AKS Lytham awards King Constantine Medal to Molly Turpie

Posted: 10 August 2018

AKS Lytham proudly awarded it’s first ever King Constantine Medal to Molly Turpie for her work on the school’s ‘Bring Me Sunshine’ campaign.

“It is such an honour to receive the King Constantine Medal. Through Round Square, I have had so many opportunities including taking part in both an International Conference and a RSIS Big Build project and quite honestly, I believe it has led to the journey that made me, me!,” says Molly on being given the award at a special Round Square celebration at the school.

In 2016 Molly attended the Round Square International Conference at Aiglon, where Round Square’s President HM King Constantine, challenged students to go back to their local communities and to take up a project that would make a difference, “to cut a long story short, I came back inspired,” admits Molly “I truly believe that going to that conference changed my life and my perspective of how I see the world. I wanted to make change within our community and that’s where ‘Bring Me Sunshine’ started, an idea to mix generations, abolish stereotypes and bridge the divide.”

For their Round Square Anniversary Challenge AKS Lytham worked closely with the older generation within their community to combat isolation and loneliness.

“Our school is situated in the small coastal town of Lytham St Annes in the North West of England, along the Fylde Coast. Lytham is a destination which offers an idyllic place to live out retirement due to the peaceful atmosphere and exquisite landscapes.” Explains Molly “In Lytham St Annes, for every one teenager, there are roughly three senior citizens, many of whom live a secluded or isolated lifestyle due to lack of family which may lead to a lack of confidence.”

Molly helped form a student Round Square Working Party which every week grows in numbers as more people understood the project and the reason we wanted to work with the elderly. “Now, we have around thirty people in our Working Party, with ages ranging from ten to eighteen where everybody’s voice is equal,” explains Molly “Our Working Party is a place where no matter how old or what position you hold in school, your voice is heard on a level platform.”

Although the project is planned and managed by the Working Party, many, many more pupils have been involved along the way; and has turned into a whole school initiative. “Pupils have an awareness of the project and how they can get involved. For some of the events we have targeted specific year groups to continue to raise awareness and recruit further volunteers for our bigger events.” says Round Square Rep Faye Marland. “‘Bring Me Sunshine’ has allowed every young person at our school to have the chance to take part in an inter-generational opportunity with the elderly at the number of different events.”

Since last November, the committee which is made up of Junior, Senior and Sixth Form pupils has held weekly meetings to discuss new ideas and plan events. “So far, we have learnt a lot about working as a team and a fair amount about ourselves” says Molly. “As a new school to Round Square, this was one of the first fully student led projects that we have been a part of. In all honesty, our first few meetings were crazy! This is the complete opposite of what happens now. Our meetings are now organised and run smoothly, with minutes taken each week and everyone’s ideas and thoughts were heard and respected in a professional manner.”

In order to make an impact, the students made strong links to other groups and charities in their community who all share a passion to combat loneliness and isolation including; Just Good Friends, Parkinson’s UK, Dogs for Therapy, the NHS, Lancashire Memories (a group that aims to recover lost childhood memories) and Fylde Borough Council. As a committee, they received awareness training in how to actively listen and communicate properly with the older generation.

‘Bring Me Sunshine’ has organised a huge number of well organised, thoughtful and meaningful community events that help bond the children of AKS with the older generation Lytham St Annes. “In a community with an ageing population, it is mine and your moral obligation to join society because if we don’t then who will?” says Molly “It is so important to give back to our community, to be agents of change and to appreciate the power of a smile.”

“We are so delighted to award the King Constantine Medal to Molly in recognition of all her hard work and dedication to this amazing initiative.” says Faye Marland the schools RS Rep.

Molly will graduate from AKS this summer and hopes to study ‘International Hospitality Management’ at EHL in Lausanne in Switzerland.