By Mrs Johnson, Charities Co-ordinator

As we near the end of term we are delighted to announce that our total funds raised for the year have now topped £17,500 with some donations still coming in! This means we have raised more than in the previous academic year. Thank you so much for your continued generosity and support of all our charities and volunteering initiatives – it is very much appreciated.

We have been busy with charities activities both here in school and in the local community in June.

Last week our Charity Reps led a fantastic assembly on the importance of charitable and volunteering work, sharing all our initiatives and fundraising news over the year with the senior school. 

The Reps were also busy last weekend on our Sunflowers for Ukraine stall at Pitshanger Party in the Park, where they sold handknitted / crocheted blue and yellow flowers in aid of Unicef in Ukraine. We have now raised over £3600 for the charity.

Thank you to all the Big Sisters and Little Sisters in Year 7 and Year 12 for your enthusiastic participation in the Pitshanger Park Sponsored Walk on June 10th, raising money for the work of The Harrow Club. We were blessed with a lovely sunny afternoon. All groups managed to achieve two laps of the park and several groups were well on their way to completing three laps! (10K in total). The final sponsor money total was £795 which will be match funded by a local business. We received this thank you from the Harrow Club:

“I wanted to write thank you so much for donating the monies raised from your sponsored walk to the Harrow Club.  We are currently finalising plans for this Summer which will include taking up to 100 young people away for a week away on a residential trip where they can participate in sports and activities to which they might not otherwise have access. This trip is often the first holiday the young person has ever had. So, your donation will be allocated to the Summer Holiday Fund and we will feedback to you after the Summer on the content and output of our Summer Holiday Programme.”

The whole of Year 10 recently planned and delivered a party for the young people who attend the afterschool centre at The Log Cabin, Ealing. Each Year 10 chose an area to prepare: decorating, indoor and outdoor games, party food and the play. Well done to Year 10 for being so welcoming and preparing such a lovely party for our guests. They enjoyed crafts, pass the parcel, egg and spoon races, sports games, drawing with jumbo chalk, bubbles, musical statues, singing along with instruments, a superb party tea and a fun rendition of Cinderella to finish. Each guest also left with their own party bag. The Log Cabin manager emailed to thank Year 10 for the party. The children had a great time and Year 10 were very attentive and encouraging to the children despite the difficulties that many of them have.  The Log Cabin are already looking forward to visiting again next year. 

On the afternoon of Tuesday 28th June, 12 Year 10 students held a Garden Party at St David’s Care Home. The residents enjoyed an hour of simple craft activities, listening to students perform musical and poetry items and joined in with the choir signing many of their old favourites including ‘You are my sunshine’ and ‘We’ll Meet Again’. There was also a lot of lovely cake enjoyed by everyone, all made by the Year 10s. Well done to the Year 10 group for interacting so nicely with the residents of St David’s. They really appreciated the group coming over to spend time and chat with them. One resident proudly told the students that she was 97!

We received this thank you from St David’s Activities’ Manager, Sandra:

“To NHEHS. The residents absolutely loved the garden party.  So a great big thank you.   Please come back anytime.” 

Students have also been continuing to sing and entertain residents at local care homes Blakesley House, Chestnut Lodge and Downhurst Residential Home.

At the end of June, 14 students who have different responsibilities for social concern and charity work in school planned and ran an event for refugee children living in a hostel near Hayes high street, working with Care 4 Calais. The children were already excitedly waiting outside the hostel for our students to arrive. As there is no communal living space in the hostel, all activities had to take place in the car park. Fortunately the weather was hot, which made the water races all the more enjoyable!  The children enjoyed crafts, parachute games, races and stuck in the mud. We hope to arrange another visit soon, helping the children with reading, English and go over simple Maths skills.  

We have been running a Shoe Collection for Care for Calais in West London. Thank you for the donations! Donations for our other recent drive (sewing) will also be going to Berrymede primary school in Acton to help with their sewing club.

There’s still time to join us if you would like to run with our amazing staff-parent team at the Ealing Half Marathon in September – we will be raising much needed funds for The Log Cabin, one of our local designated charities. It’s not too late to sign up via our Google Form here.