiritual values. One way of doing this is to work with others in the neighbourhood and face challenges, meet new people and learn new skills with confidence and determination.

Clifton in the Community encourages this by finding Lower Sixth and Upper Sixth students volunteer placements in the local community. These include working with the disabled, in schools, hospitals, on the sports fields, in drama and music performance and with local charitable organisations. We try to ensure that there are a range of opportunities on offer that will suit all interests. There have recently been a number of new and exciting placements, such as those in the Stroke Rehabilitation Centre at Bristol General Hospital, at the Centre for the Deaf, Horseworld, Bristol Zoo, the Penny Brohn Cancer Centre and ward visiting at Frenchay and Southmead Hospitals amongst others.

The involvement with the community encourages students to take on responsibility for others as well as themselves, to learn to organise themselves and to care for others around them. Often students are working with some of the most vulnerable sections of the community, such as the elderly, the very young or with the mentally/ physically disabled. The students require good personal skills – sensitivity and maturity- in order to rise to this challenge. The work that the students do is valued.

The placements that students undertake may be highlighted in their CVs, used to credit their UCAS personal statement and be of benefit to their future careers. It may help them decide on a university course- or even to decide that a particular path is not for them after all.

By taking this section of the co-curricular programme seriously, it is an opportunity for each student to gain a maturity and understanding of the world around them and for the work that others put into our community.

Currently all Sixth formers chose between CCF and Clifton in the Community. Both are challenging and rewarding options.

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