School Steps Up for Local Charities – Bishop’s Stortford College Prep

10 Jul 2020

The Bishop’s Stortford College Prep School fundraising has exceeded all expectations for the academic year 2019-2020 with various events to raise money for local charities.

The Bishop’s Stortford College Prep School fundraising has exceeded all expectations for the academic year 2019-2020.

In September 2019, the Bishop’s Stortford College Prep School launched their fundraising initiatives for the academic year. Over the 10 months that followed, pupils spearheaded various events and activities including collecting foreign notes and coins to convert into sterling, organising a ‘Guess The Baby’ Competition, performing in festive Carol Concerts and their Spring Term Charity Challenge, ‘Grow a £2 Coin’, to name just a few.

Determined not to let the Covid-19 pandemic interrupt their fundraising activities, and to raise awareness for local charities, the Prep School community came together virtually for one final burst of fundraising in their Community Charity Week. From Wednesday 24th June to Wednesday 1st July, Prep School pupils took part in a variety of themed creative, sporty, baking and dressing up events.

After an uplifting Prefects Community Charity Assembly with guest speaker, Stephen Turner, from Samaritans, Community Charity Week started with a bang as pupils were challenged to ‘Make A Minute’s Noise For Local Charities’. Similar to the national ‘Clap for Keyworkers’ pupils honoured the hard work of charity workers across Bishop’s Stortford. The ‘Steps for Samaritans’ challenge followed shortly after, where pupils climbed as many stairs or steps as possible within 30 minutes. Collectively, pupils from all 6 year groups climbed a total of 535,606 steps; the equivalent of 9 Mount Everest’s. Other challenges included baking a ‘monster’ cookie, taking part in House quizzes, dressing-up as a rainbow or a ‘Community Superhero’ for the day, preparing rainbow-coloured dishes of food, bringing a pet to a Zoom lesson, creating a lockdown time-capsule and submitting a recipe for a Charity Cookbook. Other creative arts challenges focussed on photography, poetry and art.

Jane Towns, Prep School Prefects & Charities Coordinator, commented, “We wanted to provide opportunities for the children to enjoy spending time together, albeit virtually, whilst raising the profile of many local charities in the Bishop’s Stortford area. It was wonderful to see the pupils having fun, making memories and being together as a community one last time before the end of term.”

The proceeds from all fundraising activities across the school year, of which a quarter was raised during lockdown, will be distributed amongst seven local charities; Guide Dogs, Ware Samaritans, Bishop’s Stortford Salvation Army, Bishop’s Stortford Winter Night Shelter, Bishop’s Stortford Food Bank, Grove Cottage and Just One Tree.