'Catch them before they fall'

 

This term, some of our students attended the Longford Trust Annual Lecture, at Church Hall in London. As part of our partnership with the trust this year, our students helped facilitate with ushering guests and supporting with collecting donations during the reception. Students also designed the programme for the evening.

 

The lecture kicked off with journalist and Longford trustee Jon Snow who introduced guest speaker Mina Smallman. Mina is the first female Church of England archdeacon from a black or ethnic minority background, a former prison chaplain and secondary school teacher. In 2020, two of her daughters, Nicole and Bibaa, were murdered in a north London park. Their killer received a life sentence. In December 2021, two Metropolitan Police officers who took photographs of the murdered sisters and shared the images to social media were jailed for 33 months. The theme of her talk was ‘Catch Them Before They Fall’, a plea for early intervention to stop young people getting embroiled in the criminal justice system, and for forgiveness.

 

Woodhouse student Anjola told us “I found Mina Smallman's lecture very thought-provoking as she addressed how we must address issues at home to prevent crime. As a sociology student, I found this lecture linked well to topics we are studying in the college, itbroadened my knowledge on what we must focus on - prison reform to end the cycle of crime. Smallman's lecture taught me that forgiveness is something you do for yourself and not others.”

 

Fellow student Angelica agreed “I found Mina Smallman’s 'Catch them before they fall' lecture captivating and inspiring… I couldn’t stop listening."

 

And student Cadessa commented "The lecture was insightful in providing information about how the Longford Trust promotes justice. Smallman's talk was very engaging and informative about how she dealt with her situation."

 

 

The team at The Longford Trust sent us the following message… “On behalf of The Longford Trust, I would like to thank you and your staff and particularly your students for helping us out so effectively at the Longford Lecture last night. You have some brilliant young people: they were helpful and polite and willing to hand out programmes and newspapers, to direct people to their seats, to hand around our Annual Reports, and to take charge of the collection buckets and card machines. If that wasn’t enough, in a quiet time one even asked me to please give her something else to do! The Longford Trust team relied on your students and they really helped us. Thank you. Phoebe, Pearl, Cadessa, Anana, Daniella, Anjola, Angelica, Hannah, and Beth were a credit to their college. Woodhouse College was an excellent school partner for us.”

 

 

Principal Sugra Alibhai said “A huge thank you to the team at The Longford Trust for this wonderful opportunity, to the students who helped on Tuesday, to the art students who designed the programme and to Philip Smith who helped organise this opportunity.”