Trip to Nottingham 16-19 May 2018

Athol has a conference at the University of Nottingham 17-18 May 2018 so we headed out to Nottingham for a few days. We have been to Nottingham before, but the University is just outside of the city centre so was a while new area to explore.

The Jubilee campus is vast and so cutting-edge with each of it's buildings a masterpiece of its own. There is a beautiful lake in the centre with ducks and swans. Such an amazing place to learn.

We stayed at the De Vere Conference and Hotel on the campus which has beautiful views of the lake.

The University has 3 campuses. I took a walk to University Park which was about 14 minutes away. There was a huge lake.

Such a fun trip!

Walk in University Parks

It was a sunny day in Oxford so we decided to take a walk in University Parks and have lunch on a bench. It's a lovely park in the centre of Oxford. There's a pond with ducks and swans, beautiful walks along the Cherwell River and massive trees. There's even a Tolkien Memorial Bench and Ghandi Plaque. 

READ to RISE goes to Makhado, Limpopo

We are happy to partner with Betting World again in 2018, who have sponsored our class programme for 2020 learners at five primary schools in Makhado, Limpopo.

We visited these schools in September last year.

The Mitchells Plain and Soweto teams headed to Limpopo 15-18 April 2018. It was lovely to see the learners once again. We did our new class programme - Oaky Runs a Race - which is about friendship.

Visiting the Blavatnik School of Government

The Blavatnik School of Government (Oxford University) is not normally  open to the public. Yesterday I attended the Open Day for the local community to come and have a look at the building and amazing architecture. It's only been open for a few years and the building is very modern (compared to the old Oxford architecture) with its circular features and huge glass panes. The two designers have taken some features from the old traditional Oxford buildings such as the Radcliffe Camera, The Sheldonian and the Bodleian Quad. I attended the short talk by COO and Associate Dean who told us about the school and the building. It's really a great space to learn and mingle. There's a beautiful spiral staircase and the centre is hollow with couches on the bottom floor where the lecture theatres are.

There are nice areas for students to work, relax and mingle.

2017

2017 was a really busy year for us!

We went to Paris, Pisa, JHB, Makhado, White River, Richmond, McGregor, Shrewsbury, Nottingham, Much Wenlock, London, Oxford, Cape Town and residency at Nirox Scuplture Park.

We launched two more Oaky books - Oaky the Brave Acorn and What is Happening to Oaky?

Athol published his fourth book of poetry INVITATION.

Read to Rise turned 4! To date we have given out over 92,000 new story books.

We saw snow in Oxford.

Athol graduated (MPhil Political Theory) from Oxford University.

What a great year!

Weekend in Nottingham 15-18 December 2017

Athol attended a poetry workshop in Hockley, Nottingham on Saturday so we decided to make a weekend out of it.

Nottingham is known for the tale of Robin Hood as the Sherwood Forest is nearby. There's a statue of Robin Hood by the Nottingham Castle.

It is a nice vibrant city with tons of shops, even two malls. There are trams in the city. Nottingham has over 500 sandstone caves under the city. Really liked the city. There was a big Christmas market by the Old Market Square, there was a fair and even an ice rink. It was very busy!

This was the Sky Mirror, an art piece by the Nottingham Playhouse.

 There is a lovely canal tow path.

 This is Mortimer's Hole by the Castle.

 Had a lovely breakfast at  Pitcher and Piano, which is a chapel converted restaurant/bar.