The Download- Claremont Junior School Podcast
The Download is Claremont Junior School’s fun podcast where our voices are heard! Each episode is packed with stories, laughter, and ideas from our brilliant pupils – sharing learning in exciting and creative ways.
The Download- Claremont Junior School Podcast
The Download- Week 3 SUMMER- feat. Caroline Healey and Sophie McCormick
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Welcome back to The Download as we kick off the summer term with a week full of adventure, reflection and inspiration.
In this episode, we hear about Year 6’s unforgettable residential trip to France — from exploring the Somme to the thrills of Parc Astérix (and even tasting frog’s legs!). Meanwhile, Year 4 head off to PGL for their own action-packed adventure.
We also celebrate the whole school taking part in the London Mini Marathon, promoting health, fitness and teamwork — and give a special shoutout to Mr Ferguson for completing the London Marathon alongside thousands of runners.
Our character quality this month is Patience, and we explore what it means to wait, persevere and show self-control in our everyday lives.
🎧 Special Interview:
We’re joined by Caroline Healey and Sophie McCormick, who share their incredible experiences working with communities around the world and supporting children through their work with Save the Children. An inspiring conversation about kindness, resilience and making a difference.
☀️ Plus, important summer reminders and a look ahead to another exciting week at school.
Hello and welcome back to the download. And welcome back after the Easter holidays. We hope everyone had a restful break. The summer term is always packed full of exciting events, trips, performances, and opportunities. And we've already launched into it in style. There's been adventure, sport, reflection, and a new character quality for us to explore. Let's dive in.
SPEAKER_06And then there was Park Asterix 2, which was amazing.
SPEAKER_05History, courage, and roller coasters. Quite a combination. Trips like that often create memories for life. And while Year 6 are back, Year 4 are heading off on their PGL this week for full-on few days of adventure. Climbing, teamwork, challenge, and probably a little bit of mud.
SPEAKER_03PGL always sounds exciting because you get to try things you might never normally do. And lots of those activities need teamwork and trust.
SPEAKER_02That links quite well to our character quality this month.
SPEAKER_05It certainly does. This month, our character quality is patience. Patience can mean waiting your turn, showing empathy, persevering when things take time, and using self-control when something doesn't happen straight away. A few questions for our listeners at home. What have you had to be patient for recently? What is worth the wait? Would you always want to get what you want immediately?
SPEAKER_06Sometimes waiting can make something feel even more special.
SPEAKER_11Patience can be hard, especially when you're excited. But often the best things take time.
SPEAKER_05Very true. There's wisdom in waiting. This week we also all took part in the London Mini Marathon, promoting health, fitness, and participation as a whole school. What a brilliant atmosphere it was.
SPEAKER_11It felt really special that the whole school was taking part together.
SPEAKER_02It wasn't about being a fast gift, it was about joining in and pushing yourself a little.
SPEAKER_05Exactly. And a huge well done to Mr. Ferguson, who ran the actual London Marathon at the weekend, alongside 60,000 runners. An amazing achievement. This week we're joined by two very special guests. First, Caroline Heedley, a Claremont alumni whose career has taken her across the world, improving healthcare for communities and supporting children and families. And alongside Caroline, we've got Sophie McCormick, Vice President and former trustee and volunteer for Save the Children. They're also both part of Isha Planters, helping bring Bloom back to the High Street, and we'll hear even more about them next week, too. Caroline and Sophie, welcome to the download.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_05Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Um, to begin with, uh, what inspired each of you to do the work that you do? It's a big question that, so apologies.
SPEAKER_07Well, I I was at Claremont. I I'm not going to say when, but it was a very long time ago. Okay. And I think I had a brilliant politics teacher, and she really taught us about the wider world, what goes outs on outside of the game, beyond France and Europe and into Africa. And then when I was a bit older, I started working in marketing, and that was really interesting. But I had the opportunity to do what we used to call um an overland tour from London through to Malawi. And we set off in a begba truck.
SPEAKER_00Oh, great.
SPEAKER_07For three months, and we set off from the Brompton Road in London, and we drove all the way down from London through France, through Spain, and into Africa. And then we drove across Sahara.
SPEAKER_05Wow.
SPEAKER_07Um, and we went through Nigeria and Cameroon. I have to list them like this. And we finished up um in Kenya, and then I went to Tanzania and I finished up in Malawi and I flew back from there. And then all these countries, and I just had all these different exposures. And some were good, we had some real adventures, some are really scary, being held up with guns. I've been hungry, drained, it's you know, all these different things were thrown at us, but it was just magical. And when I came back, I I thought I don't want to let this go. I want to continue working, if I can, overseas. But I don't necessarily feel it has to be in like France or America or Australia or something like that. I'd probably like to go back to Africa or even Asia and see see what's watch, really. And that was it. So that's it.
SPEAKER_05Fantastic. What an amazing journey. I can just imagine that getting the back of a van and driving all the way there. That is a long way. That is a real long way. Um the same present to yourself.
SPEAKER_08And for me, no, I'm different from Caroline because Caroline has been doing this work around the world as a career all her life. I was a teacher and I was an educational research. That was my career. Um, so you know lots of teachers. But when I was your age, it really was, I was your age, I suddenly realized I was a very privileged girl. I lived in a nice house. I went to a nice school. She served in high school, not very far.
SPEAKER_05Oh, just down the road we had up and down. Yeah, lovely school, yeah.
SPEAKER_08Um, and um I had a comfortable life, and I started understanding that there were many children around the world that didn't have what I had. And I realized that perhaps there was something I could actually do about it. And when I was eight years old, I did my very first fundraising event and I did a little uh store. I baked some cakes with my mummy, and I went around her house and with a friend and collected things together, and we had a little stall in the street, and we sold some sold the things. I then sent it to the the money to save the children, and I sent a letter to one of the little um magazines. In those days, we have a magazine called Bonte and Judy, and I don't think they probably exist. They are actually not. They they were the magazines that we we we used to have, and I was star prize, and my letter got the star prize, and I won more money, and so I gave that money to save the children. That sort of scarfed here, my whole interest. So, whatever else I've done in my life, Save the Children has always been there at the back of this. I'll tell you more about that.
SPEAKER_05Well, that's really cool. And we do uh we do lots of kind of fundraising stuff uh here at school, don't we? Um raising Friday. Yeah, fundraising Friday. We try and do it every week, don't we? Year six summer store. Year six summer store. We've got that coming up soon, absolutely. So, yeah, there's um we we know what that feels like, that kind of the great feeling we get from raising money for charity. So, yeah, we can definitely uh relate to that one. Fantastic. Thank you so much, ladies. Um, I'm gonna pass it over to the digital explorers now, uh, and I believe you guys have got some questions for us here. Um now remember, or I'll just pause that. Um uh remember if you've uh listened to the answers, um, if you do think you've kind of got something else to add, you can always add to it, okay? It's conversational, okay. Um, Leandro, can I ask you just to sit still? Okay, I know the sun's in your eyes a bit, buddy. If you need to move, why don't you come over here, all right? I know you haven't got scripts, but just try and keep still for me, buddy. All right. Okay, um, I'll gotta coat you guys in then and I'll come over to you then, Sophia, first, alright? So over to our digital explorers for some questions.
SPEAKER_04What do you do when you volunteer to s for Save the Children?
SPEAKER_08Okay, um, two things. Um one of the really important things is telling people about what Save the Children does and why they have to do it. So we call that work advocacy work. That sort of thing is about telling people about the charity. The other big thing, of course, is fundraising, which you've been involved in doing. And one of the big things that I did was I set up a national tennis tournament, and we had thousands of players in schools and clubs and all sorts of organizations across the country, and we used the All England Club in Wimbledon for our finals, and we raised over 20 years, we raised two and a half million pounds.
SPEAKER_05Wow. That's good.
SPEAKER_08And that was two and a half million pounds, and that was with lots and lots of people taking part. Nobody was actually giving a lot of money, but lots and lots and lots of people were giving a small amount of money, and that meant that we ended up at the end of the day raising a lot of money and also telling a lot of people about saved children and getting them interested in the work.
SPEAKER_06What kinds of problems oh what kinds of problems do children face that save the children tries to help fix?
SPEAKER_08What a big question. What a big question. Do you know that 273 million children in the world do not have access to school? Now, how many children do you think live just in the UK?
SPEAKER_05How many do you think? Let's have a guess, shall we? How many children do you think?
SPEAKER_03Six sorry, no.
SPEAKER_05I don't how many saying sixteen million? 16 million.
SPEAKER_0816. 16. Around 16 million.
SPEAKER_05That was very good. Yeah, well done.
SPEAKER_08I think it's probably about 15 and a half, but let's call it 16. That's fine. That's really good. Well done. So can you imagine what that means when I say 273 million don't have access to schooling? And a large, large percentage of that, they don't even go to school at primary school level. So that's one thing. Right at the heart of what Saver Children does is they go to look to try to support the most vulnerable children. And the belief is that it's every child's right to be able to have a home to live in, food to eat, and to be able to go to school. And it's every child's right to have the opportunity to become the best they can of themselves. And that's what Save the Children tries to do. Now that's that's a very big ambition, but we do it in all sorts of different ways. That's what we try to do.
SPEAKER_05We spoke about that in PHSE before, haven't we, with regards to rights of a child and what we have rights to? Uh and and Save the Children help support that, uh, to make sure that every child has the right to all those things that we get here. Tipper, thank you. Great question. Uh who is next?
SPEAKER_04What has made you feel proud in your work, helping others?
SPEAKER_05Oh, proud in your work, okay. But um, who would like to take that one?
SPEAKER_07I'll go. I'll have a go. I I think for me, I really like to see a job well done. I I like to see the the results. So one of the things I've been very much involved in is supplying medicines, drugs, and other health equipment down right down villages to very basic um hospitals. And one of the nicest things I I did, or one of the most I don't know, one thing that really affected me was that we were asked to supply very basic blankets and cots for babies and also drugs for children at little village hospitals. At the it's right down in the community. So we really we bought the drugs for the patients and the hospitals, but we got these hospitals working, whereas before they hadn't had any patients because there were no medicines and no equipment for them, and so the nurses and the doctors couldn't work there. Because we were able to supply, you know, things like blankets, as I said, cots, um, you know, baby clothes, everything, medicine, it meant that people felt confident and safe going to those little hospitals, and the doctors and the nurses would return to support the local community.
SPEAKER_05So lovely.
SPEAKER_07Yeah.
SPEAKER_05I can't imagine it really, can we, that if we went to the doctors here, um, they've got medicine for us. You can get them quite easily. If you've got a pain, you can go and speak to somebody about it. But there's thousands, millions of people in the world that don't have that accessibility, that they don't have the option to go to their local doctors. And so uh having people uh like that to be able to support and maintain the community is really vital, uh really important jobs. So, yeah, really lovely. Um police do, yeah.
SPEAKER_08Um you will have heard about the terrible wars that are going on at the moment around the world. And one in six children live in a war or conflict zone. And one of the things that organizations like said the children do is they provide survival kits. And these survival kits are for those people who have been displaced from their homes. That means they've been forced to leave their homes and they are on the road just traveling with what they can carry. Or they've had their home bombed and it's been destroyed, but they find themselves with nothing. They have got nothing apart from what they can carry. And these survival kits we have survival kits for families and for individuals, just for children. But a family kit, for instance, will have a very simple tent-like thing. It will have simple things like um soap and basic food stuff, very simple, usually dried. One of the things that's used a lot in in good nurturing, nutritious food, nut-based things. Um, like peanut butter peanut butter type thing. Plump peanut. Plump peanut, exactly. Plump peanut now is a bit old-fashioned, but it's something else that that that is similar to that. But you can keep a baby alive who is a point of starvation or baby swallow child alive called point of starvation, with just seven pounds worth of plump peanut, and they can you can keep them alive for a month. And that's all they have, and water. So it's those sorts of things to give people something to survive when something catastrophic might be war or it might also be a natural disaster. And I'm sure you're doing a lot about climate change here. Climate change is happening, making many more disasters, natural disasters happen. And when they do happen, they're worse than usual. Yeah. Um so those are the sorts of things as well that I'm really proud that we can do. We can actually do something to help immediately.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, and that's yeah, really important, isn't it? It's that immediate help. We're getting it. So what could we do exam?
SPEAKER_08Like now, it's not no good in a month.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_08It's it's gotta be then and that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_08And so you have to have a very big organizational structure to be able to make sure the right staff is in the right place. And ready, and very often we we have disasters forecasts. So if like something is you have to know that it's likely something is about to happen. Um, especially with flooding and things of that sort. Um and you can make sure that you have mobilized the materials into the right place so that you can get them out, you've got your teams ready.
SPEAKER_05Wow, yeah, yeah. That's um yeah, really life-changing that's and that is a matter between life and life and death, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, we um great question. Thank you so much. Who's next? Just let you know we've probably got about another ten minutes to go though. I didn't say again. You don't want you don't need it? I don't need it. That's okay, that's fine, that's right.
SPEAKER_02Can I ask a question?
SPEAKER_05Uh yeah, Leandre. Well, I think uh Emma's next, okay? So Emma's and your your question's here, isn't it? That's perfect. Hold on to it, alright? Emma's gonna go next and then we'll pass the fact. Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, guys. Thanks. Emil, over to you, buddy, for your next question. Thank you so much for being patient.
SPEAKER_03What is it like travelling to different countries for your work?
SPEAKER_07Um, what is it like? Um it's I was going to say it's different every time. Um, and I think one other word that I mainly like I've picked up from today's patience. Um no country is the same. So every country is a bit different. So you can expect a different experience every time. And some countries are very relaxed. Like I used to live in Uganda and coming into Uganda, it's like coming home. It's uh I I don't really, it's very English in some ways, so I don't I I pack obviously, but when I arrive, it's all very easy and hassle, I'm going to say hassle-free, but also very welcoming, it's familiar. But if you go to somewhere like Nigeria, um it's beautiful country, but you know you need a very complicated visa, you have to um fly there, you have a very complicated, you know, you know, when you come into a country and you go through customs and everything, that can take a long time. It's quite difficult or quite complicated to get from the airport to the hotel. And Nigerians are lovely, lovely people, but they're very upfront. So Ugandans are much more English in style, so they're quite reticent or quite polite. Whereas I'd say Nigerians are are in your face. Great fun, but but you have to learn to work alongside that and different cultures, and you have to, and it's up to you to recognize the culture and learn about the culture and the art of the culture, and um just adapt yourself. So, you know, patience and adaptability, flexibility. Um But I every co I've loved every country I've worked in, and I've traveled a lot of countries, I've even worked in America, and I'd love that. So, you know, it it it's it's always different, but I always say it's a really positive positive experience.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I think that's definitely something that we should all aspire to to have. That kind of going off and exploring different places and experiencing different cultures is really important for our learning as well as where we go to afterwards. So, yeah, maybe some you never know, one of you guys could be going off from teaching in America or going off and doing another job uh in a different country uh soon, I'm sure. Andrew is going, that's a long time away. Um okay, cool. Thank you. Um next question then, guys. Andrew, did you have something to ask? Oh, go on then, Andrew. Sorry, see you, thanks.
SPEAKER_12Oh when you travel to different countries, you obviously have to communicate. You can't just go there and be silent. So, how do you adjust to the different languages when you travel?
SPEAKER_07Oh, really good question. Um, yeah, really good. I I don't know about Sophie, but I I have I d I can speak some French, but not very well. But I one of my I'm afraid to say, but I am not a terribly good linguist. So um I've tried to learn where I can. Um, but it doesn't come easily to me. So sometimes, quite quite often, um, there will be someone who can translate. And sometimes we've worked in English, fortunately for me. And what they do in somewhere like I don't know if you've heard of heard of Rwanda, where they speak French and English and the local language, that when they do um like a presentation, sometimes what happens is the presentation will be either in English, French, or key um Ki Rwanda, and then the speaker will speak in a different language.
SPEAKER_03Wow.
SPEAKER_07Yes, so you have to concentrate because you know the three or four languages going on at the same time, but somehow you you mobble through.
SPEAKER_02That's impressive. That's really impressive. Can you tell us about a place you visited and that you'll never forget and why?
SPEAKER_08Yes, I have that. I have that. How many of you have ever heard of the film Um Slum Dog Millionaire?
SPEAKER_05Never heard of that one?
SPEAKER_08Nope. Oh, okay. Well, one day you might watch that film. And that film is set in one of the slums outside a city in India called Mumbai. And I had one trip where I was being taken around number of, I mean, millions of people live in slums around the main cities in India, and particularly around Mumbai and around uh Delhi. And I was being taken around schools and and slums. Some of the slums are organized, government-organized places where they have buildings, they have electricity, they have basic facilities and so forth. But there are millions of people living in what we call unregulated slums. And most of these people they don't even have a record of who they are because they've never lived anywhere. And they have built these places themselves in the most horrible place. They go on to rubbish tips. And you know what a rubbish tip is like, you know what it smells like. And they scavenge what they can, and they use bits of this and bits of that to try to build themselves some shelter, and they go around looking for things like um bottle metal bottle tops and little bits of metal and bits of glass, and they try to sell those to raise a little bit of money. When I visited the ones actually was used was used to film and the the um slumdog millionaire. Um I I was we arrived and all you could see was mud. I mean just sludge and mud. And in that sludge and mud there were loads of animals while I mean sort of they were not being farmed or anything. And the animals and the dogs and whatever were just doing all the things that animals do in the mud. And babies, little toddlers, who were completely naked, were playing in the mud as well. And it it was just horrible. When I went there, I was told I must have a hat on. I must in a lot of these places have to dress very carefully. I had to have every part of my skin covered. If I put my hands and arms up like that, you wouldn't see me at all. I'd be absolutely covered in flies all over. And so I had a a sort of a boil thing across the front of her thing. It was horrendous. But within that that place, so the children had set up a very simple clinic, and they had set up a very simple school to try to get people to meet some of the people, and when they went into the clinic, they were able to register who they were, so they got the names down of who the people were. Um and it was it was like human beings living in worst conditions and most adamantly. And that's where millions of people in some parts of the world live. And it was just more shocking than I can describe and actually you could possibly believe. But in any of these things there's hope. And out of all of that, you know, people do manage to survive, and they do manage to make something of themselves and a life for themselves. So there is hope, but they need help. And that that is that's one of the worst places in this world I have ever visited.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, okay. Um Yeah, it makes us very grateful for the homes that we have, uh that um uh and the beds that we have in in our houses, isn't it? Yeah, absolutely. Thank you.
SPEAKER_10For save the children, do um like people go around the world and like when they see people who need like a survival kit, um, do they just give it give them to them?
SPEAKER_08Well, it doesn't quite work like that because we have so it's it's an international organization. So we work in 150 countries around the world, and we have staff who are working there uh the whole time. Um and most of those members of staff are people who are trained, they are local people. So they're part of their own local communities. It's not like people from America or Britain going and working there. Most of the people who do the work there are are local people. Um, and they will always be aware of what's happening and what people need. Um but there are lots and lots of aid organizations and organization, the work of uh that Caroline has done identifies new places where people need help and different ways that they need help. So they may need immediate survival. Well, often people know about a disaster or know about a conflict. Always many of the times they do. Um but then there are places where people can't the climate's changed and they can't actually grow crops and they got nothing to eat. We got to help to provide extra food for them. And then there are things like big diseases or COVID and things of that sort, where we had to go and help to protect them. So we have to try to take vaccinations out to these people to help them survive those and all sorts of diseases they have and help to stop that spreading to other places. Um so there's a big there's lots of different people around looking and watching. And yes, it's a good question, very good question. And there is a big structure of people who are trying to do their best to identify for body. But probably there are lots of people we don't reach, but we do need health.
SPEAKER_07And that's that's why the m the work is so important that we do reach those people because he's helpful, he may be falling through the net.
SPEAKER_11So, Caroline, you said you um kind of were camping when you were travelled. What was that like?
SPEAKER_07Horrible. We we when we set off, you know, you're you you there was a group of us and I I I had to share a tent with someone called Eric, who was a but a Dutchman, and we got on really well, but we very quickly realized that we couldn't share a tent together. And um and I think everybody realised they couldn't share tents. So as soon as it was warm enough, and initially it's freezing, so we all stayed in our tents. But we we were given these sorts of cup I can't describe it, camp bed, which are basically two, if you can imagine, two cope hangers, quite rigid cope hangers, with a bit of canvas stretched between and about that much off off the ground with this, and I remember it was a green canvas, incredibly not really very comfortable. So as soon as we could, what we did was we slept outside on these green sort of cope hanger beds, and then we hung mosquito nets over trees so that we were under the mosquito net on these sort of camp beds with our sleeping bags. Nice, so that that was and then we had and then we had to make fires every evening and cook our own food. We did have supplies, and then one of the things I I was put in charge being a quartermaster, so I was in charge of going out and buying food with my friends, going off to the market to trying to source what we could. And just as Sophie was saying, sometimes there wasn't really any food, so I had to rely on stuff that we, you know, tin soup and stuff like that. Yeah, well. So it yeah, it was it was a complete new experience for me. Did you have to hunt or did you have like food? Didn't I know in fact we did not? And couldn't you know? No, no, no. And I don't think we even really fished for anything. I think we uh we were either vegetarian because there was nothing. You just had the supply. We went to the market, yes. We didn't do anything. How far was like the market? Um well when we were driving through, we try and drive through villages, so the the the market so you can pick up stuff like on the way to your next book. But they weren't shops, they were proper markets. So cool.
SPEAKER_05It was it sounds really good, yeah. Fancy doing that. She's gonna go off and candy in a van.
SPEAKER_09Maybe with my like own bed.
SPEAKER_05Oh yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_09But I think I would like go outside, probably.
SPEAKER_05Well, ladies, thank you so much for joining us today. I really appreciate uh your time here today. So thank you so much.
SPEAKER_07You very well. Thank you for the questions.
SPEAKER_05Before we finish, a few reminders as the weather gets warmer. Please apply suncream before school on hotter days. Keep a school cap in your bag just in case, and make sure you're drinking plenty of water. And a reminder, too, that exams are taking place across the school. So please move around the site quietly and in an orderly way, showing respect for those who are working hard. As we begin this summer term, remember, good things often take time. Patience helps us grow, adventure helps us learn, and kindness helps communities flourish. Keep going, keep trying, and keep encouraging one another. Thanks for listening to the download, and we'll see you next week.