Charity

Michaelmas Term has been a very charitable one at Beechwood, and as ever, we are incredibly appreciative of the generosity of our community.

Keech Hospice Care

The big news of the term was surpassing £250,000 raised for Keech Hospice Care. Members of the Fundraising Team from Keech came to present Mr Balfour and the BPSPA with an award for being a top fundraiser for the charity. We are very proud of this achievement, and look forward to many more years of association with this remarkable charity. You can read more about the award and presentation here

#HelloYellow for Young Minds

In October we supported the Young Minds #HelloYellow initiative for World Mental Health Day To mark the day, pupils accessorised their school uniform with a splash of yellow - sock, scarves, hair accessories etc Thanks to the generous donations of the Beechwood community together we raised over £1100.

Beechwood Poppy Appeal

Many thanks to the children, staff and parents who bought all of our stock for the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal this year. Tommy H and James H ran the mini-stall at break times to great effect, I think we have a couple of ‘Del-boys’ in the making! Collectively we raised a fantastic £434.33!

Harvest Donations Donated to Trussell Trust Foodbank

Once more, Beechwood Park families donated very generously during Harvest. In School, Mr Bullock reminded us all of the messages behind our harvest collection in a series of assemblies across year groups and this year the we have collected an amazing amount of food for the Harpenden Food Bank. Two truckloads of food made their way to the Trussell Trust, Harpenden Foodbank. Behind the scenes many of Top Formers helped collect bags of food from the collect points, in the Junior and Middle Departments. In the Chapel, James H. And Tommy H., Top Formers with charity responsibility, then helped to sort the hundreds of items into groups, ready for loading. They then helped load the truck for its first run to the Foodbank, where they were gratefully received and unloaded by the Trussell Trust volunteers.

Harpenden Food Bank has been running for six years. When they started they helped on average, around 100 people but since the Pandemic and with rising food prices, it has shot up dramatically to the point that over 3350 packages have been given out from April this year! These packages contain enough food for three days, for each member of a household.

Our Charity Ambassador, Tommy, created this wonderful poster detailing exactly what we raised, it is just fantastic to be able to help and support so many local families. Woodlands families also generously donated their Harvest offerings to Keech Hospice Care

Thank you to everyone in the Beechwood community who has given so generously – do please continue to donate at your local super market, so that together we can continue to help our local communities.

Odd Socks Day

Beechwood also supported the Anti-Bullying Alliance’s Odd Socks Day in November Odd Socks Day in November marks the start of Anti-Bullying Week, and is designed to be fun! It’s an opportunity to encourage people to express themselves and celebrate their individuality and what makes us all unique! Christmas Fundraising

In the last week of term, Beechwood once again celebrated

Christmas Jumper Day, raising money to be split between three local charities:

• Herts Welcomes Refugees • Children’s Storehouses (Vineyard Church Hemel

Hempstead) • Children’s Storehouse (Vineyard Church St Albans).

Reverse Advent Calendar

Thank you to the BPSPA for organising this year’s “Reverse Advent Calendar” - the Beechwood community donated over 500kg of food at toiletries to the Trussell Trust.

Young Enterprise at the BPSPA Christmas Fayre

Thanks to our Young Enterprise stalls at the Christmas Fayre, pupils raised around £1,850 to purchase gifts from Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Charity’s Amazon Wishlists.