So far this school year we have had a fantastic start to our Charity work here at NHEHS. We have raised just over £2000 pounds so far for a variety of charities including the Royal Brompton Hospital, Binti, Young Minds, Crisis at Christmas – just to name a few as a result of the weekly form charity events and whole school initiatives.

We also received some lovely feedback from Ealing foodbank, who were the recipients of our record-breaking donations for Harvest Festival: “On behalf of Ealing Foodbank, I would like to thank the staff, pupils and parents for their very generous harvest donation. The warehouse is now looking much healthier than it did which means we can continue supporting those Ealing residents who sadly need to visit a foodbank. Please be assured that all donations will find a good home. Thank you very much.”

We would also like to say a huge thank you to our Year 13 Charity Reps, Sriya, Sharuka, Priya, Karen and Fatma who have worked extremely hard in their Charity Rep roles this year and made such a difference. We also look forward to working with our new Year 12 Charity Representatives – Emily, Maia, Ellie and Vanessa this year to continue with the amazing charity work here at NHEHS.

Updates on our main charity projects

Last term our Ealing Mencap events coordinators met to discuss our first charity event we will be holding for the people Ealing Mencap committee supports. The team consists of 11 students in Years 7-9 as well as our three Year 10 volunteering representations who have been working extremely hard to come up with a fantastic and fun event. They have decided on a fun fayre activity session which involves jewellery making, mindfulness colouring and origami, board games, watercolour painting as well as cake decorating and photo booth fun! Watch this space for updates on our plans

We are also excited to see the Digital Developers Project with Ealing Mencap taking shape. Following the fundraising application process, the successful candidates will visit the Ealing Mencap HQ every fortnight and will then become an integral part of developing the digital face of Ealing Mencap. They will be tasked with increasing awareness of Ealing Mencap’s great work to the local community through creating blogs, vlogs, newsletter articles as well as tweeting and updating the digital face of Ealing Mencap.

In addition, Issey, one of our year 12 students, has taken on the exciting project brief for Ealing Mencap which involves developing an app to aid adults with communication difficulties. As Ealing Mencap supports people with both learning and physical disabilities, for some of these people communication can be a huge barrier to their everyday lives. With the app’s help, we hope that we can develop a piece of technology to aid them in overcoming this barrier.

The Drayton Green reading program is in full swing with eight Year 12 students currently attending Drayton Green Primary School on a weekly basis to read with children. Our students have played a crucial part in developing the young children’s literacy and reading skills. The Deputy Head at Drayton Green recently gave the following feedback on how the girls have been getting on: “I would just like to say how much the children at Drayton Green absolutely love working with your students and how appreciative the teachers are for their help. It really is making such a difference.”

Four girls have successfully started volunteering with Ealing Age Concern, befriending the elderly people in our local community. They have completed a number of activities including singalong sessions, helping to serve lunch to the elderly people and playing games including bingo and quizzes.

Watch this space for more updates!