Charities Term

The charities that Houses chose to support this year were: • Martlets Hospice (Head’s) – a local hospice that supports terminally ill people in Brighton and Hove. • Macmillan Cancer Support (Second’s) – provides emotional, physical and financial support to those affected by cancer. • Brighton Housing Trust (School) – a local charity providing a range of services around housing, homelessness, resettlement, substance misuse, mental health and benefits. • Chestnut Tree House (Field’s) – provides support for children and young people with progressive and life-shortening conditions in East and West Sussex and South East Hampshire. • Bloodwise (Gibbs’) – funds world-class research into all types of blood cancer. • Rape Crisis (Sankey’s) – provides specialist support to women and girls who have experienced sexual violence. • The Lullaby Trust (Teme) – raises awareness of sudden infant death syndrome and offers support for bereaved families. • Life Centre (Manor) – supports survivors of rape and sexual abuse. • Project Semicolon (Handford) – dedicated to the prevention of suicide worldwide. • UNICEF (Saints’) – devoted to improving the health, education and general welfare of vulnerable children. Charities Term is a tradition we are hugely proud of at Lancing; it is a time when all our pupils are encouraged to show their support for issues that matter to them. Planning and organisation of the term is carried out by our Charities Committee, a group of dedicated Sixth Formers who meet regularly from the start of the academic year. This year Houses were grouped into pairs or trios and given a fortnight to raise money for their chosen charities.

We have enjoyed a whole host of fundraising events throughout the term; from bake sales and pizza nights to quizzes and dress up days, there has been something for all members of the College community to get involved with. It has been inspiring to see the level of enthusiasm many of our pupils have demonstrated in supporting their charities. A notable mention goes to Christina Lawrence and Antrita Patel for organising a fantastic Murder Mystery Dinner in support of Chestnut Tree House and UNICEF. This fun and interactive evening was enjoyed by many parents and raised almost £1,000 for the charities.

Charities Term allows pupils to engage with the world outside the College and collectively contribute to a range of important causes.

7The Quad • Lent 2020 Game of Spies Spyring has been taking place at Lancing for several years and has become a tradition of the Lent Term. It involves a large percentage of the school community, thus hugely contributing to the fundraising done for the term’s charities.

Spyring is a game of hide-and-seek with a simple premise: to find a target and avoid detection. This year over 550 members of the College community participated in support of the charities chosen by Field’s House and Saints’ House. Each ‘spy’ was given a name by their charity representatives and got quickly into action to find their target. The quickest catch was performed just seconds after the game went live – at 8.50am on the first day – by Nikita Pikovich. Once caught, a spy is out of the game and required to hand over their own ‘catches’; they are allowed to re-enter the game if they wish by donating again, further supporting the fundraising efforts.

Throughout the week the spies were able to buy ‘secrets’ from Spy HQ in order to find their targets, and timetables and pictures were exchanged for extra donations. The game lasted four days and on the last day at 6pm the winner stepped forward: it was the remaining spy with the highest number of names retrieved from their targets. An impressive 64 names were collected by Ethan Aldington-Hunt, a worthy winner of this year’s Spyring.

Until next year ...

The Spymaster