Lower Sixth Residential trip to The Shewsy

This week, members of the Lower Sixth travelled to Everton, Liverpool to spend time at The Shewsy, deepening their understanding of one of Shrewsbury’s most important and enduring partnerships.

Founded in 1903 by Shrewsbury School teachers, The Shewsy provides vital opportunities, mentoring and community support for young people living in Everton. For over a century, pupils and staff have travelled north to volunteer, learn, and build friendships, and this latest visit once again demonstrated the power of connection, empathy and shared experience. Pupil’s share their experience of the trip below.

Jack L (LVI, O)

Visiting the Cairn’s Street and the Winter Garden Community Centre, which is part of the Granby community-led housing project, showed the power that communities can have. They have transformed vacant, derelict properties scheduled for demolition into 45 residential units to create a vibrant local community with below-the-market housing rates, addressing the need for affordable housing. The project is seen as a successful model of community-led, piece-by-piece urban regeneration, offering an alternative to large-scale, often unsuccessful, development interventions.

After visiting the housing project and seeing the Nelson Mandela memorial in Princes Park we returned to the Shewsy to help out at the junior club which was very fun. We played games such as football and pool as well and helped them with arts and crafts. It was great to see how much the fun the children had and rewarding to help out. The leadership of the Shewsy staff and the care they showed was inspirational and each child was provided with a hot healthy meal too.

Eliza H (LVI, G):

On Wednesday we were all fortunate enough to be able to visit Liverpool school of medicine where we were given an insightful talk by the head of medical admissions and the deputy, Who explained to us what we should expect when applying to medical school and the process that this would involve as well as Liverpool’s teaching program/curriculum. This gave me a much more developed view of what I should be doing two best my chances of going to medical school. Following this, we were given a tour by two students at Liverpool medical school who were in their fifth year at the university. All of the staff and students that we met were very welcoming and answered any questions that we had.

Once returning from the medical school five of us joined the walking bus where we picked children up from their school and bought them back to the Shewsy. This then led into circle time where we each (including children and staff) shared our best moment of the day. After the children had eaten their dinner, we separated and divided to be spread among the children doing a range of activities from football to arts and crafts. this was so much fun for everybody involved and everyone left with a sense of fulfilment and having enjoyed themselves a lot.

Clara McA (LVI, EDH):

I can’t say thank you enough for the incredible experience everyone at the Shewsy provided for us. From Julie’s delicious meals to Lorraine’s exceptionally comfortable accommodation we were so lucky to feel so at home and welcomed.

Also a huge thank you to Nicola for showing us Toxteth, an experience that will never be forgotten and of course thank you to Vicki Parker for organising such a once in a life time opportunity, we are so privileged to be able to experience the incredible hard work that takes place at the Shewsy. 

Whilst on our visit to Everton we were invited to the local General Practice were we met Dr Abrahams. Here we learnt and discussed the drastic health inequities that are so prevalent in Everton and other parts of Liverpool. It’s safe to say that Dr Abrahams was an incredibly inspiring doctor who certainly opened our eyes to the wider matters in the health care world. 

We also took part in socialising with the children at the Senior Club in the Shewsy. These kids were so much fun to chat to, we played cards and many games of football accompanied by lots of laughs and smiles and no so much football skills from myself. It was so incredible to interact with kids just like us with such different backgrounds and expanded my views on our society as a whole.