We are pleased to share with you Together We Can, our latest summary of partnerships activity from the last year.
The school is committed to making a positive impact in our community and Together We Can is a celebration of the different ways in which we seek to make a difference.
Our thanks go to the many charities, organisations and schools who have made all of this possible and we are grateful to the members of the Norwich School community who have shown a true dedication to helping others.
As ever, if there is a way in which the school could support a community partner, we would encourage them to be in touch with us.
More information about our current partnership projects can be found by clicking here.
In this week’s episode of Impromptu Business Chat, James and Mark chat about the benefits of sleep for business leaders and their teams, and share 3 top tips on ways to improve the quality of our sleep. They discuss what does and doesn’t work for them, and along the way refer to Ruari Fairbairns and Andy Rammage of One Year No Beer, Jon Kabat-Zinn of Full Catastrophe Living fame and The Lion Sleeps Tonight by Tight Fit! If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Whilst you are there, please like us, and leave a comment. We would love to hear what you are enjoying about the podcast, and it helps others to find us!
Member offer – The Fritton Arms Hotel from £75 per night.
The Fritton Arms is please to offer Norfolk Chamber members special corporate rates
Finalist Best Independent Hotel in 2018 Norfolk and Suffolk Tourism Awards.
A boutique hotel and restaurant set in beautiful parkland on the banks of Fritton Lake, part of Somerleyton Estate. A selection of bedrooms which are elegantly furnished and comfortable with goose down pillows, soft cotton linen and luxury bathroom products. Exceptional food and surroundings with activites on the lake. Ample complimentary car parking. Close to Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft. Just 35 minutes drive from Norwich.
Bed and Breakfast Monday to Thursday £75 per night, based on a single occupancy.
Dinner, Bed and Breakfast Monday to Thursday £100 per night, based on single occupancy.
Kevin Baker, a driver on one of the Norwich Park and Ride buses operated by Norse Commercial Services, recently received praise for coming to the aid of a female passenger who had collapsed.
Laura Campbell, who was twelve weeks pregnant at the time, got onto the 17:00 bus to return to the Park and Ride site at Norwich Airport.
As Kevin’s bus drew into the site Laura collapsed; she had become overheated and her blood pressure had dropped to a dangerously low level.
“The bus driver was ever so helpful and lifted me up from the floor and sat me down on the nearest seat until I had recovered,” Laura said, “and he even offered to ring my husband on my behalf.”
“Unfortunately I never got this bus driver’s name at the time and I would really like to pass on my thanks and gratitude for acting so swiftly and professionally. He gave excellent service and helped me when I needed it, and I can advise that my 12 week scan the next day revealed that the baby is fine and has a good strong heartbeat,” she added.
Paul Bonham, Commercial Director at Norse, said; “Kevin’s quick and caring reaction is typical of our drivers’ customer service attitude. It is not the first time that he has received praise from passengers for his helpful, ‘can-do’ approach and we are extremely proud to have him as a member of our team.”
“We are also very pleased that Laura and her baby are doing well and hope she continues to have a happy and healthy pregnancy.”
Due to the situation regarding the coronavirus, as a business owner your team may be working from home for the time being. With less social interaction and face to face support in the workplace during this time, it’s vital to look after your mental health as well as your physical health. Now more than ever it’s important to ensure that your team are looking after their own mental health too.
So how can you support the mental health of your team while working remotely?
Keep in touch with your team and let them know that you care. Understandably, your team may be feeling worried and anxious about what the future may hold. You can help to ease these feelings of uncertainty by staying in touch and letting your team know that you’re there should they need support.
Encourage team collaboration. When working from home, there can be a tendency for communication to drop off between your team as they’re no longer seeing each other face to face every day. Encouraging your team to utilise technology such as video conferencing means that they’re still able to work collaboratively and maintain a level of social interaction.
Read the mood of your team and be aware of negative mood change. It’s completely normal for people to experience mood changes during periods of significant change. Tuning into the mood of your team and looking out for signs of negative mood change can help you to adapt your communication and provide the appropriate levels of support to the employees that may need it.
Listen out for distress and struggling in things people say and in their tone. Some members of your team may feel comfortable openly talking about their feelings. However, others may have a tendency to keep their emotions bottled up and try to deal with them themselves. Be alert and listen out for distress and struggling in the things that your employees say and their tone.
Look out for behaviour changes. Is a team member replying to emails in the middle of the night? Or have you noticed on a conference call that an upbeat team member is unusually quiet and upset. This may indicate that they’re struggling and may need additional support.
Use your instinct. When you work with your team every day, you get to know them. You should therefore trust your instincts – if someone in your team doesn’t seem quite right, have an honest conversation with them to find out if there’s anything you can do to help.
Promote any support that is available. If you provide support services for your team, ensure they know how to access them should they need it and that they’re clearly signposted so they know that help is available.
You may be well accustomed to having your team work from home, or it may be a brand new experience for you. However, making sure that you’re staying in regular contact, prioritising mental health and maintaining a positive work life balance are steps that can help to ease the pressure of remote working.
By Eugene Farrell, Mental Health Lead at AXA Health
In this week’s Business Insight Chat, Ian Fitch talks to William Coe, managing director of Coes, an independent company of department stores, who have been trading since 1928!
This chat offers an incredible insight into how a prominent local business has learnt, and continued to grow during a tough time for retail, and is not to be missed.
William speaks openly about a variety of issues that the business has had to deal with during lockdown, stating that the first lockdown “Couldn’t have been worse timing for clothing businesses”
He speaks candidly about the initial worry over suppliers not trading; how being told they had to cease trading might impact them paying their suppliers; the potential decrease in demand for some of their top products; planning ahead for trends and events (such as weddings) that may never happen; the frustration over how some businesses suddenly popped up as ‘essential traders’; the rollover of stock, and much more.
William also discusses the acceleration that COVID has had on how shop-based retail is adapting to technology and habits, and what this means for the future of the high-street. He offers fascinating insights into what he thinks businesses, councils and the government need to do in order to preserve the high street, including a focus on business rates and VAT; and what can be done to invest in Ipswich in particular.
He also reflects on the positives of the last 12 months, and how he has learnt to ‘fail quickly and learn fast’, and how his team have shown great resilience. He discusses how they improved their online offering, transferring what customers experience in store, online; and how they plan to keep their stores and website working together, and not in competition, post-COVID.
You can listen to Business Insights Chat on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Subscribe now to make sure you don’t miss out on the next episode with Mark Ferguson from Castle Colour Packaging.
MHA Larking Gowen is pleased to support the Every Child Online campaign, spearheaded by Norfolk County Council and the Norfolk Community Foundation, with a donation of £3,300.
The campaign was launched in January 2021 to make sure every school age child in Norfolk has a digital device and internet connection, so they can embrace online learning from home.
Claire Cullens, chief executive of Norfolk Community Foundation, says, “As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, our young people are having to learn from home, which is hard enough without a teacher and friends alongside you. But it’s impossible if you don’t have access to an appropriate computer or connectivity.
“So far, the Every Child Online campaign has delivered nearly 4,000 devices to Norfolk schools, with more on order, to ensure that every school age child will have the technology they need.”
Businesses and individuals have been asked to donate money to the campaign, so that new equipment can be bought, or to donate pre-used equipment, which can be refurbished. The devices are provided to schools who distribute them to the children in their cohort who need them.
Whilst the campaign has achieved massive success since its launch, there’s still some way to go. “We’re continuing to uncover more and more need, with many of our young people still struggling with online learning because they don’t have proper access to a suitable computer or tablet,” adds Claire. “For example, we spoke to one teenager who was having to wait for her mum to return home from work so she could use her smartphone to get online. This is simply not fair.”
Julie Grimmer, managing partner of MHA Larking Gowen, comments, “Providing support to our local communities is a key part of our ethos as a business and we’re always looking for ways to help. Every year we employ trainees straight out of sixth-form, so we understand the challenges that young people face. These challenges have been hugely exacerbated by the pandemic and subsequent closure of schools and colleges. We’re proud to play a part to make sure that no child in Norfolk is disadvantaged because they don’t have access to the technology they need for online learning.”
If you’d like to make a donation to the Every Child Online appeal, please visit the Norfolk Community Foundation website. Alternatively, please make a cheque payable to Norfolk Community Foundation (referencing the Every Child Online campaign) and send it to Norfolk Community Foundation, St. James Mill, Whitefriars, Norwich, NR3 1TN, or telephone us on 01603 623958.
MHA Larking Gowen, chartered accountants and business advisors, is pleased to announce the launch of their new podcast series, Tourism Business Chat, where tourism specialist, Chris Scargill, interviews successful business owners and leaders from the tourism, leisure and hospitality sector throughout Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex.
Each week, Chris’s special guests share the challenges their business and the sector overall are facing; what they have learnt from the last year; and how they plan to structure their business in the face of lockdown challenges, and beyond.
The tourism, leisure and hospitality industry is a key sector in the East Anglia economy, and has faced huge disruption during the COVID-19 lockdown. Being in business can be a lonely place, and this open discussion will hopefully help those in the sector plan for growth, as the region aims to rightfully hold its place as a key destination for visitors in the UK.
In the first episode, Chris Scargill talks to Andrew Hird, General Manager at Woodland Holiday Park, and Chairman of Visit North Norfolk Coast & Countryside. They discuss how it’s important now, more than ever, to have cohesion with local DMOs; how this is essential for promotion; and how businesses must work with the residents in their community.
Andrew also highlights how a potential downturn in the high street could mean that the skills of those workers can transfer into the tourism sector and help such a vibrant and crucial part of the economy. Andrew believes that recruitment is key, moving forwards, and emphasises that “meaningful careers with good pay are available if you work hard.”
Future guest, Philip Turner, from Chestnut, echoes this, with the hope that one of the positives that will come from lockdown closures will be a change in how people view careers in the sector; “There will never be a greater opportunity for us to find people who will look at the hospitality sector through different eyes.”
Chris hopes that these conversations will inject some much needed optimism into the sector. In light of the recent government update regarding the roadmap out of lockdown, he believes that the reflection of these leaders is invaluable to others.
Chris said: “One of the underlying themes of each of the conversations I have had, has been a passion for the sector. These inspirational business leaders have a love for what they do, and not only do they want to get back to normal, they want to remind people that their capacity to trade successfully is not only important to the economy of the area, but also to the wellbeing of their staff, their customers and our communities.”
These conversations are a unique insight into the thoughts and processes of some of our region’s key sector leaders, running hugely successful and renowned businesses. Their insights are invaluable for anyone thinking of getting into the sector, or for those already leading their own business, looking to the light at the end of the COVID tunnel.
Digital marketing agency, Bigfork, were appointed to improve Advanced Metalcraft’s website. The company’s expertise is in steelwork and architectural metalwork and they required a website that both showcased their work and supported tenders. Strong photography was used to visually show what Advanced Metalcraft do and the high quality of their work and a new projects page highlights the range of expertise the company has. Health and safety is the highest priority in the construction industry and all Advanced Metalcraft’s certifications and policies had to be easily seen in the new website. With a SilverStripe content management system, Advanced Metalcraft can easily update the website inhouse.
As part of their Go Digital programme, Norfolk County Council have launched a Suppliers Portal which promotes digital tech suppliers and training providers to micro, small and medium sized businesses based in Norfolk.
The portal will;
Promote Norfolk digital tech suppliers and training providers to local businesses
Provide businesses with a tool to find the right supplier for their digital transformation projects.
To sign up, all suppliers need to do is click here to access the portal then click through to the upload form. This is a straightforward sign up process and once completed, goes through a final check from Go Digital and is then made live.
Join the other digital providers already on the platform!
Every day the East Anglian Air Ambulance saves lives across the region.
Being a charity it relies on the support of the public. One way of bringing in donations is through a weekly lottery and it was decided to try and increase participation with a TV campaign on Sky Adsmart.
As the region’s foremost producer of TV commercials JMS was invited to work on the campaign. The advert concept involved an ordinary couple going about their daily lives. Even though they may not work for the emergency services, in their own way they are lifesavers – just by playing the EAAA lottery.
Our shoots always throw up some unexpected challenges. On this occasion we needed to film the air ambulance taking off. However, the EAAA can’t be seen to be wasting fuel so were unable to stage the shot for us. Our crew had to wait for a genuine emergency callout before springing in to action!
On the day of our pre-production recce our chosen residential street location was bathed in warm sunshine. But inevitably come the day of the shoot the street was covered in snow! Did we panic? No! We just enlisted our Production Manager Anna Eastick to clear the bushes with a broom! As for our actors and extras – we had to wrap them in coats between takes to stop them from freezing!
But then, making TV commercials on location is always a bit of a lottery!
AFI KLM E&M subsidiary is delighted to announce the signing of a long-term airframe maintenance contract with Braathens Regional Airlines.
Paris, Amstelveen, Norwich, 16 February 2018 – A European leader in the regional jets & narrow body aircraft market and having an internationally acknowledged expertise on the Boeing 737, Embraer 170/190, BAe146/Avro RJ, Fokker 70/100 & Airbus A320 Family, KLM UK Engineering is delighted to confirm its contract with Braathens Regional.
KLM UK Engineering commenced airframe maintenance checks with Braathens Regional on their BAe 146/ARJ fleet during 2017.
Ian Bartholomew, Director Business Development & Sales commented: “We are delighted to have been selected by Braathens Regional to carryout their heavy maintenance checks. We have been supporting Braathens Regional for the last year and look forward to further developing our relationship“.
Ronny Christiansen, Vice President Support Braathens Regional said: “Having been a customer of KLM UK Engineering’s over the last year, we are very pleased to reach this long-term agreement regarding our heavy maintenance programme. KLM UK Engineering has performed a very good quality of work and great flexibility in order to meet Braathens requirements.”