Charity

Bellamy Cup Winners

Working with their adopted charity, The Barefoot Project, Leconfield raised £3,000 to fund the purchase of rugby kit and training equipment for a rugby academy in Fiji. This was achieved through sponsored cycles, runs and hikes at a time when the House community was scattered across the world. At one point in March, the Lower Sixth even covered a distance of 400km in nine different time zones.

Proceeds from the 2020 batch of Leconfield Apple Juice also went to the Barefoot Project, along with 90 pairs of rugby boots and girls’ trainers sourced from across College Houses. In addition, during the first lockdown, Dekhan Dodo raised several hundreds of pounds for BLM charities by dying his hair blue and red, whilst Ben Pattrick and Harry Dawson teamed up with pupils from other schools, undertaking thousands of ‘Burpees’ over three weeks, to raise awareness of rhino poaching in Africa.

Dr Adam Dunning

Whole School Charity

The chosen whole school charity for this year was Active Impact which promotes the inclusion of disabled children and young people. To raise money for the charity, the whole school, undertook a twilight run over the course of a week. This entailed different Houses running around College Field for a distance of 3km every night of the week. Well done and thank you to everyone who took part!

Lara Scudamore

Supported Schools

Residential School for Children with Special Needs, Bradet, Romania

It is hard to imagine how challenging life at Bradet has been this past year. As Covid infections rose through the winter months, the dedicated staff volunteered to live in for two-week periods to shield the children, many of whom would be extremely vulnerable to serious complications should they become infected with the virus. At the time of writing, despite several children becoming infected, thankfully, all have recovered. Unable to leave individual Christmas boxes last summer, due to the cancellation of the post GCSE trip, College sent gifts for the children and carers which were happily received. In addition, College will fund the installation of an inflatable swimming pool and sensory garden space. We very much look forward to returning next year to the best hugs in Europe!

Miss Jane Brodigan

Gogar Primary, Kenya

As the pandemic took hold in Kenya, the pupils of Gogar were not left unscathed. Without many of the blessings afforded to us at College, the consequences have been serious and far-reaching. At the time of writing, Kenya is entering its fourth wave, each

progressively more serious. Sister Hiltrude and the pupils detail below how Covid has affected their community: Education: the education sector was hit especially when the school and all teaching and learning institutions were closed to prevent the spread of Covid. Due to the requirement for social distancing, there was a shortage of classrooms and desks. Prior to the pandemic, pupils were used to sitting three to a desk, whereas social distancing required a desk per child which was not possible. A number of pupils did not return to school due to losing family income, newly acquired drug addiction, pregnancy or early marriage. Tragically, some teaching and support staff died and others went into early retirement for health reasons.

Health: most people were afraid to go to hospitals and health units either for fear of contracting the virus or to discover they were positive which would mean they would be sent to a costly isolation centre, which they feared the most. Economic: Most economic activity came to a standstill. Many people lost their jobs as business and even agriculture sectors became dormant resulting in worsening poverty for many. Social: There was a drastic change in the way of life. Handwashing, sanitisation and wearing of masks became a financial burden. Many deaths resulted in more children becoming orphaned, losing their homes and having to live on the streets. Other negative social impacts include stigmatisation and a serious decline in mental health.

Sister Hiltrude, the pupils of Gogar Primary and Miss Jane Brodigan

We are delighted to hear that College’s sponsored student, Ernest, is continuing well with his degree at the University of Nairobi. See below for his recent letter.

Hello! I hope you are doing well! I am doing great over here, since university has been good and enjoyable; I learn a lot and explore by interacting with friends from different parts of the country and exchanging and sharing great ideas. Firstly, I would like to thank you a lot for the computer you bought for me, it has helped me a lot for online learning during the pandemic and with that help I was able to keep up with the studies and lectures. Of course, it also helps with conducting research on the internet. Thank you very much. I appreciate it! Upon reporting to university on 1 February 2021 for the second semester of our first year, we experienced both blended and in-person learning. Everything went well and I was so happy to see my course mates and to be back at uni. With your help it’s been a great achievement. I was happy to interact with the different students from different parts of the country and I am very happy. I also had a lot of fun at uni since I made some friends with whom I formed a dance crew to participate in the talent show! It was the first time our college had done a talent show event; it was awesome and we really enjoyed the day! When it comes to my studies, I have learned a lot and have been working hard to perform well in every unit. Although some units are proving to be challenging on my part, I am still working very hard so that I can be able to excel in them for a better future ahead. I am now done with my first year and the results for our first academic year are not yet out but I’ll be sure to send them when they are officially released. I also take this chance to give thanks to dear Mr Johnny Onslow who has been like a parent to me: taking care of me and everything that I need in order to create a better and more promising future for me and in turn, so that I can also be able to offer my support to the needy. I thank him very much and may God bless him abundantly. Since we are on our long holiday period, I am trying as much as possible to make good use of it by doing some work to earn my money that will be of help once we return to uni. Thanks again to dear Johnny Onslow for helping me to get a job; I am really grateful for the caring support he is offering. And with all that, I take this chance to thank you for every support you continue to offer me. I promise to work hard in whatever I do, so that your support will not be in vain but will bear some great fruits. Thank you! I also send greetings from my family! With best wishes Ernest

Spiritual: All places of worship, including churches and mosques, were closed.

Finance: The Ministry of Education did not fund schools during the period of school closure. This was problematic. Support staff were not paid wages and school campuses became overgrown. Unable to pay essential bills for water and electricity, this resulted in serious difficulties for their families. In addition, schools were required to become isolation centres which was very difficult to implement due to lack of rooms, beds, health care professionals and PPE. College sends its heartfelt best wishes to the Gogar community. We were pleased to hear that the school hall built by funds raised by College last year has helped: it facilitated improved social distancing at teacher training in Autumn and for school exams.

If you would like to find out more about the schools of Gogar and how you can help, please visit the Vanessa Grant Trust (VGT) website: https://www.vanessagranttrust.org Despite the challenges, VGT trustee, Mr Johnny Onslow tells us they have never had a busier volunteer season: the volunteer house, which College helped to fund, was full in January and again in May. Volunteers are still welcome so if you are interested, please speak to or email Miss Jane Brodigan, J.Brodigan@ cheltenhamcollege.org, and contact Johnny to find out more: jeonslow@ fishingfliesandlures.com

The Gogar Library Appeal

Throughout this year, a team of Lower Sixth students have been undertaking a Community Action Elective to raise funds and awareness for the Gogar schools in Kenya. The main goal has been to provide the schools with the resources to fill their libraries. To do this the team found help in a charity called Books2Africa that specialise in sending books out to schools throughout the continent. The team set themselves a fundraising goal of £5,000 in order to pay for the collection and shipment of books to the schools in Kenya. The team raised this money through a donut sale, a mufti day and the Read for Gogar appeal in May. This appeal involved pupils setting themselves personal reading goals for the whole month and then getting sponsored by friends and family.

Lara Scudamore

College continues to support the Shamrock School in Pokhara, both financially and with regular visits from pupils and staff. This year the school is 15 years old and our link extends back to its foundation.

The pupils have had a tough time with their learning in the last 12 months. After a nine-month closure they returned in January 2021 only for the most severe Covid wave still to come. Only Year 10, the current exam year, have been able to attend regularly and many of the other children have had to return to their villages in the mountains. The teachers have done their best with online learning but with limited resources the progress of all the children has been severely hampered. We at College will continue to offer our support and staff are already planning to visit at the earliest opportunity to help their recovery. Some of our pupils are likely to visit again but probably not before the summer of 2022. If you are interested, please contact Mr Faulkner.

Mr Dominic Faulkner