Charities

As always, the Charities Committee choose the charities they would like to support through the various nonuniform days held throughout the year. Our first one of the school year on 17 October was for UWS, the school in Mude (Nepal), which we have been supporting for several years. We raised £1,970, with an additional £563.88 for the big fun afternoon, organised for the students for all of their hard work in lockdown with online learning. Another non-uniform day followed in December, for Murray Parish Trust. They support children’s emergency services across the South of England by raising money and awareness to support projects at key trauma centres, to enable pioneering research and provide life-saving equipment.

Back by popular demand, the Haunted Library was very busy this year. Dressed to impress, the Committee and several members of staff spent their lunch time jumping out from behind the book shelves to scare students, and in doing so raised £198 for UWS.

This year’s Christmas Jumper Day for Save the Children was bigger than ever, with the Junior School joining us in wearing their Christmas Jumpers on the last day of the term and raising £1089, much more than previous years. Alongside this, the Charities Committee also ran the much-loved Reindeer Run for Chestnut Tree House for the First Years, raising a huge £688. At the start of a new year, in the Spring Term, we beat our everincreasing total of donations for nonuniform days, raising £1,974 for Mind. We were delighted to invite the Head of Communications and Community Engagement for Mind to deliver a whole school assembly on Thursday 3 February, which he delivered via video due to Covid. Recently, we found a photo in the Churcher’s archives from 1968, of a group of Churcher’s pupils participating in a charity walk in aid of the Mental Health Research Fund. It is amazing to see that 54 years later the school is still supporting charities that support mental health and wellbeing. In 1968 the pupils raised an impressive £115 (equivalent to £1,400 today).

Events in Ukraine have been horrifying. The Charities Committee made the call to postpone the scheduled non-uniform day for Water Aid and managed to raise a huge £10,130.32 for the Disaster Emergency Committee, along with lots of other initiatives that were happening to help Ukraine, for example, sending out a shipping container full of goods, and selling sunflower plants. The Summer Term rolled around quickly, and the Charities Committee began to plan the big end of year festival. This year was even more special as we were raising money for Maddy’s Mark. This charity was set up in memory of an Old Churcherian, Maddy Lawrence, who very sadly passed away after a rugby injury this year. Maddy left Churcher’s in 2020 to do an Art Foundation course at Oxford Brookes and had moved on to study at Bristol UWE. Maddy’s parents have set up Maddy’s Mark to support her twofold passion for positive mental health and women’s rugby. The festival included a wholeschool mixed rugby touch tournament, a non-uniform day, and stalls to buy smoothies and ice cream. We raised a massive £4,850 for this charity, which is very close to all our hearts. A wonderful end to a successful year of fundraising.

Cat Sinclair

Mude

Since 2015, Churcher’s College have been supporting United World Schools, Mude. This has been an amazing partnership that has seen our community raise nearly £20,000 to build and maintain a school in rural Nepal. Our fundraising efforts over the years have enabled a remote community to have access to education, despite earthquakes and Covid. At the last count, 343 pupils are enrolled in UWS Mude.

There is little doubt regarding the role education can play in breaking the cycle of poverty experienced by marginalised communities. The benefits are far reaching, especially for young girls, who will have new opportunities beyond the trappings of an agricultural society. Over the years, the Charities Committee, Miss Evans, and Mrs Yugin Power have organised a plethora of events to raise money, which helps provide training for teachers, books for lessons, bags for pupils, and meals at lunchtime. These events have ranged from activity days, curriculum weeks, art exhibitions, non-uniform days, and so much more. These events have allowed UWS Mude to survive during the pandemic when UWS trained teachers became pivotal in the community led responses to Covid in Nepal. Equally, teachers were trained to deliver lessons via radio so that pupils could continue to learn.

On Founders Day, it was with great pleasure that I was able to tell the Senior School that UWS Mude has successfully been transitioned to government control, as part of the lifecycle of a UWS school. This means that the school is now sustainable and will continue to provide an education to the children of Mude, without our support. It seemed fitting that when celebrating the 300th year of Churcher’s, we could celebrate the creation of a new school in Mude.

So, after eight years, 14 assemblies, 26 letters, and £20,000, thank you, to everyone who has been a part of this amazing story. We have truly made a difference. Jeremy Harris