Charity

Non-uniform days are a staple part of our fundraising calendar, but no less appreciated by the students for their regularity – in the Autumn Term alone we raised more than £1,800 for UWS Mude and a further £1,500 for the St Peter’s Appeal, raising money for a new clock for our local Church.

Christmas Jumper Day for Save the Children was bigger than ever, raising £684 - much more than previous efforts. Meanwhile, the Charities Committee also ran the much-loved Reindeer Run for Chestnut Tree House for the First and Second Years, raising a further £1,363.

During lockdown and the second period of online learning, the Charities Committee felt it was still very important to continue our efforts... we reversed the traditional non-uniform day for Shooting Star Children Hospice in January and raised £1,956, with students choosing to wear uniform or dress up as superheroes from home. By March, we were back in school and could run a normal non-uniform day for Smile Train, a charity supporting children all over the world born with cleft lip and palate, raising just shy of £2,000. The Summer Term rolled around quickly and Captain Sir Tom’s family decided to honour his legacy with a 100 Challenge for students and adults all over the country. Churcher’s lower school students got thoroughly stuck in with lots of different activities; 100 lengths of the pool, 100 cricket balls bowled and 100 netball hoops shot were just some of the challenges which raised £485!

Our final effort of the year came on the very last day of term, when we held our first Food Bank Friday. Conscious of the fact that in the last year food banks have given out 47% more food and home supplies due to Covid, much of this to young families with children; students collected tinned foods for the local food banks of Petersfield and Liphook.

The Charities Committee have done fantastically well this year in challenging circumstances, and should be very proud of having raised well in excess of £10,000 for good causes.

Ms C Evans

UWS Mude

Our support of UWS Mude has become even more important with the disruption to schooling as a result of Covid-19. At the time of writing, the school is closed and remote schooling is completed using radio to reach the furthest corners of Nepal. An estimated 10,000 students tune in daily for the two-hour lessons. Some members of the Charities Committee took part in the international campaign launch for UWS ‘Happily Ever Smarter’, where they had the opportunity to listen to three key speakers championing the importance of education to battle the cycle of poverty. Speakers sharing their own powerful stories were: Alicia Herbert OBE, Surya Karki (UWS Nepal, Country Director) and Vee Kativhu (Education Influencer on YouTube).

“This insightful talk really opened my eyes to the difficulties that so many young people have to face and many will continue to face without our help. Alicia’s inspiring talk about girls’ rights and opportunities was an insight into terrible issues such as underage marriage and female discrimination.” Alice Fimpel

With all money raised from various College endeavours matched by the Government Aid Match programme, UWS Mude will have received around £4,000.

Mr J Harris