At Bickleigh Down C of E Primary School, we aim to be courageous with our charity work, we want to give our children the opportunity to lead fund raising for the charities that really matter to them. This work clearly links with our Christian vision of ‘spurring each other on with love’.  We aim to support our children in spurring our local, national and global community on with love. Here are some examples of the work that we have been doing as a school:

Courageous Thinking and Acting

During Collective Worship, the Key Stage One children were challenged by Mrs Vanstone to be stewards of the world by reusing or recycling one item.  Lola in Year One decided that she would take up this challenge and used some recycled materials to make a gift for Mrs Vanstone.  Lola collected together old ice-cream lolly sticks, decorated them and made a beautiful decoration for Mrs Vanstone to put in the PPA room.  Lola said that it is important to look after the environment and her next step will be to make a short video to inspire others.  Well done Lola, we are so proud of you and we are all impressed that you have thought carefully about the 'door action' part of Collective Worship this week.

Environmental Action Against Litter

Some Year Four children were concerned about the amount of rubbish in the community and around the school.  They went to Mrs Conday to tell her about their concerns and asked whether they could start a litter picking club.  Mrs Conday was really pleased with the Year Four children for recognising something that they wanted to change in their community and for being courageous advocates.  She was very keen to support them and ordered litter pickers for the children to use.  Alongside this, the children wanted to promote looking after the environment and encourage people to put litter in the bin.  They spent their lunchtimes designing posters to put up around the school and also presented information in worship.  They have demonstrated how to be 'Stewards of the Earth' which links into our value of 'Hope' this term and our worship on Creation.  They have spurred on many others and the small group of litter pickers has grown.  

Spurring Others into Action

Katie and Emma were spurred on by the school group of litter pickers and asked their parents whether they could go out into the community to pick up any rubbish they found.  We are so proud of their courageous advocacy and determination to look after our wonderful world.  

Supporting Plymouth Foodbank

On our Christmas dinner day, the children wore Christmas jumpers and brought in items for the foodbank.  As a school we decided that we wanted to share a little of what we had with others whilst we were enjoying a yummy Christmas dinner.  The children donated so much food that Plymouth Foodbank had to bring their van to collect all of the items.  We are so proud of the children for thinking about how to share some of what they have with others during their Christmas celebrations.

The Poppy Appeal 2021

A huge congratulations and thank you to the children from our Military Kids Club who raised a huge £380.12 for the 2021 Poppy Appeal.  We were so impressed with the dedication and hard work of all these children, many of whom gave up their playtimes to sell poppies and other poppy appeal merchandise to ensure that funds were raised to help veterans and their families. Well done children!

Raising Funds for the Food Bank

Ali, Talia and their older sister have been making and selling key-rings and bracelets, the donations have been used to buy food for Age UK and Plymouth Food Bank.  We are so proud of them all and how they are spurring other members of their community on with love.  Well done children!

Raising money for the Little Princess Trust

On the 4th December, Daisy in Year 3 will be having her hair cut into a much shorter style to support the work of the Little Princess Trust.  Daisy is hoping that her hair will help to make a wig for a child who has lost their hair because of treatment for cancer.  We are so proud of Daisy for thinking of others, donating her hair and fundraising for the cost of the wig.  If you would like to donate to Daisy's fundraising page, please click on the following link Daisy Mouse is fundraising for Little Princess Trust (justgiving.com).  Well done Daisy for showing love to others.

Well done to our Year 3 Courageous Advocates

A huge well done to our amazing Year 3 children who have worked hard to raise money for Karma Flights.  Karma Flights is a charity that has been supporting communities in Napal with medical supplies during the Covid-19 pandemic.  Year 3 thought that this charity's work was really important and spurred the rest of the school on to share their Harvest donations with this charity.  The children raised a total of $550, this money will go directly to helping the people in these communities that need it the most.  

Children in Need

This week in Collective Worship, Year One shared a video that they had made about why they wanted to support Children in Need.  The children have decided that we will have a pyjama day next week to raise funds for this charity.  The children helped their teachers to write a letter to parents and carers to explain their fund raising ideas. 

Celebrating Harvest 2021

Our Harvest celebrations looked a little different this year.  After finding out about the work of Karma Flights in worship last year, our Year 3 children decided that as Harvest is a time for giving, we should share what we have with others.  In their RE lessons, they learnt about Jesus' teaching of 'freely you receive, so freely give' (Matthew 10:5-8).  The children worked with staff in the year group to share with the rest of the school why they thought we should give to Karma Flights at Harvest time instead of bringing in tins and packages.  The children organised our Harvest celebration worship with Mrs Conday and wrote letters to parents to explain their fund raising ideas.  Children and staff came into school in mufti and brought in a £1 donation for Karma Flights.  As a school, we sang some celebration Harvest songs and representatives from each class came to place the coins on the flags.  At the end of worship, Year 3 counted up the donations.  We are so proud of Year 3 for being courageous advocates and spurring the rest of the school into action.  Well done children!

Harvest 2021

Year 3 have started worship this week by talking to us about the work of Karma Flights.  During the Covid-19 pandemic, Kama Flights have been helping communities in Nepal by giving medical equipment and PPE to the people that need it most.  Year 3 found out that Karma Flights now have low funding and are worried about how they will continue to support these communities.  The children requested that our Harvest donation this year should be given to Karma Flights, they led worship today to share their fund raising ideas with the rest of the school.  Later today, some of the children will be writing a letter to parents and carers to share their fund raising plans.  We are really proud of Year 3 and how they are spurring the rest of our school family on towards love and good deeds.

Water Aid

Megan (2B) watched an advert for Water Aid some time ago and was upset to hear that people have to walk miles to collect water. In fact, 785 million people in the world – one in ten – do not have clean water close to home. Megan took action last July and made a collection pot to collect money to support the charity. After nearly a year of fundraising, she has made a very generous contribution to the charity. She even put in her own money from the tooth fairy! Megan has really shown courageous advocacy.

Christmas Jumper Day (2020)

We raised an amazing £230.00 in total for 'Save the Children' this year.

NSPCC (March 2020)

The NSPCC visited our school and delivered their Speak out Stay safe assembly to share information with the children about how they can keep themselves safe from harm and get help if they have any worries.  We raised £365.40 in total which will support the NSPCC's work.

Toilet Twinning

Year 3 learnt about the work of Toilet Twinning in their RE lessons.  The children were so struck by the work of this charity that they asked Mr Hancock if they could change the way that we celebrate Harvest.  A few weeks before Harvest, the children led worship to tell the rest of the school about the work of Toilet Twinning.  They invited the children to bring a golden coin into school for harvest so that we could twin our school toilets with a toilet block in Africa. Two of the children in Year 3 wrote a letter to the parents explaining why our harvest celebrations would be different this year and why the work of the charity was important. On the day of our Harvest service, the children held a harvest singalong and encouraged the rest of the school to place their coin on the Toilet Twinning logo.  The school raised £272.68, enough to twin our toilets with another school toilet block in Zambia.  We now have a framed photograph of our twinned toilet block hanging outside our Key Stage Two toilets.

Christian Aid

In the summer term, our Year 6 children found out about the work of Christian Aid and how they support mothers in crisis.  The children were so shocked that woman were having to have their babies in danger because of the lack of hospital facilities that they decided to hold a biscuit sale on the field to raise funds for Christian Aid’s ‘Big Breakfast’.  The children raised £103.30 which went straight to supporting the work of Christian Aid.

 ‘Christian Aid is a charity that helps people who are much less fortunate than us.  Christian Aid does a variety of different things sch as building hospitals, helping people find jobs and teaching people new skills.  It also helps people to find food and clean water.  There are many upsetting things in this world such as people losing their babies and global poverty, Christian Aid aim to help people and stop this.  We are donating to this charity because we want to help make the world a better place.’ – written by a Year 6 pupil.

Year 6 led worship to explain to the rest of the school why they were doing this and they helped Mrs Wilkinson to write a text to go out to parents to explain what they were raising money for.  The children continued supporting this charity by choosing it as the charity that Key Stage Two would collect for at their Christmas Carol service.  The children raised £275.

Donkey Sanctuary – Sidmouth

In the autumn term the children were visited by Rachael from the Donkey Sanctuary in Sidmouth.  Racheal told the children about the real donkeys of Bethlehem and how they should be cared for.  She also talked to the children about the work of the Donkey Sanctuary and how they help injured Donkeys.  Key Stage One voted for this charity to receive the funds from their charity collection after their nativity performance.  The children collected £275 to send to the Donkey Sanctuary.