Jodie Chesney memorial bench

03 Mar Jodie Chesney memorial bench

Jodie Chesney memorial bench

On Tuesday we were delighted to welcome Peter Chesney into school to talk to us about Jodie’s story. Jodie Chesney was a valued member of our school community from 2012 to 2017.

Unfortunately, Jodie lost her life to knife crime on 1^st March 2019 shortly after leaving us. As a school we want to remember Jodie’s story.

A memorial bench has been placed outside the school’s North entrance, there is a QR code on the bench which leads you to a web page which gives more details about who Jodie was, I encourage you to find out more.

Jodie was a fantastic, well respected student who was hard working and engaged in many activities whilst at JRCS. She achieved her silver Duke of Edinburgh award and played the piano.

Her death in 2019 shocked the whole community, the impact of her death affected her friends, family and the whole community.

If students understand the devasting consequences that carrying a knife can have, it is my hope that those who were thinking about it may be deterred.

As a school we want to remember Jodie’s story and celebrate her life. I would like to thank Jodie’s father for coming in to talk to the students in what was a thought provoking and moving assembly.

Our student voice team for press and publicity have written an article that I have included in The Seagull.

Ms Keane

Headteacher

JRCS honours Jodie Chesney

On February 28^th The Jo Richardson Community School honored former student, Jodie Chesney, through an assembly led by her father Peter Chesney, as well as through an unveiled bench dedicated to her name.

In this assembly Mr Chesney told students about her life and how she lost her life to a silent stabbing on March 1^st 2019.

Her friends and family described her as wonderfully weird, so much so that the bench that was made in her honour had words engraved on the back that read ‘weird, wacky and always wonderful R.I.P’.This added a touch of who Jodie really was to this lovely memorial.

It was a Friday night and Jodie had planned to meet up with her friends and her boyfriend after college at Amy’s Park in Harold Hill, Romford. She and her friends were listening to music and joking around until she was unfortunately stabbed by a drug dealer, Svenson Ong-a-Kwie.

This was an upsetting case of mistaken identity as she was thought to be a rival dealer.

At the unveiling of her memorial bench there was our Head Boy Bobby, Head Girl Tia, our Deputy Head Girl Summer the Young Mayor of Barking and Dagenham Zubin , Councillor Kangethe, Mr Wainaina, Executive Director of Youth League UK, Ms Keane, our Headteacher, and the entirety of the Student Voice Action Team, fundraising, press and publicity. Our newly appointed Executive Prefects Ryan, Julia, Aishaand and Kira also attended.

Jodie was a bright outgoing woman who loved and cared for everyone. She brought a smile to everyone’s faces with her amazing personality. Her father describes her as a proud geek who took her education seriously, she loved all her subjects but had a passion for photography alongside Psychology and Sociology.

We are honored to have been involved in this lovely way of commemorating Jodie. In doing this we hope we have spread awareness about the severity of knife crime. May Jodie rest in peace.

Article written by JRCS Press and Publicity team.