Beaudesert is once again supporting a number of different charitable causes this year and, in so doing, we hope to have foster in the children the importance of helping those less fortunate than ourselves.

We have supported some national events such as the British Legion (at our Remembrance Day service), Children in Need and MacMillan Cancer Support (by taking part in the world’s biggest coffee morning).

The OSCAR Foundation in Mumbai (Organisation for Social Change Awareness and Responsibility) came to visit us and tour the UK.  Their patron Lucinda Sowerbutts, a former parent, conceived and organised the tour. The school took part in various fundraising events and as a community raised £18,670 to bring over 14 boys from the most underprivileged area of the world to come and take part in a football tour.   The main fundraising event was the Big Beaudesert Dribble – where pupils, parents and staff gathered sponsors and donned trainers to dribble footballs the total 4, 543 mile distance that lies between Gloucestershire and Mumbai.

We continue to support the Stroud Foodbank, a local charity which provides food for people in crisis. As a school we collected food for our Harvest Festival service and during the Spring term some Year 8 girls helped at the foodbank each Tuesday during activities. Every week they would either sort food into categories and dates, clean furniture, sort bed linen and curtains and sometimes do some filing in the office.

The children themselves helped with a number of specific charities including the James Hopkins Trust, Read for Good campaign, Heart Felt Tips, Home Start, Marine Conservation UK, Winston’s Wish and Changing Faces.

We continued our on-going collection of sports kit for children in Africa and ring pulls from cans for Philippino adults to enable them to make items such as belts, bags and bracelets to raise money for their children’s education.  In March we were lucky enough to receive a talk by Jo Ruxton from Plastic Oceans. This certainly inspired many of our children to think about the problems surrounding single use plastic and promoted them to change their own behaviour and attitude towards recycling at home. The school donated £500 to this worthwhile cause.

The Beaudesert Autumn Charity Fair was well supported yet again and raised £10,000 for Mind (Swindon and Gloucestershire branch).

We continue our link with Widden School, a primary school in Gloucester awarded in recognition of its work with asylum seekers and refugees as a School of Sanctuary, with reciprocal visits for Year 4 children. We hope that this link has given all the children involved the chance to understand a little about the lives of other children from different backgrounds and faiths.

Thank you to all the children, parents and staff for their enthusiasm and on-going support.