Once again, it was a good year when it came to our children supporting different charitable causes and projects. As a community, we continued to support and raise money for a wide variety of worthwhile causes and charities. The commitment and efforts shown by the children was superb and we were very proud of their achievements. We hope that their involvement, will help them to foster a lifelong understanding of the importance of helping those who need it.

In the Autumn Term, we took part in ‘Jeans for Genes’ day, raising £404 in support of the charity who work tirelessly to help children affected by genetic disorders. In October, we continued our support of a local charity, the Stroud Foodbank, that provides food for people in crisis. As a School, we collected 402kg of food for them through our Harvest Festival service – a record amount!

In November, with our Remembrance Day service, we continued to support the British Legion raising £284. In support of Children in Need, there was a sponsored silence on the school bus, a ‘Ready, Teddy, Go’ competition and a non-school uniform day which raised £864. In addition, a number of staff across the School took part in Movember, an event involving the growing of moustaches during the month of November to raise awareness of men’s health issues. The support they were shown was amazing and raised a total of £1,760.

Individually over the Spring Term, Emily and Tilly in Year 6 cut and donated their hair to The Little Princess Trust, and Oliver, also in Year 6, raised £130 through a bake sale in his village for the Flying Scholarships for Disabled People, enough for someone to enjoy one hour of flying. Zachary in Year 3, Bluey in Year 4 and Delphie in Reception spent time litter picking in their local community, kindly helping their neighbours enjoy their time outside during Lockdown. We also collected a number of laptops and devices from the community to donate to disadvantaged children, following a plea by St James’s Place Charitable Foundation.

Come the Summer Term, our community certainly started where they left off. In May, parent Perusha Gordon took part in the Great Pacific Rowing Race, as a part of Team Ocean Sheroes, and accepted the challenge of rowing 2,700 miles from San Francisco to Hawaii. Children and staff raised the profile of her challenge by attempting to collectively row the equivalent distance. With the support of parent and Olympic rower Zac Purchase-Hill MBE, everyone spent just over two weeks on six rowing machines. Most breaks and lunches saw children of all ages clocking up the kilometres and through determination and a massive team effort, we achieved the distance as a team. The children and staff certainly did their best to support the incredible achievements of the Ocean Sheroes, helping them to raise over £30,000 for ‘Seabins’, a charity looking to help clean up our oceans from plastic pollution. A fantastic finale to the year! Thank you to all the children, parents and staff for their amazing support.