Year 8 pupils slept rough to experience life on the streets

"A nation with their freezers full are dancing in their seats, while outside another nation is sleeping in the streets" - Billy Bragg.

On Thursday, some Year 8 pupils 'slept rough' on the streets of Hazlegrove, with only a sleeping bag and some scraps of cardboard that we salvaged from the skip. We had a supper of soup and bread that we could have gathered from a soup kitchen. With the help of Miss Harris and Mr Bartlett we built a fire in the woods before retiring to our homemade cardboard beds. The night was cold and uncomfortable: a great representation of how life on the streets would be. The early light had some of us up at 4:30am. The light was soon followed by the birds. By 6:30am we were all up and awake and our sleep out was finished. 

We were only sleeping out for one night and we knew that we would soon have food and a hot shower: we found it quite tough but we can only imagine what it would be like to do this every night; especially in winter. We are gathering sponsorship for our chosen charity: St Mungo's which helps to reduce homelessness by dealing with the problems that cause life on the street in the first place and then giving them a roof over their heads. We are also going to collect donations at the sign out hut for the charity.

Written by Helvetica.

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