Katie Doney, Chair of TrinityLearning Trustees, and Nicola Williams, Education Development Manager, were very excited to be invited to represent TrinityLearning at a special reception for Nominees of the King’s Voluntary Service Award at beautiful Ditchley Park. There were nine other organisations from the county represented at the event which was hosted by the Lord-Lieutenant for Oxfordshire. 

The journey to get this far has been a bit of a long one – it was around Christmas 2021 that we received the exciting news that TrinityLearning had been nominated for the then Queen’s Voluntary Service Award.  As a result of the nomination, we were asked to fill in a very lengthy form, detailing all the work our many volunteers do, a description of the value they add to children’s lives and some contextual information showing how this work ties in with Oxfordshire’s Children and Young People’s Plan.

Once the form had been received and checked it was followed up by a visit from a deputy Lord-Lieutenant who interviewed a selection of our volunteers to find out more about their experiences of volunteering with TrinityLearning. We then had to wait. Unfortunately, due to the death of Queen Elizabeth II, the application was paused until we finally received word this summer that TrinityLearning’s nomination had been passed to the new King’s Voluntary Service Award.  

We’re almost at the end of the journey now and looking forward to the awardees being announced on King Charles III birthday on the 14th November.