By Mrs Johnson, Charities Co-ordinator

Firstly a big thank you to everyone who has donated or given their time to help our charities activities this term. We have raised over £4,000 alone this term. Thank you!

Year 10 – Supporting Crisis

On Friday the 2nd December the Year 10s hosted a Christmas fair to raise money for Crisis. They sold baked goods, hot chocolate, pick ‘n mix and had a variety of different activities varying from bean bag throw to nail painting and temporary tattoos at the event which featured Christmas music and a very festive atmosphere. Year 10 also ran a bake sale, sold candy canes and held a Christmas movie lunch in the main hall where gingerbread, pizza, drinks and other Christmas snacks were sold as students enjoyed a showing of “The Grinch.” To date, they have already raised a fantastic £500+ for Crisis.

Year 11 – Supporting The Felix Project

Year 11 raised £505 for their chosen charity, The Felix Project in the first half of term. We received lovely feedback from the charity which had been able to feed 2,250 children a meal as a result. 

Mencap Festive Fete

On 5th December we invited guests from Mencap to our Festive Fete organised by our Year 10s. It was a lovely festive afternoon for all involved – read more here.

Stationery Collection

We heard back from the local branch of Care4Calais who took donations from our recent stationery collection. Many of our donations will be included in Christmas parcels for the hundreds of asylum seekers and refugee children they support in West London. Other donations have gone to individual Ukrainian refugees (one of whom was especially thrilled as she loves art and now has a lovely art box and sketchbook), while some are going to a Primary School in Southall and a small box is heading to a Primary school in Kenya through charity Just Be a Child.

Christmas Cards for the Log Cabin

Beautiful Christmas cards designed by Naya C (Year 12) and Lisa B (Year 8) are on sale in aid of The Log Cabin. Packs are available to buy on Parent Pay.

Student Christmas Cards for Age UK and Ealing Care Homes

Thank you to all the students in Years 7,8,10 and the Junior school who produced wonderful Christmas cards to be enjoyed by older people living in the Ealing area.  120 cards will go into the hampers produced by Age UK Ealing and the rest have been distributed to Chestnut lodge care home, St David’s and Blakesley House where Year 10 students sing to the residents on a weekly rotation. Thank you to all who contributed to our Christmas Hampers for Age UK in Ealing recently.

Christmas Jumper Day at NHEHS

Tuesday 13th December is Christmas Jumper Day at NHEHS. For a donation of £2 (either on Justgiving or in cash) all students can wear their Christmas jumpers with all money going to The Log Cabin and Care4Calais.

Care Squares

Thank you to all our knitters who have been creating blanket squares for our two chosen charities this winter: Ealing Soup Kitchen and Project 240. The many colourful squares are currently being sewn together and the completed blankets will be distributed by the two charities.

Volunteering

We were delighted to have three stalls at the Christmas Bazaar on December 3rd to raise money for The Log Cabin. Over £400 was raised through the sale of Christmas cards, which were designed by students, Christmas themed sweets and also through Christmas themed games. The games included Pin the tail on Rudolph, Lucky Dip and a ‘throw the 50p’ game.

It was lovely to see so many of the Charity reps in the different years volunteering and enjoying running the stalls.

Tree planting

As part of Year 10 enrichment last week, a group travelled to Blondin Park to help with litter picking, mulch shovelling and tree planting. The group cleared up most of the litter in the park and were pleased to plant six new trees.

Chestnut Lodge Care Home craft afternoon

Another Year 10 enrichment class travelled to the Chestnut Lodge to do crafts and speak with the older people in the care home. One of our students said of the afternoon, “although at first we found it a little difficult to communicate, everyone soon became more confident and had a fulfilling afternoon learning about their experiences in life and hearing the resident’s advice. We created some artistic masterpieces including colouring sheets and butterfly projects whilst others enjoyed playing games such as bingo to lighten the atmosphere. Spending time with the seniors in the care home was an eye-opening experience as we were able to gain a greater appreciation for the luxuries we live with now and were able to get in touch with people from previous generations.”