Charity & Community

By Father Mark, School Chaplain

During the year Michaelmas term, Birkenhead School has supported a number of charities both at home and abroad.

In October, we had our usual Harvest collection. Recognising that this year families have been hit hard with the financial implications of the pandemic, we wanted to offer our help. We sent half a tonne of food and products to Wirral Food Bank to assist. There were also significant donations made by individual families which were too numerous to name them all and great in their generosity. Thank you!

Children in Need

In November, Children in Prep once again enjoyed Children in Need day and came into School in their own clothes in return for a £2 donation. In total £742.70 was donated to the national charity that will directly benefit children via local and national charities. We always support this day as our students feel strongly about the need to support other children.

Royal British Legion

As we approached Remembrance Sunday we were, as always, keen to support the Royal British Legion. This year we held our service outside on the field and sold poppies, raising £380.

In the lead up to Christmas, the School ran a number of charity initiatives:

Neo Community & Number Seven Café in Birkenhead

In early December, each tutor group in Seniors was given a Christmas tree and asked to donate money that would go towards decorations and local charities. Thirty trees adorned the School grounds, on display by Overdale, McAllester and Sixth Form. On the last day of term these trees were donated to local families in need via Neo Community along with a ‘Bag for Christmas’ that contained decorations, food and other items for the families to enjoy. The Click and Collect campaign asked members of the School community to donate food items. On Saturday 12th December, a team of Sixth Form students and I headed out in the School minibus to collect the items directly from people’s houses.

Local businesses contributed to the campaign and we are grateful to The County and Family Court in Birkenhead who donated £200, Muffs of Bromborough and The Mouse in Brimstage as well as individuals who also donated money to purchase food items. A number of Old Birkonians donated very generously to this cause including the Gidman family and Nick Thomas, thank you all so much!

Presenting the cheque to Neo Community.

The food was shared with Number Seven Café in Birkenhead and Neo Community for local families in need. The School further supported the charity by making a financial donation to each charity to help purchase additional food.

Ema from Neo Community commented, “This year more importantly than any other year, the help from Father Mark, the School and the staff pulling all of this together is absolutely amazing. With over 12,000 children across Wirral on free school meals already needing this support, and working families not meeting the criteria for other statutory support - being able to have that extra help provided from the School and from others coming together is more important than ever. More than anything, 2020 has taught us that together we’re all stronger.”

Andrew from Number Seven says, “Birkenhead School has really has helped us this year and it’s so important. It’s been a massively hard year for everybody and the help that the School has given has helped us reach so many more people and they really do appreciate it. On behalf of our members I would like to thank you. You have been amazing – we couldn’t do these things without the support of yourselves and others within the community – thank you so, so much.”

Koala North West

Nursery and Pre-Prep families surpassed themselves yet again with their kind and generous donations to help local families in conjunction with Birkenhead charity, Koala North West.

Families were asked to select a gift tag from one of the trees located outside Nursery and Pre-Prep which offered information on who the gift would be given to. The Early Years department (Nursery and Pre-Prep) has been supporting the charity, which was formerly known as Home Start Wirral, for a number of years and once again we were overwhelmed by the generosity of our parents.

Alison from Koala North West said, “We want to say a big thank you to all the families in Birkenhead School Early Years, you have surpassed our expectations and you will never know how much of a difference you truly make to the families – when their eyes light up as they realise that they can give their children a Christmas is an amazing thing to see. Thank you again from the bottom of our hearts.”

Charity & Community continued

Charles Thompson Mission in Birkenhead

Prep families and Sixth Form students looked to support the Charles Thompson Mission at Christmas time. Families in Prep were asked to donate food to help make up hampers for local families along with toys that could be distributed to children in the Birkenhead area.

In the Sixth Form, students chose to support the homeless via the charity. Students collected toiletries and other items to make up washbags for those in need. On Thursday 17th December, Sixth Form students, Rachel and Lexi, who had helped coordinate the collection, visited The Charles Thompson Mission with Father Mark to donate the items. Rachel commented, “We already knew how important this appeal was but visiting the Mission really made us realise how necessary it is.”

We are also grateful to Andrew Almond from A&A Marketing who kindly donated the bags for our washbag appeal.

Change a Child’s Life

This year, it was not possible for Chapel Services to be held due to the pandemic. Instead, services were recorded and shared with parents online. In lieu of the retiring collections, parents were asked if they could make a contribution to ‘Change a Child’s Life’.

‘Change a Child’s Life’ operates in and around the slums of Nairobi in Kenya, assisting orphaned and deprived children by providing safe accommodation, free education, fresh drinking water and food. Since 2019, the School has been sponsoring four-year old Natalia so that she can attend the Maria Immaculata School. This year has been extremely difficult for many vulnerable children and their families, with many experiencing extreme deprivation. Thanks to sponsorship, Natalia and her brother have been supported with food and all their basic needs during school closures. Through the donations raised, food parcels will be provided to families in need.

Natalia who is supported by Change a Child’s Life at Birkenhead School.

Claire House & Save the Children

On the last day of term students across Prep and Seniors had fun wearing their Christmas jumpers and other festive adornments in return for a money donation. The money raised was then shared between local charity Claire House and Save the Children. The total raised was over £1700!

Nine Lessons and Carols

This year we could not meet as usual for our Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, however we did go online, all socially distanced and filmed separately. 120 people watched live on the evening and a further 500 views afterwards. This service is still available to watch via the Birkenhead School Music YouTube account.

Talking about singing – Prep raised £20 by way of a singing concert! Well done!

Lent Term

Lent term was beset with more challenges than Michaelmas for our charity collections, but we did the best we could under the circumstances.

Under the government’s special circumstances, following all rules and guidance of the time, Father Mark was pleased to preside over the wedding of Mr and Mrs Ray on January 9th 2021. It was a lovely occasion, that was attended by the bride and groom, both sets of parent and a whole host of congregation from all around the world via a zoom link. It was such a joy and pleasure to be part of their wonderful day. (See page 109 for a picture of Mr and Mrs Ray).

In January we had a post-Christmas food collection for Number Seven Café, recognising that local families need food at more than just harvest time. The School undertook to fill my car three times over with extra donations of harvest type products. Well done to all our School community for getting involved in this initiative. Bake sales – Thank you to Year 4 and 5 who raised an amazing £270 for our school charities through organising Bake Sales.

Easter is always a time of hope for Christians. A great symbol of hope is the Easter Egg, for me a reminder of the empty tomb of Jesus, that death has been conquered. The hope that our School community was able to offer at Easter was that families were able to share in that chocolate gift. On the 1st April -– Nursery and Pre-School teamed up with Koala North West and collected eggs for local families. Well done Nursery and Pre-School!

In conjunction with Nursery’s and Pre-Prep’s efforts, the rest of the School community also took to collecting Easter eggs of hope. By the 8th April 800 eggs had been collected and distributed to number Seven.

In Prep Chapel we could think of no better way of ending a big term with a little bit of fun. In fact a lot of fun! Year 6, Father Mark and Mrs Sewell joined together to record the Jerusalema dance. This was seen by over 13,000 people online. The dance itself is a prayerful one.

Trinity Term

After such a strong start to the year, as the pandemic has taken its toll we have not been able to arrange all those things which we wanted. Cake sales have continued in Prep, in fact there was an excellent effort from Year 3 who raised an amazing £146!

Thank you all so much for your support for our charity work this year. As you can see we have really made an impact into our world, area and local community.

Every blessing

Father Mark