Year 7 Present Cheques to Charities after Walking 700 Miles

Remembrance Day is special in itself, but for many of our Year 7s there was also the chance to look back with pride on their efforts for charity from last year and to meet ambassadors from the three charities that they chose to support in Year 6.

During our lunch break on Monday we were visited by Ginny and David from Waggy Tails Rescue, by Emma from Brainwave and by Lesley from Sea-Changers. Waggy Tails is a dog rescue centre in Dorset, and our pupils were overjoyed to meet two of the dogs from the centre a couple of fox red Labradors. Brainwave is a charity that supports children with disabilities and Sea-Changers is a charity that is helping to raise awareness and take action to reduce the damage being done to the marine environments of our world.

Over the Summer term, our current Year 7s gave up many of their lunch breaks to walk for these worthy causes. In the end we managed almost 700 miles, easily reaching the goal of the distance from Lands End in Cornwall to the south of Portugal. This represents a lot of time and effort given up on their part and they averaged over 14 miles per student which is an excellent achievement. The children have also been busy badgering family and friends for sponsorship and we handed over the sum of £2,300 in total to the three charities. The Year 7s were allowed to choose to support any of the three organisations with their fundraising and the money was handed over by the student ambassadors who had originally chosen and advocated these good causes. Dylan, who was the spokesperson for Waggy Tails handed over a cheque for £540. Henry handed over £820 to Brainwave and May, Grace and Clarendon passed a cheque of £940 to Sea-Changers.

It was wonderful for the children to meet these four people who do such important work and to hear about the worthy causes that they are so passionate about. I am tremendously proud of all of our Year 7s; this is the second year that we have run our Walk a Mile in My Shoes initiative and they have shown that they have generous hearts, strong legs and determined spirits in their efforts to give something back to make a positive impact in our world. Now the torch passes to the current Year 6s. Soon they will be discussing which charities they wish to support and dusting off their trainers as we continue with our goal of walking around the world!

Mr Jenkins

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