It’s been a busy and fun term of charities and volunteering activities!  Our outgoing Year 13 Charities Reps were delighted to announce that we have raised over £5000 this term for various charities (The Log Cabin, Action Breaks Silence, Macmillan, Amnesty International, Unicef and German Red Cross), with money still being counted from some of our recent initiatives.

Christmas at NHEHS

This year’s school Christmas card, a robin amongst holly, was designed by Petra in Year  with all proceeds (over £150) going to The Log Cabin. We also celebrated NHEHS Christmas Jumper Day on 14^th December with all students and staff from Senior and Junior School giving donations to the Log Cabin.

Our Year 10 enrichment groups enjoyed hamper packing at Age UK in Greenford and carol singing at Chestnut Lodge and St David’s care homes. Year 10 also put on the annual Mencap Christmas Fair for clients of the charity with festive games, crafts, nail painting and music here at NHEHS. The fair ended with everyone singing a few festive favourites accompanied by instruments. We look forward to welcoming Mencap back at Easter.

Our Sixth Formers have also helped out at Age UK with packing as well as delivering the Christmas cards made by Year 7 and 8 for the charity’s customers.  They also enjoyed singing carols with the customers at Age UK where Some of the older people wanted to take a song book home so they could carry on singing the songs with their grandchildren.

Care 4 Calais Christmas Party

The whole senior school embraced the task of buying gifts for the party bags to be enjoyed by the children in the Hayes hotel supported by Care 4 Calais. A Year 10 enrichment group spent the afternoon sorting out all the party bags and grouping them into various age groups, ready for the party. On 6th December 16 students in Years 10 and 13, Mrs Eastwood and Mrs Johnson travelled on the train to the hotel with approximately 25 bags filled with gifts, crafts and games! The children were eagerly awaiting our arrival in the foyer and the visit was extremely busy from beginning to end! After working their way around different festive craft activities, the children joined in with pass the parcel. Some remembered how to play from last time. The end of the party was the moment the children had been waiting for – the party bags! All the bags were given out and the children excitedly looked through the bags to see the gifts they had received. Thank you to everyone for your generosity in buying such lovely gifts for other children to enjoy.

Year 10 Charity – Unicef in support of children in Sudan and the Middle East

This term, Year 10 took part in a number of charity events for their chosen charity, Unicef. The students organised a number of fundraising events, including a candy cane delivery service, gingerbread decorating workshop, a Christmas funfair and sweet/bake sale, raising in total approximately £500.

Volunteering

In November, one of the Year 10 volunteering enrichment groups visited Questors theatre in Ealing to help out with their preparations for this year’s pantomime, Treasure Island. The group divided in two with one half walking to Ealing Broadway and the cricket club to deliver leaflets and the other group remaining in the theatre to help paint the set. Questors were very grateful for the extra pairs of hands to help get everything ready for the panto. We hope to visit Questors again in the new year to help with further production preparation.