Charities Newsletter December 2023

CHARITIES & VOLUNTEERING DECEMBER 2023 • ISSUE 8 •

CHRISTMAS AT NHEHS At NHEHS, we ensure that by celebrating Christmas, we give back to those around us in the local community. We do this in various ways - by doing carol singing for Age UK, designing Christmas cards to be dropped off at local care homes and raising funds for The LogCabin with various initiatives.

This year’s school Christmas card, a robin amongst holly, was designed by Year 8 Petra. All proceeds of the sales went to one of NHEHS’s local charities, The LogCabin. These were on sale on Parentpay and at the school Christmas Bazaar. Thank you to Petra for her design, to the students who sold at the fair and to everyone for raising over £150 for The LogCabin.

Thank you to all the Y12 and 13 students and Ms McLaughlin who travelled to Greenford and enthusiastically sang with the customers of the Age Uk day centre. Some of the older people wanted to take a song book home so they could carry on singing the songs with their grandchildren.

Christmas Jumper Day is always lots of fun at NHEHS, with students and staff going all out with their festive jumpers and accessories! This day is always a highlight, as students get to enjoy their Christmas lunch too, so it becomes a very festive day all round!

Thank you to everyone for supporting our various Christmas events; all money raised goes to The LogCabin and the local community appreciate all the festive cheer we have spread in the month of December.

VOLUNTEERING HAMPER PACKING FOR AGE UK

QUESTORS

As In November, one of the Y10 volunteering enrichment groups visited Questors theatre in Ealing to help out with their preparations for this year’s pantomime, Treasure Island. The group divided in two with one half walking to Ealing Broadway and the cricket club to deliver leaflets and the other group remaining in the theatre to help paint the set.

Questors were very grateful for the extra pairs of hands to help get everything ready for the panto. We hope to visit Questors again in the new year to help with further production preparation.

a

lovely

Christmas

gesture,

Age

UK

decided to create hampers to give to those they work with as a gift for Christmas. A few of the sixth formers went down to Greenford in order to help arrange these gifts - while a group of other volunteers worked to wrap up the actual presents, we were tasked with decorating the bags for the hampers. Using wrapping paper and markers, our aim was to make

the

bags

look

joyful

and

fun.

The

people who worked there were very friendly and cheerful, and all in all, we really enjoyed this opportunity to work closely with the amazing Age UK organisation! - Preet Y12 Thank you also to the Y10 enrichment group who spent an afternoon decorating the bags which the goodies will be held in. There were some

lovely

grateful especially

for

designs the

help.

enjoyed

the

and

Age

Uk

were

I

think

the

Y10s

they

were

snacks

given!

MENCAP FAIR This week four of the Y10 enrichment groups ran a fair for Ealing Mencap. Mencap has visited on several previous occasions (Easter and Christmas fairs) and so it was nice to see some familiar faces. A variety of festive craft activities and colouring were on offer as well

as

games

and

nail

painting,

which

was

especially popular. The fair was finished off with everyone

singing

a

few

festive

favourites

accompanied by instruments. We look forward to welcoming Mencap back at Easter.

YEAR 10 FUNDRAISING FOR UNICEF This term, Year 10 took part in a number of charity events for our chosen charity, Unicef (in support of children in the Middle East and Sudan). We organised a number of fundraising events, including a candy cane delivery service, gingerbread decorating workshop, a Christmas funfair and sweet/bake sale. In total we raised approximately £500!

Candy Cane delivery For the candy cane delivery service, we had roughly 200 orders, which we hand wrote special messages and attached labels for. Delivery occurred and money collection occurred across a few weeks and we had one big session, where we finished a number of the labels. Our customers ranged from across all year groups to the teaching staff and we raised roughly £140!.

Gingerbread Workshop In the gingerbread workshop, people could pay a few pounds to decorate a small gingerbread man, house or heart cookie, using icing, sprinkles and sweets! We set up in the lower atrium and served customers throughout break time and lunchtime, which everyone enjoyed a lot!

Christmas Funfair In the main hall, we hosted the hugely successful Christmas funfair. Stalls ranged from party games, hot chocolate, food and sweets. We had lots of support at our event from other students and staff!

Bake sales Finally, for the bake sale, our year group baked hundreds of sweet treats to sell at break time. Due to the sheer magnitude of people who had baked, we continued to sell at lunchtime as well. Afterwards, with some leftover sweets, we also had a small sweet sale.

In total, this event raised roughly £100! ‘The second bake sale was Christmas themed, and many people volunteered to help make delicious cakes and bakes. They were very popular and a great success.

DAYS OF GIRLS FEEDBACK Princess Diana visited Angola as a guest of the HALO Trust charity in 1997. Her pictures told the world about the human cost of land mines and the efforts to clear them. 20 years later in 2017, after 3 decades of civil war, HALO launched a unique project in Angola to train and employ all-female demining teams, creating a space

for

women’s

empowerment

whilst

clearing

landmines and making land safe.

Read

more

about

this

astounding

initiative

here.

Recently Days for Girls posted 109 kits to HALO to support the women employed in this amazing project.

It makes it all the efforts worthwhile. They have asked that we pass on a big thank you to NHEHS girls and staff for their contributions and support for Days for Girls. We are looking forward to working with you again next year.

CARE4CALAIS CHRISTMAS PARTY The whole senior school embraced the task of buying gifts for the party bags to be enjoyed by the children in the Hayes hotel supported by Care 4 Calais. A Year 10 enrichment group spent the afternoon sorting out all the party bags and grouping them into various age groups, ready for the party.

On 6th December 16 students in Years 10 and 13, Mrs Eastwood and Mrs Johnson travelled on the train to the hotel with approximately 25 bags filled with gifts, crafts and games! The children were eagerly awaiting our arrival in the foyer and the visit was extremely busy from beginning to end! After working their way around different festive craft activities, the children joined in with pass the parcel. Some remembered how to play from last time. The end of the party was the moment the children had been waiting for - the party bags! All the bags were given out and the children excitedly looked through the bags to see the gifts they had received. Thank you to everyone for your generosity in buying such lovely gifts for other children to enjoy.

MEET THE NEW YEAR 10 CHARITY REPS & YEAR 9 HUMANITARIAN LEADS YEAR 10 CHARITY REPS I’m Yara and am really excited to work with the other reps to continue the schools incredible events for charity. I have always found the humanitarian work in this school quite inspiring and I am happy that I can have a more active role.

My name is Raneem and I chose to be a charity rep because I've always found it fun to attend and organise events which are exciting and beneficial at the same time. I wanted to be a charity rep because of how you can see the effect the fundraisers we plan have on people and communities.

My name is Esha and I am your new Year 10 volunteering lead. I wanted to take on this role to help those less fortunate than us and to get involved within the school community.

YEAR 9 HUMANITARIAN LEADS My name is Esha and I am one of the Year 9 Humanitarian Leads.

Our job is to be the school’s representatives on human rights issues globally and to inform you on how to get involved and help support the great causes we mention both in assemblies and through charity work.

I am Lilia and I am one of the Year 9 Humanitarian leads. I chose to take on this role to help make a positive impact in our school community and local community as well as helping everyone stay informed.

Hello I'm Ella one of the year 9 Humanitarian Leads. I wanted to help become a Humanitarian Lead to help to make a more positive society and help others through what I can at school.

Hi, I am Jojo and am one of the Year 9 Humanitarian leads. I am passionate about creating a positive environment for all. I am looking forward to making a difference at school.

I am Hannah, another of the Humanitarian leads. I decided to apply for this role as I am passionate about our community and school, and hope to make a difference in it.

WAYS TO HELP EALING FOOD BANK We

would

like

to

encourage

all

NHEHS students and staff to donate

HELP OUT AT THE EALING WILDLIFE GROUP

towards this good cause, by looking

Harvest Mouse Survey

below at the December shopping list.

This is to continue this winter’s efforts to count harvest mice nests at the different EWG release sites. A great experience to soup up your nature recording skills! You will get training and it is something that you can do with all the family (though it does involve patience, so please bear this in mind!).

Beaver Volunteering We are still looking for plenty of extra pairs of hands to help with the beavers including: conducting fence patrols and engaging with the public as one of our ambassadors. There will be training available to get you up to speed with some of our experts. You will always be working in pairs to ensure safety on site.

Email EWG for more information on how to volunteer at their events: ealing.wildlife.group.volunteers@gmail.com

INFORMATION ON CHARITIES & VOLUNTEERING If you are looking for volunteer opportunities or information about charity events, please look on the Student Noticeboard.

Do you have any stories of charity work you have done recently?

Do you have ideas of what you would like us to do as a school?

If so, please let your charity reps know: Maja, Catrin, Estella, Ishikaa, Lollie, Maia & Uma, or Mrs Johnson, Miss Newman and Ms Tavakoly We’d love to share your stories and help you with your ideas!

Thank you for your continued support in all of our charity endeavours!