Last Friday I visited the Open Door Centre Café at St Barnabas Church Hall. The busy café offers a great menu, but it also helps raise valuable funds and provides opportunities for its members. The Open Door Centre serves those in Swindon and its surrounding areas with learning and/or physical difficulties and mental health issues, enabling all to reach their full potential. It operates like a hub providing food, support, and activities like trips and swimming lessons; and the Centre has an award winning choir! Open every Friday from 10am-1pm, The Open Door Café is a brilliant opportunity to raise money for a fantastic local charity, with tea, coffee, delicious homemade cakes, breakfasts and light lunches all available.
Yesterday was GCSE results day, with hundreds of thousands of students receiving their GCSE, vocational and technical qualification results, at a time when there has never been a better range of opportunities for young people. The students receiving their results today are the first group in three years to sit summer exams and faced significant disruption to their studies during the pandemic, which is why the Government introduced unprecedented support for students – including longer assessment windows for vocational and technical qualifications – and Ofqual has taken an approach to grading to ensure outcomes reflect a mid-point between summer 2019 and 2021, as we transition back to pre-pandemic arrangements. I want to congratulate all the students receiving their results today and say a huge thank you to everyone who helped them get to this point.
Finally, this week also saw Ukraine mark the 31st anniversary of independence amid the backdrop of the Russian invasion. It was a particularly poignant anniversary given current events with Ukraine’s independence continuing to be threatened as Putin continues his cruel onslaught against innocent civilians. On his final international trip before leaving office, the Prime Minister travelled to Kyiv to stand side by side with President Zelenskyy in a show of strength and solidarity, telling President Zelenskyy his country can and will win the war. We are continuing to back the Ukrainian people as they fight for their freedom, with the Prime Minister announcing a £54 million package of military support to Ukraine – which includes 2000 state-of-the-art drones and loitering munitions.
The Government is also calling for more people to come forward to house those fleeing the war under the Homes for Ukraine Scheme. Thanks to the goodwill of tens of thousands of people, more than 115,000 Ukrainians have been given safety in the UK – and we urge anyone who has the room to come forward and join the biggest offer to shelter people fleeing war since 1946. Locally here in Swindon, we’re playing our part - there’s 74 sponsors in the Borough actively hosting 117 adults and 61 children from Ukraine, with 60 more matched and awaiting their arrivals.
The UK has stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Ukraine throughout the war with Russia, assisting a sovereign country defending itself from Putin’s barbaric and illegal invasion. Supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s invasion is something that unites us all. I am confident that Ukraine will come through this ordeal and achieve victory, and when that moment comes, we in the UK will be even prouder to be friends of Ukraine. Slava Ukraini!
