Festive Giving
The whole community has been involved in numerous volunteering, fundraising and social action initiatives this term.
Founder of Mitzvah Day, alumna Laura Marks CBE, returned to thank the school community for their commitment to social action as pupils packed up vanloads of donations for our local JW3 foodbank and the Children’s Book Project. Families also kindly donated interview outfits to Smart Works, who support unemployed women to change the trajectory of their lives, whilst our Sixth Former volunteers continue to help at Spear Camden, supporting 16- to 24-year-olds facing significant barriers to employment by preparing them for work – a powerful partnership that has been running since 2018.
Each week, our pupils spend hundreds of hours volunteering. This term they have supported our local Maggie’s Cancer Care Centre; given and wrapped hundreds of gifts for St Raphael’s Family Wellbeing Centre and Norwood, who support neurodiverse children and their families; baked cakes for single mums at The Winch; delivered oracy skills sessions at local primary schools; and helped out at a range of community initiatives through their participation in the Duke of Edinburgh awards scheme. As part of our Think Global, Act Local initiative, Year 8 have joined online sessions with pupils from our partner school in Rwanda; together, they are learning about product lifecycles and the environmental impact of materials that can’t be recycled, as well as coming up with solutions.
Fundraising initiatives for our school charities this term have included sales from our House Bake Off, non-uniform days and even a sponsored haircut – last Friday, the aptly named Mr Barnett (Head of Potter and one of our Philosophy & Religion Teachers) donated his lengthy tresses to the Little Princess Trust, who provide real hair wigs for young people with medical-related hair loss. A popular raffle, to win the chance to snip off his ponytail at a very popular lunchtime event, raised funds for our school charities as well as Macmillan Cancer Support. Thank you to the whole community for their incredible support and generosity.