Longford Trust Sixth Form Lecture, Church House, Westminster

The school works closely with the Longford Trust who are a UK charity dedicated to prison reform and social rehabilitation. Its core mission is to support serving and former prisoners in rebuilding their lives through higher education scholarships, university degrees, mentoring, and career guidance. Each year, the Trust holds its annual lecture in Westminster, bringing together leading thinkers, policy makers, and campaigners to promote open, national debate on justice, ethics, and social reform. The Longford Trust have a long standing relationship with Ruislip High School and visited the school last term to deliver an assembly about their core vision and their success stories.

Ruislip High School were honored to be asked by the Trust to support and attend this year’s annual lecture in Westminster. Ten social science students from year 13 attended the event with Mr Noble and Miss McLoughlin where they undertook the role of ushers, aided visitors and contributed to the smooth running of the evening. The students were also able to attend the lecture, highlighted by a talk from Charlie Taylor, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons. This talk was an invaluable opportunity for the students to hear first hand the reality of the UK prison system and to understand real-life stories and challenges that happen each day inside UK prisons.

In addition to assisting on the evening, sixth form students were asked prior to the event to design the evening’s brochure. Freya, year 13, one of the attendees on the evening, designed the brochure, along with other year 13 students, and it was delightful to see Church House, Westminster full of attendees, all holding this brochure.

Sara, from the Longford Trust, emailed the school after the evening:

“I just wanted to say how fabulous all the students were last night. They are a real credit to Ruislip High, so polite, enthusiastic, helpful, and willing to help wherever needed.

They were brilliant from start to finish and made such a difference to the evening. Please pass on my thanks to all of them. I hope they enjoyed the experience! The brochure also looked excellent and I hope those who helped design it were happy with the finished product!

Thank you again to you and the students for giving up your evening to support us. It was very much appreciated."