Blue Sky Thinking

Blue sky and sunshine greeted us as we made our way to the July meeting of Newark Business Club at the YMCA for a 6.45 am start.

After the welcome from the chairman, Simon Gabbitas, the roving mic was passed around the room, giving around 80 businesspeople the opportunity to introduce themselves and their businesses.

20/20 – Table Challenge set

Today’s meeting was sponsored by the Children’s Bereavement Centre, the only charity in this area dedicated to helping children cope with the loss of a loved one. Rachel Wilson, the charity’s fundraising and marketing manager, said, “Although the Children’s Bereavement Centre is celebrating its 20th birthday this year, the birthday celebrations are bittersweet because demand for our services has never been higher, with over 1,000 children aged between 3 and 18 being supported in the past year.”

The vast majority of the Children’s Bereavement Centre’s funding comes from donations from local people and businesses. An example of local business support is that from Scott Wrigley, owner of local business Wrigleprint, who is completing 20 challenges to raise £20,000 for the Children’s Bereavement Centre in 2023. It is going very well, with Scott having just completed his 12th challenge. If you would like to support Scott, go to his Just Giving page.

An emotional video included one of the first children supported by the charity 20 years ago. He is now an adult and spoke of how the Children’s Bereavement Centre helped him to get through a very difficult time after his father died and how their help in dealing with his grief prevented future issues.

The Children’s Bereavement Centre introduced their new campaign – The Accumulator. Based on the TV series, The Apprentice, it aims to sign up 20 companies, give them £100 each, and challenge them to turn that money into at least £1,000, with a target total donation of £20,000 to celebrate the charity’s 20th year. Among those taking part in this challenge are a group of young entrepreneurs – primary schoolchildren Jude, Seth and Elliott, who set up a tuck shop selling delicious homemade chocolate chip cookies and sweets at the end of meeting, with the proceeds being donated to the Children’s Bereavement Centre.

This year, the trophies for Newark Business Awards were designed by joinery and air and space students at Newark College, with the frames being provided by Framin’ ‘Ell – another example of collaboration between local organisations and businesses. The Club were delighted that so many winners could join us and show off their trophies.

A round table discussion followed. The questions for discussion were: What opportunities are your businesses seeing at the moment? What challenges are your businesses facing right now? Each table wrote down their responses, recording an overview of the opportunities and challenges of businesses in Newark.

Charity of the Quarter

Daniel Otton of Buttercross Estates introduced the Charity of the Quarter Initiative under which three charities are invited to present at the next meeting of the business club, with everyone present voting for their favourite charity and the winner receiving a donation of £250 from the club plus £250 from Newark Round Table. The three charities that will present at the August meeting are Headway, Framework and Mary Elizabeth Siebel Charity. There was a call for other charities not already on the list to be nominated for future inclusion

A special announcement followed – Penny Taylor, head of Newark College and the Air and Space Institute, has been awarded an MBE for her services to education and employment, making a difference to the lives of the young people she guides through further education in Newark.

Highfields Nursery is open five days a week during school term time and offers a full day from 7.30am until 6.00pm accepting children from the age of 2.

Highfields main school starts with Reception for children turning five and goes up to year 6. We prepare children for common entrance or 11+ entry to senior school at the age of 11.

At Highfields our aim is for every child to attain their potential, which we achieve with small class sizes, specialist teaching and dedicated learning support.