Harris Academy
Pupils from Harris Academy Bermondsey, London were excited to be part of the first round of Trust Youth projects. They met every week for four months. Deciding to raise awareness of the British Red Cross they read poems and rapped before 1000 pupils at an all school assembly and created displays in the school for Red Cross Week. Their teachers v. students cricket match in June created a lot of interest and raised significant sums of money. Teachers taking part were a great attraction and they sold a lot of tickets – even though there were a few problems but what would cricket be without rain! Buoyed by their success they negotiated with the school to have a stall at the school Centenary Fair, with 400 people attending.
Said Ms Humphreys, the facilitating teacher, "this team are fantastic – a real pleasure to work with!! Well done to all of you!"
Bishop Wand School
Bishop Wand, from Middlesex, really got to grips with organising events. They put on assemblies and displays to raise awareness of the British Red Cross. Negotiations with their head teacher were tough but fair and they were granted the proceeds of a mufti-day, raising awareness through posters and collecting all the money. Later they also ran a football competition.
Salisbury School
Salisbury School, in Enfield, London, held a very successful car-wash, with all the money going to the British Red Cross. Their chief executive videotaped the whole event – managing to keep the water off the lens - and entertained us all at the Trust Youth celebration event.
Shene School
The 12 students from Shene School, in Richmond, West London, were super fund-raisers – meeting twice a week they organised several events, raising awareness of the British Red Cross within the school through assemblies, displays, magazine articles and a quiz, and they estimate their message reached 800 people. Their extra-ordinary feat in raising £700 included a quiz night, cake sale, student v. staff sports event, and most popular of all, a teacher gunging event! They told us what they had learnt:
- How not to take simple things for granted
- How to organise important fundraising events
- How to be a good leader
- That more people than they thought were willing to participate in contributing in some way to help raise awareness or money for charity