Schools raise £16,000 for charity

Schools across one academy in Staffordshire have collectively raised £16,000 for charity.

Pupils ranging from just three-years-old to 18-years-old, from 15 schools within The Painsley Catholic Academy, have raised an impressive total of more than £16,000 for CAFOD (Catholic Agency for Overseas Development) the international development charity.

A spokesman for the academy said: “The schools started their fundraising in December and selected the CAFOD World Gifts campaign. Gifts include goats, vegetable gardens, toilets, water facilities and reading programmes.

“Pupils took part in a range of fundraisers, from Christmas jumper days to cake sales, nonuniform days and creating luxury hampers to be raffled. The children at St Anne’s Catholic Primary School in Stafford enjoyed making craft items to sell and took part in multiplication tables challenges and a pyjama day.

“Children at St Dominic’s Catholic Primary School in Stone took part in a mini-marathon and older students at Blessed William Howard Catholic High School, Stafford, organised a giant game of musical chairs in the sports hall with an entrance fee and a small charge for spectators.

“Zac Byrne from St Thomas’ Catholic Primary School, in Tean, raised an amazing £300 with a sponsored head shave on the last day of term.”

Chief Executive Officer of The Painsley Catholic Academy, Stephen Bell said: “As a Catholic community, we teach all of our children to care for each other, particularly the most vulnerable.

“The world faces many challenges and we are proud to support those who are less fortunate than ourselves.

“We must work together to build a better world for the future.

“Taking part in these joint fundraising activities is a great way of doing this and CAFOD World Gifts really make our pupils appreciate the impact that they can have.

“Our pupils, of all ages, really enjoy coming up with new and fun ideas to raise these funds.”

Fundraising for CAFOD is set to continue into the coming months across the academy, with the hope of boosting the total by even more and many schools are already planning activities for Lent.

The Staffordshire based Painsley Catholic Academy comprises 15 schools, 13 primaries and two secondary schools with sixth forms.

Barlaston Herons WI

Barlaston Herons celebrated their 10th Birthday recently with a Murder Mystery evening staged by the committee. The event was well attended: we had an Italian theme and served pizza and mocktails during the evening which was a great success.

We meet every third Tuesday evening at 7.30pm at the Methodist Church Hall in Park Drive, Barlaston.

The next meeting will be in March when we will welcome ‘The One Arm Sewist’ to speak. Many will remember Gill Thomas from The Great British Sewing Bee. Because of demand, this event will be ticket only for non members.

Nevertheless on April 18 all will be welcome to our meeting when The House of Colour will present a demonstration entitled ‘I Can't Wear That.’

Report by Patricia Boulton

Staffordshire Federation WI

Oneof the greatest threats to our planet is the climate crisis and the ladies of the Staffordshire Federation of Women’s Institutes gave their own interpretation of this in their Annual Quiz, held at the Staffordshire County Showground recently.

Over 200 members of the WI from across Staffordshire decorated their tables with the problems and some solutions and most were dressed in red to emphasise the danger that climate change poses.

Messages urged everyone to take actions themselves to reduce their own impact on the planet and not to leave it to someone else.

The quiz questions covered a wide range of subjects with the last round dedicated to climate change. Interesting facts for the climate answers were added by the Quiz Master, Karen Sulway who chairs the Education & Public Affairs Committee, which organised the event.

The winners of the Quiz with an impressive 79 out of 100 was the Team from Rolleston-on-Dove WI who will hold the Knighton Challenge Shield for the year. The runners-up were Great Haywood WI who will hold the Val Smith Memorial Shield.

Helen Mancey, Federation Chairman, said:

“The Annual Federation Quiz is a firm favourite and starts our calendar of events for the year.

“It was wonderful to see so many enthusiastic teams joining in and having a fun evening in a fabulous setting.”

The Best Dressed Table award was given to Brocton WI’s Team A. The full list of results and more photos are on the ‘SFWI:Staffordshire Federation Women's Institutes’ Facebook page. Report by Karen Sulway