Charities and Leadership Opportunities
CHRISTMAS CHARITY APPEALS
The school is having an appeal to raise donations on behalf of two local charities to support local families over the Christmas period: Reading Family Aid ‘Toys and Teens Appeal’ and the Whitley Community Food Cupboard. Both charities seek to provide for families and young people in the local area. As a school we have been working with the Whitley Food Cupboard for some time and are one of the charity’s biggest supporters. Last year we had a similar appeal around Christmas for Reading Family Aid and you can read more about the Toys and Teens Appeal here: https://www.readingfamilyaid.org/toys-teens-appeal.html
It would be wonderful to have the support of the whole school community in contributing gifts and donations, however small, to make a real difference to the thousands of people locally who are in need. There is no expectation that everyone has to make a contribution, but if you are able to support in any way, that will be hugely appreciated. Lists of items that would be suitable/unsuitable to donate for each of the two appeals have been shared with students in school. More detailed lists can be found on the Reading Family Aid website following the weblink above, but in summary:
Reading Family Aid:
Suitable items include: most toys; stationary; most books; toiletries; bags; hats, scarves, gloves.
Unsuitable: used or damaged items; soft toys; school or religious books; electrical items; CDs/DVDs; clothing; very large items.
Whitley Community Food Cupboard:
Suitable items include: non-perishable food items (pasta, tea/coffee, tins, cereals, pasta sauces, packet soups, cooking oil); Christmas treats (selection boxes of chocolate, nice biscuits); cleaning products; toiletries.
Unsuitable: perishable items and foods with allergens (e.g. nuts)
It is also possible to make a donation to the Food Cupboard via the School Parent Pay system.
The aim is for donations to be brought into in school by the end of this week: Friday 29th November. However, the donated items will not be collected from school by the charities until Thursday 5th December, so we are still able to accept donations at the beginning of next week.
There is also an event in school for KS3 students (Years 7-9) in the Main Hall at lunchtime on Monday 2nd December. This will be a lot of fun as the students take on various mini-challenges. Students will have the opportunity to make a voluntary donation at that event too.
Many thanks for your support with this appeal. Once again, any help you can give will make a real difference and is very much appreciated.
Mr Simmonds and Mr Hodge
Activities and Events
We have a strong relationship with the Whitley Food Cupboard, a food bank local to us. We are their only regular supporters, having supported them since December 2022, and enable them to help many local people and families. We have already raised over £2000 and countless boxes of supplies. As well as having regular collection windows and food drop offs, we have recently organised a hugely successful charity game show where we are very pleased to have raised massive food and monetary donations!
We also fundraise for various local charities during our annual Kendrick Fringe Fortnight, last year we supported the Royal Berkshire hospital and this year it will be Berkshire Women’s Aid. And in the spring we support Comic Relief too!
Below are some examples of our charity initiatives:
Gift Drive for the Children's Ward