Harvest Festival The College celebrated harvest during the first week of October, with the Pre-Prep, Prep School and Senior School each holding Harvest Festivals in the Memorial Hall. Pupils brought in parcels of food for the Whitechapel Mission, including bags of toiletries, tins, pasta and pulses, sauces and soups. By the end of the week there were enough groceries to fill a supermarket which were packed into the Mission’s trailer. Pupils gathered for a lovely celebration, reflecting on those who are less fortunate and were encouraged not to take anything for granted.
Dancing Fever At the end of September the whole College community came together for Charity Day, which this year was made extra special for the 150th anniversary celebrations. Pupils, staff and parents throughout the College were asked to support the work of OneYMCA in Bishop’s Stortford, who support young people through a wide range of practical services, enabling them to grow in potential and become transforming influencers within their communities. Teams from across the College and guests from OneYMCA led assemblies before ‘dancing fever’ took over the College, with pupils and staff joining forces to ‘dance the YMCA’ along to the 1970’s disco hit by The Village People. In the Prep School a birthday cake competition was held and three winners from each of the age groups were chosen. All of the cakes looked fantastic and the judges had a very difficult task choosing the winners! A wonderful day was had by all members of the College community and a total of over £4,500 was raised for OneYMCA.
Whitechapel Mission The Harvest Week continued for a group of Sixth Formers from Sutton and Benson Houses who took part in the Whitechapel Mission Breakfast Challenge. The students saw for themselves how the harvest gifts collected by the College were used as they cooked, cleaned and served breakfast and hot drinks and distributed toiletries to those in need. The students felt very humbled by their experience and commented, “meeting people at the Mission brought mixed emotions; their diversity really shocked us, and it was a challenge to know how to respond to everyone.” The Whitechapel Mission made such an impact on the students that they all agreed they would love the opportunity to return and that “warm beds, hot water, companionship and food will never be taken for granted again.” Bishop’s Stortford College | COLLEGE CONNECTION
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